Armenia aggravates conflict by violating humanitarian truce

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijani Presidential Aide Hikmat Hajiyev has said that Armenia continuously targets Azerbaijani civilians in violation of the humanitarian truce, thereby aggravates the conflict.

Hajiyev made the remarks at the briefing on October 14.

"Today, as a result of shelling of Azerbaijani cities by Armenians, a lot of damage has been done to infrastructure and there are dead and wounded. Armenia continues to kill the civilian population of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is forced to apply measures to prevent this," he said.

Hajiyev reiterated that Azerbaijan was ready for peaceful settlement of the conflict, however, Armenia, violating the negotiations, aggravates the situation.

"The Moscow agreement noted that the conflict must be settled peacefully based on basic principles. Armenia does not observe any of those conditions and continues its provocations," he emphasized.

Likewise, Hajiyev stressed that Azerbaijan is liberating its lands from occupation, noting that the principles of conflict settlement have been defined.

"The conflict settlement process can be started with withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied territories of Azerbaijan. This conflict can be settled on the basis of restoration of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and resolutions of UN Security Council," presidential aide stated.

Commenting on the destruction of  Armenian ballistic missiles that was in a start position and ready for launch, Hajiyev underlined that these measures were taken with the aim of protecting lives of civilians.

"This step by Azerbaijan is in line with international laws. Because according to international law there is a right to hit military targets that pose a threat to security. Earlier we saw that Armenia targets the civilian population, a significant number of civilians are killed. To prevent these events from happening again, Azerbaijan has neutralized the military targets that posed a threat," he stressed.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres. 

Armenia has been shelling Azerbaijan’s densely-populated areas despite the humanitarian truce reached on October 10. Ten civilians were killed in Armenian missile attack on Azerbaijan’s 2nd largest city Ganja on October 11, shortly after the Russian-mediated cease-fire agreement.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.