Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry issued a warning to Armenia on Monday, saying that blatant ceasefire violations by Armenian troops amid tension in talks on settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will have dire consequences.

The Azerbaijani ministry said in a statement that despite the recent agreement to reinforce the ceasefire, a new wave of tension emerged last Friday evening when the Armenian side fired an artillery rocket on the contact line of the two countries’ troops.

It said a scrutiny has revealed that the Armenian armed forces fired the BM 21 Grad truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket 2.5 km west of an occupied area in the frontline Terter region, which landed near the Azerbaijani-controlled Borsunlu residential area. The rocket was presumably launched from a distance of 15-16 km. Its trajectory was seen in the dark due to the flashes of fire. No casualties are reported though the roaring sound of shelling and the wave of the blast were sensed in nearby residential areas.

The Karabakh conflict flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims. Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory since a war in the early 1990s. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but years of peace talks have brought few tangible results, and sporadic clashes on the frontline continue. Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to reinforce the ceasefire in a joint statement signed by their presidents in conclusion of Russian-brokered talks in late October.