Aghdam, Azerbaijan, Apr.29
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
Armenia has violated the international law and committed crime against the Azerbaijani civilians, said the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev, Trend correspondent reported.
Hajiyev made the statement while visiting the Aghdam district.
"Therefore, Armenia and its leadership are directly responsible for this," he said commenting on the recent developments on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies.
Starting from April 27 evening until 04:00 (GMT + 4) April 28, the Armenian armed forces were firing at the Azerbaijani settlements and the Azerbaijani army positions in the Terter and Aghdam districts of Azerbaijan.
Two people were killed and many more wounded as a result of the Aghdam shelling. At least 84 houses in the district were heavily damaged, some of them completely destroyed.
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.