Clashes broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia
Monitoring Desk :
The tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia flared up on Sunday in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. Both sides accused each other of attacking civilians amid of reports of increasing casualties.
The neighboring former Soviet republics have long been at odds over the territory — which is situated within the borders of Azerbaijan — and fought a war over it that finished in 1994.
Despite the conflict ending with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, military skirmishes between the two sides are not uncommon. While Armenia said it was responding to missile attacks launched by its neighbor Sunday, Azerbaijan blamed Armenia for the clashes.
In response to Azerbaijan’s attack, the Armenia Prime Minister on Twitter claimed that his country’s military has shot down two Azeri helicopters.
Armenia earlier claimed that its neighbor had targeted civilians in peaceful areas, including in Stepanakert, the region’s capital. Artak Beglaryan, an official from the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent Armenian state not recognized internationally and which controls the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, said in a tweet that a mother and child had been killed.
Beglaryan also said dozens of people had been wounded and large infrastructural damage had been caused, adding: “Azerbaijan is intentionally targeting civilian objects.”
However, Azerbaijan suggested Armenia was accountable for the latest flare-up between the two countries.
Hikmet Hajiyev, the assistant of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the presidential administration, tweeted Sunday: “There are reports of dead and wounded among civilians and military servicemen. Extensive damage has been inflicted on many homes and civilian infrastructure.”
News Agencies, courtesy CNN
