Armenia shells Azerbaijani army's positions in Kalbajar

By Azernews

The Armenian armed forces have shelled Azerbaijani army positions in liberated Kalbajar, the Defense Ministry reported.

In a statement, posted on its website, the ministry said: “On May 9 in the evening, units of the Armenian armed forces, using small arms, periodically subjected to fire the Azerbaijan Army positions in the direction of Yukhari Ayrim village of Kalbajar region from their positions in the direction of Azizli village of Basarkechar region on the state border.”

The Azerbaijani army units took appropriate retaliatory measures to suppress the opposite side.

The ministry ruled out any causalities among the military personnel and equipment of the Azerbaijan Army.

The situation in these directions is currently stable, with the Azerbaijan army units in command of the operational situation.

Armenia periodically shells Azerbaijani military positions located on its liberated territories. The previous truce violation took place on May 2 in the same direction.

To recap, on April 6, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, European Council President Charles Michel, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels. After the meeting, Michel said that Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to instruct the foreign ministries of the two countries to work on a future peace treaty.

Earlier Ilham Aliyev stated that peace will return to the Caucasus based on the five principles Baku recently proposed for normalizing relations with Armenia. He made the remarks during a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister, OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Zbigniew Rau on March 31.

“The five principles we have initiated reflect the norms of international law and good international conduct... Reciprocal recognition of territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders, and then the delimitation of borders – I think that peace will come to the Caucasus on this basis. We want it,” he said.

The president emphasized that these principles are fundamental to any interstate relations.

“We are seeing the potential for active cooperation amongst the three countries of the South Caucasus, and I think that this will be important not only for these countries but also for the wider region,” he said.

The trilateral ceasefire deal signed by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders on November 10, 2020, ended the three-decade conflict over Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, which along with the seven adjacent regions came under the occupation of Armenian armed forces in the war in the early 1990s.

The deal also stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the peace deal, Azerbaijan liberated 300 villages, settlements, city centers, and historical Shusha city that had been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years.

On January 11, 2021, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed the second statement since the end of the 44-day war. The newly-signed statement was set to implement clause 9 of the November 2020 statement related to the unblocking of all economic and transport communications in the region.

On November 26, 2021, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed a statement and agreed on a number of issues, including the demarcation and delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border by late 2021, some points related to humanitarian issues and the issue of unblocking of transport corridors which applies to the railway and to automobile communications.

On December 14, 2021, during the Brussels meeting, organized between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders at the initiative of European Council President Charles Michel, the sides reaffirmed their commitment to the conditions agreed in the Sochi meeting.

Both sides agreed to establish a temporary working group on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

The issue of demining the liberated territories of Azerbaijan was also brought up on the agenda, and the European Union's readiness to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijan in this regard was underlined at the meeting.