Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Samir Ali – Trend:
The situation in the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district, which was on July 4 shelled by the Armenian armed forces, is currently stable, Ali Aliyev, head of Fuzuli District Executive Authority, told Trend.
“This is not the first provocation of Armenians. They regularly shell the Azerbaijani territories. But Fuzuli residents are not afraid. Now the situation in the Alkhanli village and in the district is stable,” Aliyev said, adding that the situation is under full control of the Azerbaijani armed forces.
On July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces again violated ceasefire and, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled Azerbaijani positions and territories where the civilian population lives, namely the Alkhanli village of the country’s Fuzuli district, thereby grossly violating the requirements of international law, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said earlier.
As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sakhiba Guliyeva, 50, and Zakhra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Servinaz 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.