BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
Trend:
No one should have had illusion that the seven districts around Nagorno Karabakh must always remain in the situation, in which they were a month and a half ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, Trend reports.
“The responsible authorities should have explained to the population that at some stage settlement of the Karabakh conflict would have to be implemented in accordance with the principles which were negotiated for many years, proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and opened, I believe, the ideal way to resolve the conflict without bloodshed and damage to anyone’s security in the region,” added Lavrov.
Following over a month of military action to liberate its territories from Armenian occupation, Azerbaijan has pushed Armenia to sign the surrender document. A joint statement on the matter was made by Azerbaijani president, Armenia's PM and the president of Russia.
A complete ceasefire and a cessation of all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were introduced at 00:00 hours (Moscow time) on 10 November 2020.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars and artillery on Sept. 27. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front.
Back in July 2020, Armenian Armed Forces violated the ceasefire in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district. As a result of Azerbaijan's retaliation, the opposing forces were silenced. The fighting continued the following days as well. Azerbaijan lost a number of military personnel members, who died fighting off the attacks of the Armenian Armed Forces.
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, Armenian Armed Forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.