Marine attache: U.S. grieves over Azerbaijani civilians’ death
By Rashid Shirinov
The death of Azerbaijani civilians Zahra Guliyeva and Sahiba Allahverdiyeva and wounding of Salminaz Guliyeva is highly regrettable and all the U.S. grieves with their families, James Thompson, a marine attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Baku, told reporters in Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region.
He was commenting on the recent developments on the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops. On July 4 evening, the Armenian armed forces using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers shelled the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region. As a result of this provocation, a resident of the village and her two-year-old granddaughter were killed. Another resident, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.
Thompson arrived in the Fuzuli region as part of the visit of representatives of foreign media and military attaches of the embassies accredited in Azerbaijan, which was organized by the country’s Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Fuzuli Region Executive Authority.
Thompson said that peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would be ideal to bring peace to the South Caucasus region, as well as for the safety and security of civilians.
He thanked the Azerbaijani government for the opportunity to visit the Azerbaijani region and take a look at the scene of the incident.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by 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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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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