MoD: Armenia shells Azerbaijani positions in liberated Kalbajar to aggravate situation on state border

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Armenian armed forces have shelled Azerbaijani military positions in the liberated Kalbajar region, Azernews reports, citing the Defence Ministry.

In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said: “Starting from the evening of June 2 to the night of June 3, units of the Armenian armed forces from their positions in the direction of Yukhari Shorzha and Ashaghi Shorzha settlements of the Basarkechar region on the state border, using grenade launchers and large-caliber weapons once again subjected to fire the Azerbaijan Army positions in the direction of Zaylik and Yellija settlements of the Kalbajar region.”

The Azerbaijani army units took appropriate retaliatory measures to suppress the opposite side. The ministry ruled out any causality among the personnel and military equipment of the army. The units of the Azerbaijan army are in command of the operational situation, it added.

According to the ministry, Armenia is seeking to “aggravate” the situation on the state border by utilizing large-caliber arms to deflect the focus of its population away from internal processes.

“We declare that the entire responsibility for the consequences of provocations committed by the opposing side falls on the military-political leadership of this country,” the ministry stressed.

Armenia periodically shells Azerbaijani military positions located on its liberated territories. The previous truce violation took place on June 1 in the Kalbajar and Tovuz directions.

To recap, on May 22, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, European Council President Charles Michel, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels. After the meeting, Michel said that Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on a number of key issues, including the creation of border delimitation commissions, of which the first meeting was held on May 24.

Earlier, Ilham Aliyev stated that peace will return to the Caucasus based on the five principles Baku recently proposed for normalizing relations with Armenia.

In response to the peace negotiations with Azerbaijan, Armenia's revanchist opposition took to the streets, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The street protests have been going on since mid-April, with no tangible outcomes.

The trilateral ceasefire deal, signed by the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders with the mediation of the Russian president 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.

The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historical Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.