Azerbaijan also reported on the shelling of its positions from the territories of the settlements adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of Armenian armed forces.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan stated about 45 shelling of the country’s army positions in the area of the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as on the border with Armenia in the past 24 hours.
“Units of the armed forces of Armenia, using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles, violated the ceasefire 45 times in different directions of the front within a day”, – the press service of the Defense Ministry said in a statement circulated on Monday.
In particular, according to the Defense Ministry, the positions of the Azerbaijani army in Agdam, Kohanebi, Munjuglu villages of neighboring Tovuz region, as well as in Garavevelir, Geyali and nameless heights in the territory of Berd region and Chambarak region of Armenia were shelled from the positions located in Chinari, Aygedzor villages and on the nameless heights in the territory of Gedabey region, also located in the borderline.
Baku also reports about firing of Azerbaijani Armed Forces’ positions from the territory of settlements adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh under the control of Armenian armed forces.
The situation on the border between the two states escalated on July 12. In Azerbaijan it was stated about the attempt of the Armenian Armed Forces to attack the positions of the army of the republic with artillery, in Yerevan it was named the reason for aggravation of the attempt of breakthrough from the Azerbaijani side. Both sides reported on the dead soldiers. Since 17 July, both sides have assessed the situation as relatively calm, but reports of shelling in the border area and near the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh have been received almost daily.
The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh started in February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast announced its secession from the Azerbaijani SSR. During the 1992-1994 armed conflict, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. Since 1992, negotiations on peaceful settlement of the conflict have been conducted within the OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by Russia, the United States and France.