Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Armenia continues to deliberately fire on Azerbaijani civilians and civilian objects even after the humanitarian ceasefire was established, Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said.

Bayramov made the remark during phone conversations with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs of France Stephane Visconti, Russia Igor Popov and U.S. Andrew Schofer on October 11 amid escalation of the tension near Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Minister underlined the attempted attack of the Armenian armed forces in the direction of Hadrut and Jabrayil a few hours after the establishment of the humanitarian ceasefire. He stressed the shooting by the Armenian armed forces of a sanitary medical vehicle, clearly marked with a white flag, collecting the bodies of Armenian soldiers as well as shelling of Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city that is far beyond the frontline, with rocket fire.

Moreover, Bayramov noted that the full responsibility for the situation in the region lies with the Armenian political and military leaderhsip.

In turn, co-chairs expressed their concerns over the situation and stressed the importance of ensuring the ceasefire, and compliance with the terms of the Moscow agreement.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres.

On October 4, Armenia launched missile attack on Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest populated city. There were also attacks on Mingachevir city that has a hydroelectric power station as well as on Khizi and Abheron region on the same day. On October 6, Armenia fired a forbidden cluster missile at Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in Yevlakh. The bomb landed 10 meters away from the pipeline. Over 300 cluster bomblets ejected around as a result of the attack. On October 11, Ganja city came under missile attack of Armenia.At least nine civilians were killed and 33 more were injured in Armenia's overnight missile attack in Ganja. Armenia also attacked Azerbaijan's Jabrayil and Hadrut regions on October 10.

It should be noted that the attack on Ganja comes hours after the humanitarian ceasefire signed between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers with Russia's mediation on October 10.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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