Armenia shells Azerbaijani positions in Tovuz, Kalbajar regions
The Armenian armed forces have shelled Azerbaijani army positions in Tovuz and liberated Kalbajar, Azernews reports citing the ministry.
In a statement, posted on its website, the ministry said that “starting from the evening of May 31 to the night of June 1, the Armenian armed forces units from the positions in the direction of Musurskend settlement of Tovuzgala region and Yukhari Shorzha settlement of Basarkechar region of the state border using small arms subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijan Army in the direction of Aghdam settlement of Tovuz region and Zaylik settlement of the Kalbajar region”.
The Azerbaijani army units took appropriate retaliatory measures to suppress the opposite side.
Armenia periodically shells Azerbaijani military positions located on its liberated territories. The previous truce violation took place on May 18 in the Kalbajar direction. The Tovuz region, which lies near the Armenian border and is far away from Azerbaijan's liberated regions, is also frequently targeted by Armenian forces.
To recap, on May 22, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, European Council President Charles Michel, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels. After the meeting, Michel said that Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on a number of key issues, including the creation of border delimitation commissions, of which the first meeting was held on May 24.
Earlier, Ilham Aliyev stated that peace will return to the Caucasus based on the five principles Baku recently proposed for normalizing relations with Armenia. He made the remarks during a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Zbigniew Rau, on March 31.
“The five principles we have initiated reflect the norms of international law and good international conduct... Reciprocal recognition of territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders, and then the delimitation of borders – I think that peace will come to the Caucasus on this basis. We want it,” he said.
The president emphasized that these principles are fundamental to any interstate relations.
“We are seeing the potential for active cooperation amongst the three countries of the South Caucasus, and I think that this will be important not only for these countries but also for the wider region,” he added.
The trilateral ceasefire deal, signed by the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders with the mediation of the Russian president on November 10, 2020, ended the three-decade conflict over Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, which along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s.
The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historical Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.
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