Armenian armed forces target Azerbaijani civilians, tensions rise again in the zone of occupation – PHOTOS

Continuous Armenian military build-up on the east and almost daily provocations aimed to test the extent of Baku’s patience has sparkled the flame of a full-scale war on the line of contact and state border with Azerbaijan on Sunday morning.

Following massive Armenian artillery shelling of the Azerbaijani villages along the border and the early reports of civilian deaths and destruction of residential houses, the President of Azerbaijan, who is under the constitution also the Commander-in-Chief of the Azerbaijani army, ordered the counter-offensive with the aim to silence the enemy’s firing positions, reported Azerbaijani state media.

• UN chief extremely concerned over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

As the Armenian military blatantly violated the ceasefire, the Assistant to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev made a statement, informing about the Armenia’s night assault on the Azerbaijani villages of Gapanli of Tartar district, Chiragli and Orta Garavand of Aghdam district, Alkhanli and Shukurbayli of Fuzuli district and Jojug Marjanli of Jabrayil district.

“The bombardment of densely populated civilian areas and installations situated along the front line by Armenia’s armed forces has been deliberate and targeted. There are reports of dead and wounded among civilians and military servicemen. Extensive damage has been inflicted on many homes and civilian infrastructure”,

said Hajiyev.

He reminded that Azerbaijan had warned many times that Armenia is preparing for a new act of aggression and war, Armenia’s ongoing military aggression against Azerbaijan and the presence of the armed forces of Armenia in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories posed significant threat to regional peace and security.

“Armenia’s deliberate targeting of residential areas and the civilians is a gross violation of the international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention of 1949.

Targeting the civilian population is a tactic incorporated in the combat training of Armenia’s armed forces, and the Khojaly genocide perpetrated in February 1992 has been a vivid testimony to that. According to the international law, Armenian armed forces’ strikes against the positions of Azerbaijan’s army, against the civilians and civilian infrastructure, with the use of large-caliber weapons, are Armenia’s yet another military aggression and an act of the use of force against Azerbaijan”, said Hajiyev, charging Yerevan with the full responsibility for the current tensions.

Photo: Azertac

Photo: Azertac

Photo: Azertac

Source: Parvana Garayeva