Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 25
By Ilkin Izzet - Trend:
The criminal military-political regime in Armenia bears full responsibility for the escalation of the tension on the state border of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the damage inflicted on Armenian civilian population, the press service of the Azerbaijani defense ministry told Trend Sept.25.
Some Armenian e-media have once again disseminated wrong and baseless information that an outpost of the Azerbaijani armed forces was allegedly destroyed by the Armenian military and the Azerbaijani side suffered heavy losses.
"Undoubtedly, such information disseminated once again by the criminal regime in Armenia seeks to justify to the Armenian people the military failure and heavy losses on the frontline and cover up the crimes committed by the Armenian troops against Azerbaijani civilians in border villages," the statement said.
The Azerbaijani armed forces, stationed in favorable conditions along the border with Armenia, are capable of destroying any military targets of the enemy and maintaining control over the settlements located at the bottom of the contact line of troops as well as communications lines, the ministry said.
"The Armenian government, particularly the civil population should know that Azerbaijani soldiers were ordered not to open fire only at civilians," said the statement. "In other cases, any Armenian military targets in motion will be destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers without waiting for an order of command. For this reason, for any deployment of military equipment in residential areas and the damage inflicted on the civilian population, the responsibility falls on the Armenian authorities, deliberately using its citizens as hostages."
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.