Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

“...Shells were falling like rain. We had no breathing time,” Fazil Aliyev, an owner of the burned house in Agdam, an Azerbaijani city on the contact of line with Armenians, remembers that terrible day.

Armenian forces staged provocations on the frontline on April 2 targeting the nearby Azerbaijani regions from the positions under the control.

Aghdam, a town in the south-west of Azerbaijan, was under intense shell of Armenian troops, which also targeted Fuzuli, Terter and Goranboy regions.

A total of 32 Azerbaijani settlements and civilians living along the frontline suffered from the enemy’s aggression. The Armenian militaries killed six civilians, including two children under 16, and wounded 26 residents during the shelling.

Although the 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations brokered by the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia violated ceasefire with Azerbaijan targeting houses and civilians. To protect the civilians, the Azerbaijani army gave a strong rebuff, destroying more than 370 enemy soldiers, 12 tanks, 12 armored vehicles and 15 artillery pieces.

Although the military operations on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies were stopped on April 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, great damage was caused to public, their houses, schools and other facilities.

Some 232 houses, 99 poles for power transmission lines, electrical substations, water mains and gas pipelines, as well as hospitals, mosques and schools were seriously damaged or destroyed.

One of the enemy shells hit the school in Agdam’s Sarijali village. Fortunately, no students were at the school.

“My house is located close to the school. Fortunately, the school was closed that day. Otherwise, a major disaster could occur,” school teacher Khanlar Fatayev said.

Goranboy District Chief Executive Nizameddin Guliyev noted that the region’s Tapqaraqoyunlu and Zeybe villages were severely damaged.

“Communication lines were damaged. Armenians mostly fired from artillery and Grad shells. As a result, about 100 houses and kindergartens were damaged. Despite no civilians were killed during the attack, some nine houses were completely destroyed and 60 heads of cattle were killed,” he said.

Currently, restoration work is underway in the regions, which suffered from the four-day attacks of the Armenian armed forces.

Head of the Agdam Executive Power Ragub Mammadov said that the total damage is being calculated, adding that restoration of a high school building has already begun.

Speaking about the situation in the region, Mammadov noted that, in spite of the ceasefire agreement, Armenians periodically violate ceasefire along the contact line of the troops, opening fire with machine guns, but Azerbaijani armed forces suppress enemy fire.

Baku, which has suffered from Yerevan's aggressive policy for more than two decades, has repeatedly stated that the presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories is a major obstacle to the settlement of the conflict and threat to the regional stability.

Despite the fact that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the Armenian troops to withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied territories, they were ignored and have not been implemented by Yerevan yet.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz