Azeri artillery fire kills three women in Armenia

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry accused Armenia of “turning civilians into a target by deliberately stationing its firing positions in and around civilian facilities to shell positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces“.

He also highlighted the historical agreement made on the nuclear programme of Iran, which he noted is an “immediate neighbour” of Armenia.

Armenians were using heavy machine guns and mortars, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported on September 29.

“Our neighbour’s military leadership shows complete disdain towards diplomatic efforts aimed at finding a negotiated solution to the (Karabakh) conflict”, Armenia said in a statement.

The Armenian authorities controlling Nagorno-Karabakh denied those losses and said “more than 10” Azerbaijani troops died or were wounded on Sunday.

Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the region by force if negotiations between the two sides fail to yield results, while Armenia has pledged to retaliate against any military action.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan echoed that language in a statement on Saturday. “All responsibility for any step that will be taken by the state-occupier and aggressor fully lies with Armenia”, Mammadyarov warned.

Three years later, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was established.

Condemning the killings, the minister said that Azerbaijan reacted to the expectations voiced by the co-chairs for successful negotiations between Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York by undertaking this new provocation. However, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry had said recently that villages in on the Azeri side of the border had recently been fired upon and that the armed forces had responded.

They also called on both countries to “accept an OSCE mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations”. Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.