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AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA
Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of deadly missile strike on civilians
BAKU, Oct 27, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Azerbaijan accused Armenia of a
missile attack that killed four civilians Tuesday, as Washington urged
the two sides to abide by a ceasefire aimed at halting weeks of
fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
With clashes over the disputed Caucasus region entering a second
month, international mediators are pushing to bring a stop to
frontline clashes and shelling of civilian areas that have left
hundreds dead.
A US-brokered ceasefire agreed at the weekend — the third attempt
at a truce — unravelled within minutes on Monday with the two
countries trading accusations of new attacks.
Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said Tuesday that
Armenian forces had fired missiles on a village in the country’s Barda
region near the frontline, killing four civilians, including a
two-year-old girl, and wounding 13 others.
He claimed cluster bombs had been used and accused Armenia of an
“indiscriminate and targeted attack against civilians”.
“In violation of humanitarian ceasefire and in order to compensate
their sustained military losses, Armenia resorts to war crimes of
killing civilians,” Hajiyev said in English on Twitter.
Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan denied the
claim as “an absolute lie and a dirty provocation”.
Karabakh’s rights ombudsman Artak Beglaryan accused Azerbaijani
forces of “deliberately targeting civilians” by firing rockets
carrying cluster munitions Tuesday into a village in the region’s
Martuni district, wounding three women.
– ‘No military solution’ –
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter conflict over
Karabakh since Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control
of the mountainous province in a 1990s war that left 30,000 people
dead.
Karabakh’s self-declared independence has not been recognised
internationally, even by Armenia, and it remains a part of Azerbaijan
under international law.
The current fighting broke out on September 27. Armenia and
Azerbaijan accuse each other of having targeted civilians and of
breaking the previous truces.
In separate phone calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo urged them to stand by the ceasefire agreed on
Sunday.
Pompeo “pressed the leaders to abide by their commitments to cease
hostilities and pursue a diplomatic solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict,” the State Department said in a statement.
Pompeo told the two leaders that “there is no military solution to
this conflict,” the State Department said.
Russia, France and the United States are leaders of the “Minsk
Group” which has failed since the 1990s to bring about a negotiated
settlement to the conflict.
– Fresh frontline fighting –
This year’s fighting is the heaviest since a 1994 ceasefire,
raising fears that both Russia, which has a military alliance with
Armenia, and Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey could be further drawn into the
conflict.
Azerbaijan has claimed to be making significant gains since the
fighting began by retaking areas it lost in the 1990s war, in
particular in a buffer zone outside Karabakh seized by the Armenians.
Armenia has admitted to suffering losses and called on volunteers
to join the fighting at the front.
The two countries’ defence ministries said fighting was continuing
along the frontline on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 people have been reported dead in the fighting,
mainly Armenian separatist fighters but also dozens of civilians on
both sides.
Azerbaijan has not released any figures on its military casualties
and the death toll is believed to be substantially higher, with
Russian President Vladimir Putin saying last week that close to 5,000
people had been killed.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2305hrs