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Last night, for the first time since September 27, there was relative calm along the entire Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, except for a few exchanges of fire, Artsakh presidential spokesman Vahram Poghosyan told a news conference on Thursday.

"We can assess the operative situation as relatively calm, as the war continues," he said.

Poghosyan unveiled some data collected by the intelligence services. "It turns out that these days most of the victims of Azerbaijan in different directions of the frontline were representatives of Azerbaijan’s national minorities. These are intelligence data. 148 foreign soldiers were killed in one direction alone. Hundreds of victims were among the Talysh soldiers,” he said.

“This has caused serious dissatisfaction among the national minorities of Azerbaijan, and we will probably witness the protest action of those minorities in the near future. In essence, these facts once again come to show that Azerbaijan uses such provocative actions to show such a behavior towards the national minorities living in its country," the spokesman said.

He stressed that syringes had been found in the pockets of the uniforms of virtually all dead bodies of Azerbaijani soldiers left behind on the Artsakh territory.

"This proves that Azerbaijan is sending its troops to war under the influence of drugs, which entirely constitutes a war crime,” Poghosyan said.

In the spokesman’s words, the Artsakh Defense Army is in full control of the situation, giving proportionate response to all the provocative actions of the adversary.

Poghosyan assured that the domestic political and economic situation is stable, stating the infrastructures continue to function properly and there is no panic among the Artsakh population. 

In the early morning of September 27, Azerbaijan launched a massive air and artillery attack on the Artsakh military positions and numerous civilian settlements and infrastructure in the country, including capital Stepanakert. Seven civilians have been killed in Artsakh as a result of Azerbaijani attacks since the start of hostilities.