Azernews.Az

French President Emmanuel Macron made a phone call to President Ilham Aliyev on October 2 to discuss the ongoing clashes on the line of contact that started with Armenian attack on September 27.

Briefing Macron, Ilham Aliyev said that as a result of heavy artillery shelling of Azerbaijani settlements by the Armenian armed forces, 19 civilians have been killed, more than 60 people have been wounded, and hundreds of houses have been destroyed.

“The Azerbaijani Army has carried out successful counter-offensive operations and liberated part of our occupied territories,” president Aliyev said.

The head of state also noted that Armenia dealt a major blow to the negotiation process by taking steps to disrupt it. He emphasized that the Armenian leadership bears full responsibility for the disruption of the talks, as well as the outbreak of armed clashes.

Emmanuel Macron expressed concern over the ongoing clashes on the line of contact between Armenia and Azerbaijan and called for the restoration of ceasefire and conducting negotiations soon.

Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of the Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery on Sept. 27 and Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops managed to liberate the territories previously occupied by Armenia: Garakhanbeyli, Garvend, Kend Horadiz, Yukari, Ashagi Abdulrahmanli villages (Fuzuli district), Boyuk Marjanli, and Nuzgar villages (Jabrayil district).

Overall, 19 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and 55 have been injured in Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan’s civilian infrastructure since September 27. Among the killed civilians are three children as well as five members of the same family.