YEREVAN, February 10. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan calls on Baku to abandon the policy of escalation and establish institutional peace in the South Caucasus, the Armenpress news agency reported.

"There is no prerequisite for escalation in the region - in fact, all preconditions for peace have been created. One needs to abandon provoked incidents and the policy of escalation and establish institutional peace. Armenia is absolutely ready for it, the country will not turn away from this path," the agency wrote, citing the Armenian prime minister.

According to Pashinyan, "Baku promotes the idea that "Armenia is preparing to attack Azerbaijan, so it would be better for Azerbaijan to strike Armenia as a preventive measure." "There are two versions explaining the origin of such an idea: either Azerbaijan really thinks that Armenia intends to deal a blow, or it wants to attack itself and is busy trying to create grounds for it. Either way, Azerbaijan claims that Armenia threatens Azerbaijan. Is Armenia going to attack Azerbaijan? Any impartial observer can record that the Armenian government has left no room for interpretations of this idea," Pashinyan said. He added that "Armenia is committed to the strategic agreement reached in Prague on October 6, 2022, under which Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration."