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The Al-Jazeera correspondent cited military sources that renewed the bombing in the Nagorno Karabakh region, amid international efforts to resolve the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia and an exchange of accusations between the two countries.
Sources reported that this morning a violent missile attack was renewed from the Azerbaijani side in the city of Stepanakert, capital of the Karabakh region.
The authorities of the region, not recognized internationally, had confirmed the deaths of 18 civilians and the injuries of 80 more in the bombardment of the Azerbaijani forces in the cities and towns of the region, since the war broke out on 27 last month.
The Turkish Defense Ministry, in a tweet on its Twitter page, quoted Azerbaijani military sources as saying that the Azerbaijani armed forces managed to liberate 22 cities from what they described as the Armenian occupation during the military operations they carried out since the beginning of clashes with Armenia to this day.
Armenian charges
Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry described the reports related to the bombing of its country in deep areas of Azerbaijan as part of the disinformation campaign in Baku.
In a statement posted on its website, the Foreign Ministry said: “The aggression launched by Azerbaijan against Karabakh with the help of Turkey and with the participation of foreign fighters, is accompanied by a campaign of deception and fraud that goes further. of reasonable limits “.
The statement added that “one of these misleading information has circulated in recent hours about the shelling of Armenian lands in deep areas of Azerbaijani lands.” The Armenian Foreign Ministry considered that the purpose of the disinformation campaign is to conceal the widespread bombing of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan, which left many civilian casualties, as well as serious damage to civilian infrastructure.
The ministry claimed that Azerbaijan is paving the way, by publishing this “false information, to continue its criminal policy and expand the geography of the war”, noting that “any provocation from the Azerbaijani side will face a proportionate response from the Republic. of Armenia “.
Withdrawal clause
On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan said that the Armenian forces, suffering defeats at the front, began several days ago to launch missiles from Armenian lands into residential areas densely populated by civilians in Azerbaijani cities, and at the same time the Ministry of Armenian defense announces that it has not done so and says that those who launched these missiles were the authorities of the Karabakh province.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a speech broadcast on state television on Sunday evening that Armenia should set a timetable for the withdrawal from Nagorno Karabakh before stopping the fighting that took place there about a week ago.
The Azerbaijani president accused Armenia of bombing the city of Minga Ceffer, where Azerbaijan’s water tanks and main power plants are located, and said that the Armenian army also bombed the cities of “Khizi and Absheron” near the capital Baku.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that since the beginning of the fighting on September 27 last year, 14 villages have been captured, in addition to the strategic Morovdag mountain range.
The ministry said the Armenian army bombed the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city, after the capital Baku.
The Azerbaijani Defense Minister confirmed that the bombing took place from Armenian territory, which was denied by the Armenian government.
For his part, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, considered that Armenia faces “perhaps the most fateful moment in its contemporary history”, and called for mobilization to achieve “victory”.
The Nagorno Karabakh region, which has an Armenian majority, declared secession from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, sparking a war that caused 30,000 deaths.
No peace agreement was signed between the two sides, although the front has been almost frozen since then, but it witnessed clashes from time to time.
The two sides are blaming each other for the resumption of fighting on September 27, which has led to what could be the most dangerous crisis in the region since the 1994 ceasefire, raising fears of an open war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
International efforts
In light of the escalation on the ground, Georgia announced its readiness to host the Minsk Group for Conflict Resolution in Karabakh, as Azerbaijan declared its control over 14 villages, while Yerevan described the reports issued by Baku as misleading.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said in a television interview that her country is ready to host the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to resolve the conflict in Karabakh, which includes Russia, France and United States.
Zurabishvili highlighted the importance of Georgia’s adherence to maintaining the policy of neutrality towards the two neighboring countries, Armenia and Azerbaijan, indicating that the economies of the countries and their development depend on stability and peace.
Georgian Prime Minister Gyorgy Gakharia is reported to have previously proposed to Azerbaijan and Armenia to hold talks in Tbilisi with the aim of stopping the military conflict.
Georgia is one of three countries that represent the South Caucasus, along with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Georgia has long borders with the two neighboring warring countries and two border provinces, most of which are Armenian and Azerbaijani.
In this context, the European Union called for an immediate end to the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan and called for negotiations between them to begin as soon as possible under the umbrella of the Minsk Group.
European Commissioner for Security and Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said in a tweet on his Twitter page that the high number of civilian casualties is unacceptable.
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