Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

The Azerbaijani State Border Service opened its new border commandant's office in liberated Zangilan region on the state border with Armenia on March 12, the State Border Service has reported.

The deputy head of the State Border Service, Lt-Gen Ilham Mehdiyev, who spoke at the opening ceremony, said that as a result of the counter-offensive operation held under President and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev's leadership, Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and put an end to the occupation of 20 percent of its lands, including 132-km state border with Iran and 500-km state border with Armenia.

He stressed the full mobilization of all forces and means for the successful fulfillment of the combat missions assigned by the supreme commander to the State Border Service during the second Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh War and the direct participation of the servicemen of the State Border Service in the liberation of the occupied part of the Azerbaijani-Iranian border, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan and Gubadli regions, Hadrut settlement and Shusha city.

From the first days of hostilities, Azerbaijani border guards liberated large territories starting from the contact line in Fuzuli region to the state border with Armenia. The crushing blows were inflicted on the Armenian armed forces. A distance of 105 kilometers was covered within 24 hours. The Azerbaijani state flag was raised on the ancient Khudafarin bridge, Zangilan region's Aghband settlement and in Zangilan city. The strategic heights Bartaz and Shukurataz were liberated as a result of fierce battles on the border with Armenia, Mehdiyev said.

He added that the air defence systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, missile systems, tanks, combat armoured vehicles and other equipment, command posts, and numerous servicemen, in total, 290 targets of the Armenian armed forces were neutralized through the modernization of An-2 aircraft into unmanned aerial vehicles, their use within a special combat technique to reveal the Armenian armed forces’ air defence means, as well as thanks to the professional use of such UAVs as Harop, Guzgun, and Hermes.

At the end of the ceremony, a group of servicemen who distinguished themselves in their military service was awarded.

On November 10, Baku and Yerevan signed a Moscow-brokered deal that brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.

On January 11, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed the second statement since the end of the 44-day war. The newly-signed statement is set to implement clause 9 of the November 2020 statement related to the unblocking of all economic and transport communications in the region.

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