The Armenian armed forces committed an attack in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district on July 12, 2020, to occupy the Azerbaijani territories, the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan said, Trend reports on July 13 referring to the community.

"This once again proves that Armenia does not want the peaceful settlement of the conflict and does not intend to provide us with the opportunity to return to our ancestral lands,” the Azerbaijani community said. “This provocation carried out on the state border shows that while creating a new hotbed of conflict, Armenia wants to distract attention from the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the fact of occupation. However, Armenia will not manage to achieve this."

“The socio-economic problems are being aggravated in Armenia,” the Azerbaijani community said. “The government cannot cope with the coronavirus pandemic and, thus, resorts to such provocations and tries to divert attention.”

"The aggressor country verbally supports the Global Ceasefire Initiative of the UN secretary general, but [in reality] it commits military provocations," the Azerbaijani community said. “To put an end to the tension in the region, Armenia must withdraw its armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories and all Azerbaijani internally displaced people (IDPs) must return to their native lands.”

Starting from noon on July 12, units of the armed forces of Armenia, grossly violating the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district along the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, opened artillery fire at Azerbaijani positions.

Azerbaijan's armed response forced the Armenian army to retreat suffering losses.

Azerbaijani personnel, sergeant of military service Vugar Sadigov and corporal Elshad Mammadov, died while repelling the attack of the Armenian armed forces.

Despite the efforts of the Azerbaijani doctors, severely wounded serviceman of the Azerbaijani army Khayyam Dashdemirov also died.

The tension remained in Tovuz district on the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on July 12 night.

During the night battles, by using artillery, mortars and tanks, the Azerbaijani armed forces destroyed a stronghold, bombshells, vehicles and servicemen on the territory of the Armenia’s military unit.

Azerbaijani serviceman, senior lieutenant Rashad Mahmudov was killed during the battles.