Baku, Azerbaijan, July 6
Trend:
The deaths of Zahra Guliyeva and her grandmother Sahiba Allhaverdiyeva, and the wounds sustained by Salminaz Guliyeva, are deeply tragic, as are the deaths and the suffering of all those who have been affected by the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over the decades, the US Embassy in Baku said in a statement July 6.
The terrible events on July 4 further demonstrate that the two parties need to come together and negotiate a peaceful settlement to the conflict, according to the statement.
There is no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the only way forward is to find a negotiated settlement, said the statement.
On July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled the Alkhanly village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district.
As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Allahverdiyeva, 50, and Zahra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.