Azernews.Az

Vice-President of the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union, editor of alkas. lt portal Audris Antanaytis and photographer Arunas Sartanavicus have visited the Tartar region on the frontline, Azertac reported.

The visit was organized by the International Eurasian Press Fund. They first visited the Region Executive Authority, where they were informed of the problems faced by local residents as a result of the Armenians` shelling.

Head of Tartar Region Executive Authority Mustaqim Mammadov said the Armenian armed units keep the region under constant fire. He said that 23 residential areas were shelled by the Armenian militaries during the April escalation of violence on the front line.

“The Armenians even threw a prohibited white phosphorous bomb to residential areas. This damaged nearly 400 houses, four schools, two medical points, a kindergarten. 32 houses were completely destroyed. Nine civilians were wounded, three people were killed. 52 houses belonging to IDPs were also destroyed in the shelling, and 198 people were left homeless,” he said.

The Lithuanian delegation then traveled to the city of Tartar, Shikharkh settlement and Hasanqaya village, where they visited the houses shelled by the Armenians, talked to local residents, and viewed work that had been done to eliminate the consequences of the April escalation of violence.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire of large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers by Armenian army. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan’s counter-attack led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies were stopped on April 5 at 12:00 with mutual consent of the sides. However, Armenian side still continues violating the ceasefire.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

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