BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 19. Anti-terrorist activities carried out in the region are local and aim to neutralize illegal Armenian armed groups [which weren't withdrawn from Azerbaijan's Karabakh region contrary to the trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev told TRT Haber, Trend reports.
"Azerbaijan does not take actions against the civilian population living in Karabakh. We have set a goal to save them from this separatist regime," Hajiyev said.
In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, to stop large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, to disarm and withdraw formations of the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, to neutralize their military infrastructure, to ensure the safety of the peaceful population returning to the territories liberated from occupation, civil servants involved in construction and reconstruction works, and our military personnel, as well as to restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, anti-terrorist measures have been launched in the region.
Only military targets belonging to illegal armed formations of the separatist regime are put out of action with the use of high-precision weapons available in the arsenal of the Azerbaijani Army.
Civilians and infrastructure objects are not targets during localized anti-terrorist activities carried out in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region.
On September 19, 2023, at 04:30 (GMT+4), as a result of a terrorist act, on a newly built tunnel road near the village of Taghavard in Khojavand district, a KAMAZ truck carrying employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan got blown up on a mine, previously planted by illegal Armenian armed groups [which haven't been withdrawn contrary to the trilateral statement signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war] on the territory of Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeepers are temporarily stationed [under the trilateral statement].
The truck was on its way to the site of the terrorist attack that took place on the same day at the 58th kilometer of the Ahmadbayli-Fuzuli-Shusha road passing through the Khojavand district, which killed employees of the State Road Agency of Azerbaijan.
The employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Asim Jamalzade, Ramil Shirinov, Seymur Mahmudov, and Khazar Zamanov, died on the spot.