Azernews.Az

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani military positions came under fire by the Armenian armed forces, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported on August 24.

On August 24, at 13:40, units of the Armenian armed forces fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the direction of Yellija settlement of Kalbajar region from their positions in Zarkand settlement of Basarkechar region, using machine guns and sniper rifles, the ministry said.

There are no causalities among the military personnel of the Azerbaijan army. The Azerbaijan army units control the operational situation, the ministry added.

The past few weeks have seen the worst escalation of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the signing of the November 10 statement that ended the last year’s hostilities between the two countries.

On August 11, Azerbaijan urged the Russian peacekeepers to end the illegal deployment of Armenian troops in Azerbaijan’s territories under their temporary control.

Later on August 14, President Ilham Aliyev reiterated that Azerbaijan has recently identified that Armenian troops are being sent to Karabakh via the Lachin corridor that is controlled by the Russian peacekeepers and stressed that this contradicts the 10 November peace deal signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan.

About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have been deployed for five years in Karabakh under the Moscow-brokered trilateral cease-fire deal. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw all its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it had occupied since the early 1990s.

The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centres, and historic Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.

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