Details added (first version posted on 15:26)
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 17
Trend:
Armenians refuse to recover the dead bodies of their servicemen, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry told Trend Apr.17.
Armenians, as always, violate the reached agreements, do not reckon with the initiative of the international mediators and being aware of their impunity, demonstrate their actions towards increasing the tension, said the ministry.
Despite the agreement reached earlier to hand over the dead body of an Azerbaijani serviceman, Armenia's subsequent refusal in this issue shocked the mediators from both sides of the frontline, according to the Defense Ministry.
Another matter of regret is that the mediators do not make haste to take tough measures against Armenia and to evaluate their actions, said the ministry, adding that this negatively affects the image of such international organizations as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the OSCE.
Armenia also ignores the repeated warnings from the mediators about prohibition of taking photos and videos while recovering the dead bodies of the servicemen from both sides, according to Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry.
"Armenians do it covertly and then share those materials in social networks," said the ministry. "Those materials were deleted only after Azerbaijan expressed protest to the international mediators."
The Defense Ministry said Azerbaijan has created perfect conditions for Armenians for recovering the dead bodies of their servicemen.
Nevertheless, Armenians are not active in searching the dead bodies of their soldiers and officers, thereby showing that they are not interested in handing over the dead bodies of the servicemen to their families, according to the ministry.
Possibly, those dead bodies left by Armenians in the battlefield are the bodies of the terrorists conscripted as "volunteers", according to Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry.
On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers.
The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.
Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides,
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.
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.