Azernews.Az

The main goal of Armenia's consistent policy is to keep the Azerbaijani territories under occupation, Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said on April 5.

He made the remarks during the meeting of the special working group for working out the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea with participation of deputy foreign ministers.

"Armenia is fully responsible for what is happening," said Khalafov, adding that this country is not interested in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and ignores the international law.

The situation on the frontline aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands started shelling Azerbaijan’s positions.

To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Lele Tepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

Despite Azerbaijan's decision on unilateral suspension of the counter-attacks and response measures in the territories occupied by Armenia, as well as calls of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and world community to cease military operations and restore the ceasefire, the Armenian forces resumed shelling of Azerbaijani positions along the line of contact on the night of April 4, the situation on the contact line deteriorated again.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

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