Armenia shells Azerbaijani positions in Tovuz

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Armenia’s armed units have shelled the Azerbaijani army’s position in northwestern Tovuz region on the state border, the Defence Ministry reported on February 18.

In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said: "Starting from 2230 on February 18, the Armenian armed forces units from the positions in Gulali settlement of Tovuzgala region of the state border, with no reason, using small arms periodically  subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijan army in the direction of Munjuglu settlement of Tovuz region."

The Azerbaijani army units took appropriate retaliatory measures to suppress the opposite side. The ministry ruled out any causalities among the Azerbaijani military personnel and equipment.

At the moment the situation in the mentioned direction is stable and the Azerbaijan army units fully control the operational situation, the ministry said.

The Armenian armed forces shelled Azerbaijan's military positions in the same direction on February 15 as well.

The trilateral ceasefire deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders on November 10, 2020, ended the three-decade conflict over Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region which along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s.

On January 11, 2021, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed the second statement since the end of the 44-day war. The newly-signed statement was set to implement clause 9 of the November 2020 statement related to the unblocking of all economic and transport communications in the region.

On November 26, 2021, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed a statement and agreed on a number of issues, including the demarcation and delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border by late 2021, some points related to humanitarian issues and the issue of unblocking of transport corridors which applies to the railway and to automobile communications.

On December 14, 2021, during the Brussels meeting, organized between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders at the initiative of European Council President Charles Michel, the sides reaffirmed their commitment to the conditions agreed in the Sochi meeting.

Both sides agreed to establish a temporary working group on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The issue of demining the liberated territories of Azerbaijan was also brought up on the agenda, and the European Union's readiness to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijan in this regard was underlined at the meeting.