Azerbaijan Says Armenia Is Attacking Civilian Areas Outside Conflict Zone

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been engaged in fresh clashes over occupied Karabakh and its surrounding districts despite a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia to try to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the region in decades.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Armenian armed forces continue to fire at civilian areas of Goranboy, Tartar and Aghdam regions grossly violating the three-day-old humanitarian truce.

In another statement on Tuesday morning, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of shelling the territory of the Tartar.

At least 42 civilians in Azerbaijan have lost their lives, while 206 others sustained injuries in Armenian attacks on civilian settlements, according to Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office.

In a statement on Tuesday, the office said 479 houses, 66 apartments and 241 public buildings have become unusable due to the attacks carried out by Armenia from Sept. 27 to Oct. 13

Azerbaijan Air Defence Units have destroyed two UAVs in the direction of the Tovuz region of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border on the night of October 12, and yesterday at about 10:00 local time, one UAV was brought down in the direction of the Aghdam region.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan: Armenia continues to attack civilian areas

Azerbaijan seeks timetable for withdrawal

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has demanded not only an immediate and total withdrawal of Armenian troops from all Azerbaijani territories but also urged Armenia to give a timetable for it.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Ethiopia, Elman T Abdullayev, reiterated his government’s call during an interview with Anadolu Agency at his office in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

“Not only do we demand the total withdrawal from all Azerbaijani territories, but we also demand that they give us a timetable as to when and how they do that,” he said.

Erdogan in discussion with top EU official

In a phone call on Monday, Turkey’s president and the head of the European Council spoke about the fighting.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the EU to take a “consistent stance” on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, according to a statement by Turkey’s Communications Directorate.

Erdogan said Armenia is endangering Europe’s energy supplies by attacking the Azerbaijani city of Ganja along with the Tovuz region, where natural gas and oil pipelines and transportation lines are located.

Azerbaijan asks Turkey to co-chair Minsk Group

Azerbaijan’s president repeated his country’s call for Turkey to be included in the process to resolve the conflict.

In an interview with Haber Global TV, Ilham Aliyev commented on recent developments and Turkey’s possible inclusion in the solution process between the two countries.

Aliyev argued that some members of the Minsk Group under the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were geographically too far away from the region and that the influence of the Armenian diaspora in the group’s co-chairs, namely Russia, the US and France, was simply not fair, adding that decades-long talks had not born any fruit for Baku.

Noting that Turkey was already a member of the Minsk Group and stood as an independent country capable of contributing to conflict-resolution across the region despite some Western countries’ reluctance to recognise this, he cited Ankara’s role in Syria and Libya as proof of his argument that Ankara could better contribute to resolving the issue if it became a co-chair of the Minsk Group.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Ganja has reached 10, local authorities announced on Monday.

Azerbaijan’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that one more civilian had succumbed to their wounds following the attack that violated a ceasefire.

Earlier on Sunday, the prosecutors announced that as a result of the Armenian army attack on Ganja, located outside the frontline, within 24 hours of the truce, at least nine people, including four women, were killed and 35 others injured.

READ MORE: Armenia will pay for attacking civilians: Turkey

Latest fighting

The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces has left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over occupied Karabakh.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh.

Recent clashes began when Armenian forces targeted Azerbaijani settlements and military positions in the region.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as many international organisations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying Armenian forces.

READ MORE: Turkey urges EU to take ‘consistent stance’ on Azerbaijan