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Fighting and shelling continue in the Nagorno Karabakh region, as Azerbaijani forces repelled an Armenian attack and inflicted “heavy losses”, and an armed drone was shot down, while Turkey renewed its position that the solution to the region’s problem lies in ending the “Armenian occupation”.
The Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted Azeri military sources as saying that Armenian forces tried to carry out a counterattack on several axes, taking advantage of bad weather and lack of clarity of vision, but Azerbaijani forces repelled the attack and inflicted heavy losses among the attacking forces.
Azerbaijani forces announced yesterday that they inflicted losses on the Armenian army, including the destruction of 10 tanks and 30 military vehicles, and Hikmat Hajiyev, an adviser to the Azerbaijani president, wrote on Twitter that his country’s air defenses had shot down a drone flying over a residential area in preparation for bombing.
“The lives of a large number of civilians have been saved and Armenia continues to practice terrorism,” Hajiyev added, noting that Armenian forces continue to attack residential areas in the cities of Ganja, Barda and Tatar.
And 6 Azerbaijani civilians were injured after the bombing of restaurants and houses in the city of Barda, and the number of Azerbaijani civilians who died increased to 31.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense of the Nagorno Karabakh region, which is not internationally recognized, reported on the renewed fighting between its forces and the Azerbaijani army in the different combat axes, especially in the southern and northern axes, referring to what he considered a decrease in the activity of the Azeri forces.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani army tried this morning to launch an attack on the city of Gabriel, south of Nagorno Karabakh, and that regional forces repelled the attack, killing 20 soldiers and forcing those forces to retreat.
The Al-Jazeera correspondent cited Armenian military sources as saying that the Azerbaijani bombing resumed in and around Stepanakert, the capital of the region.
In the context, the Armenian authorities fired the country’s director of national security.
Turkish position
On the Turkish side, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said again during his speech at the inauguration of the Turkish-African Economic and Business Forum that the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh region lies in ending the Armenian occupation, considering that this problem “turned into gangrene for 30 years, due to the position of Armenia.” Sclerotic and arrogant. “
Erdogan stressed Turkey’s continued support for Azerbaijan in its legitimate fight to regain its occupied lands.
Turning to Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, during his participation in the inauguration ceremony of an armed training ship for the Qatari Navy, he said that Armenia is committing war crimes targeting women, children and civilians, and that the Azerbaijani army can protect its territory without help or interference from anyone.
Akar called on Armenia to immediately withdraw from the lands it occupied and to return “mercenaries and terrorists” from these areas, stressing that his country will support Azerbaijan to the end.
He added that “the position of those who kept silent about the invasion of Armenia, Karabakh and their massacres against civilians is hypocrisy.”
Settlement efforts
On the diplomatic front, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jehun Bayramov meets today in Geneva with leaders of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a mediation body that includes France, Russia and the United States.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the purpose of the visit is to meet with the heads of the Minsk Group and present the position of Azerbaijan on the resolution of the conflict.
For its part, Armenia ruled out holding a meeting between its Foreign Minister Zahrab Manatsakyanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart in Geneva, considering that it is impossible to combine the negotiations with the continuation of military operations.
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