Baku, Azerbaijan, July 6
Trend:
Casualties on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops are regrettable, but the killing of a child and her grandmother by Armenians is despicable, said British life peer Lord Kilclooney.
He was commenting on the killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenia’s armed forces in the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district.
“I have visited the region on numerous occasions and I believe that a diplomatic solution to the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict is possible,” he said, according to the European Azerbaijan Society.
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. 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.