Azernews.Az

The ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia was violated 1,178 times over 10 months of 2012, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman said at a press conference in the frontline Terter region on Tuesday.

Eldar Sabiroglu said both sides sustained casualties, and the Azerbaijani armed forces lost 12 servicemen in the 10-month period.

However, according to information confirmed by the Armenians, they lost 32 people. The ceasefire was violated mostly close to Fuzuli, Terter and Agdam regions.

"The most strained situation on the contact line [of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops] was observed in June," Sabiroglu said. "Monitoring was conducted around 19 times on the contact line in September. It proceeded without incidents. Once monitoring stops, the Armenians violate the ceasefire regime."

"We are soldiers, and our main duty is to liberate the occupied territories, even if it is by means of war. A second war will lead to a large fire in the region and end with the victory of Azerbaijani soldiers," Sabiroglu said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory. OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Sabiroglu said that within the 10 months all Azerbaijani military units conducted large-scale exercises under the leadership of Defense Minister Safar Abiyev. The army did well during the exercises.

"Sometimes we hear that the Armenians stage exercises in our occupied territories once or twice a week," he said. "However, this is not a simple task to prepare and conduct the exercises. It requires extensive training and considerable funds. The Armenians call appearing two or three tanks and one artillery weapon as exercises. This is nonsense. It will not affect Azerbaijan."

He said that the Azerbaijani armed forces have the most advanced weapons on the Line of Contact.

"Our main goal is to prevent aggression of the Armenian armed forces. I think that soon we will witness liberation of our lands," Sabiroglu said.

He added that Azerbaijan has recently done a lot to boost its army.

"We have purchased the most modern weapons," he said. "We can strike the enemy at any distance by using these weapons. Second, the morale of the personnel is at a high level."