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(CNN) – The disputed head of the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Sunday asked citizens of Azerbaijan’s main cities to leave to avoid an “inevitable loss”, after saying that Azerbaijan had targeted civilians in the main city of the region, Stepanakert, in the last two days.
“Military sites in major cities of Azerbaijan are targets of the Defense Army in Artsakh,” Nagorno Karabakh leader Aryk Harutyunyan said on Twitter. He called on the Azerbaijani population to leave these cities to avoid “inevitable losses”.
Artsakh is the Armenian name for the Nagorno-Karabakh or Karabakh region.
But Harutyunyan later tweeted that the shooting had “stopped.”
He wrote: “The shooting was stopped at this time by my order to avoid the loss of civilians. If the Azerbaijani military-political leadership does not draw the appropriate lessons, our proportionate response will continue. More determined than ever. Azerbaijan can still stop its aggression. “.
Long-standing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan recently erupted in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with each accusing the other of targeting civilians, amid reports of casualties.
Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited and controlled by Armenians, is located within the territory of Azerbaijan. Armenia supports its claim for independence, which is linked to it by two highways.
Nagorny Karabakh also controls some neighboring lands, internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan.
The two neighboring countries had long been at odds over the mountainous region and fought a war over it that ended in 1994. Although the conflict ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, military skirmishes between the two sides are not uncommon.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan said the densely populated city of Ganja and many areas near Nagorno-Karabakh came under missile attacks from Armenia.
Hikmat Hajiyev, senior foreign policy aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said Armenia launched “indiscriminate missile attacks against the cities of Ganja, Fuzuli, Tartar and Gabriel in Azerbaijan from the lands of Armenia.”
Hajiyev noted on his Twitter account that “Ganja is the second largest city in Azerbaijan. (There are) more than 500 people.
Hajiyev posted a video clip of the damaged buildings and cars, as smoke rose in the sky and people gathered in the streets, saying the images were “the result of massive missile attacks launched by Armenia in dense residential areas in the Ganja city “.
“Azerbaijan reserves the right to take appropriate measures against legitimate military targets to defend civilians and force Armenia to peace …”, Hajiyev said.
For its part, the Armenian Defense Ministry denied having fired at Azerbaijan.
“The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia officially announces that no fire of any kind has been fired from the territory of Armenia into Azerbaijan,” a spokesman for the Armenian Defense Minister Shushan Stepanyan said via Twitter.
