Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The Armenia armed forces continue targeting Azerbaijani civilians, who live in areas close to the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry warned Armenia over shelling of civilians in a statement issued on January 4.

The Ministry said units of the Armenian armed forces targeted positions of the Azerbaijani army, as well as the settlements in the vicinity of the contact line on January 3, using large-caliber guns, anti-tank rocket launchers and mortars caliber 60 and 82 mm.

“The shelling of villages and civilians has forced the Azerbaijani side to give an adequate and tough response using all available military capabilities,” the Ministry underlined.

The Ministry warned that all the responsibility for the escalation of tensions will fall on Armenian side.

"All this will lead to even more severe and palpable losses of the Armenian armed forces and the responsibility falls entirely on the Armenian leadership. Azerbaijani armed forces are fully prepared to liberate the occupied territories. We are confident of victory in this war of justice,” the Ministry said.

The Armenian armed forces frequently wound the villagers in their homes or on their farms.

Several months ago, the Armenian forces killed a resident of the Tartar region while he was fishing, and also injured three children while they were playing in their homes' yard.

Due to the frequent ceasefire violations by Armenian armed forces, the Azerbaijani villagers have gone through great difficulties, as constant shelling of their homes has hampered their daily life.

The residents of these villages earn their life by farming. However, the ceasefire violations make it impossible for them to work on their lands, take their cattle for grazing, as well as use the water of the rivers originating from Armenia. The Armenians also pollute the water resources by poising them with toxic waste of the plants.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor displaced 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes. They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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