Armenian Armed Forces grossly violate ceasefire even after it was announced

By Shabnam Hasanova- Trend 

On September 27, Armenian Armed Forces flagrantly breached the ceasefire agreement [with Azerbaijan],subjected to in-depth bombing from large-caliber weapons, mortars and artillery mounts of different calibers of the Azerbaijan army positions along the entire front and residential areas.

Besides continually shelling Azerbaijani settlements with heavy artillery, the Armenian Armed Forces also caused significant damage to the population’s property, infrastructure and the economy. Through these acts Armenia blatantly breached international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its obligations in this respect.

On October 4, the Armenian Armed Forces again blatantly breached the norms and principles of international law, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the decisions and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, intentionally shelled the civilians of Azerbaijan, shelled the heavily populated areas of Ganja.

After provocations both on the frontline and in online media, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Geneva and Azerbaijan’s position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement was brought to the attention of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. After the meeting in Geneva, Bayramov paid a working visit to Moscow on October 9 to meet with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan at the initiative of the Russian side. After this meeting Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia adopted a joint document and Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on ceasefire for humanitarian purposes.

During his address to the nation President of Azerbaijan, Aliyev said that Azerbaijani side gives Armenia the last chance to leave the historical lands of Azerbaijan through negotiations and peace, and called Armenia to make a commitment and return to the negotiations. He also emphasized that Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity anyway and Armenia should not miss this historic opportunity.

Right after the ceasfire, on 10 October, the Armenian armed forces subjected the newly-liberated Hadrut village in Azerbaijan to intensive missile fire from the Khodjaly direction. The Armenian armed forces grossly violated ceasefire declared at 00:00 (GMT+4) on October 10 and shelled intensively the human settlements of the Goranboy, Terter, Aghdam, Aghjabadi and Fizuli regions.

On 11 October, in the midst of the night, Ganja once again came under fire and this time Armenia used the 'Tochka-U' missile system in the attack which has tremendous destructive power. Press service of Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan announced that 10 civilians, 4 of them women, were killed and 35 civilians wounded, 6 of them children, as a result of missiles fired by Armenian armed forces on apartment buildings in the central part of Ganja, the second largest city of Azerbaijan. The Ganja terror act is again an act of genocide towards Azerbaijani people, which we witnessed after the Khojaly tragedy. At the same time, Armenia shelled the industrial city of Mingachevir, using "Smerch" heavy multiple rocket launcher.

On October 12 with the accompany of Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration and Assistant to the First Vice-President Elchin Amirbayov and other state officials, heads of diplomatic missions in Azerbaijan, ambassadors, military attaches, and heads of representations of international organizations in Azerbaijan visited Ganja and Mingachevir, to get acquainted with Armenia's reckless missile attacks against innocent civilians and energy infrastructure.

Hikmat Hajiyev said that Armenia continues to violate ceasefire even after it was announced.

Right after the shelling of Ganja city by Armenian Armed forces, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a post on Twitter that “Armenia’s military-political leadership bears responsibility for the crimes it committed and the Azerbaijani side will give a decent response to all this”.

All these robust facts and Armenia’s latest missile attack on Ganja is a clear manifestation of disrespect for Russian-mediated talks and Armenian fascism and these dishonorable deeds of Armenia can never break the will of Azerbaijani people. Azerbaijani territories of Goranboy, Tartar and Aghdam regions and different directions of the front continue being subjected to heavy artillery and missile fire from Armenian armed forces which violates the humanitarian truce.

The other side of the issue is the information warfare. The terror of Armenian side is not only in the trenches, but also online. While the Azerbaijan strongly complies with the humanitarian truce and international law Armenian news machine has not stopped to produce various, baseless fake news for deceiving the world community.

Despite the fact that Armenia is committing acts of vandalism against the civilian population Azerbaijan firmly observing the requirements of humanitarian ceasefire has demonstrated its commitment to the settlement of the issue within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and Azerbaijani armed forces never set fire to civil settlements. However, if Armenia does not stop, Azerbaijan will retaliate within international law. According to the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office, between 27 September and 11 October, in total 41 civilians killed, 205 civilians injured, 1165 houses and 57 multi-family residential properties destroyed and 146 civilian facilities were severely damaged as a result of heavy artillery shelling by the Armenian armed forces.

Azerbaijan calls on the world community, individual states to condemn the policy of terror at the state level in Armenia. International organizations must also exert political pressure on Armenia, which commits war crimes and targets civilians.