STEPANAKERT. – In the evening of July 4, 2017, the Azerbaijani side committed yet another provocation, firing at the territory of the Republic of Artsakh, Karabakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement reads as follows:

“For the first time since the April aggression in 2016, the armed forces of Azerbaijan employed TR-107 multiple rocket launcher system. The fire was launched from the positions located in close proximity to residential buildings in Alkhanlu village․

The Defense Army of Artsakh was forced to take counter-measures to suppress the fire activity of the Azerbaijani army. The incident provoked by the Azerbaijani side, unfortunately, led to casualties among the villagers.

Since the April aggression up to now, we have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that the Azerbaijani side, in violation of all the norms of international humanitarian law, does not disdain to use its civilian population as a human shield for shelling the territory of Artsakh.

The peaceful population on both sides of the border has long become a hostage to the Azerbaijani authorities’ policy of constant escalation of tensions on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan and sabotaging the efforts of the mediators to restore the negotiation process.

The incident once again confirms the importance of the agreements reached at the summits of May 16, 2016 in Vienna and of June 20, 2016 in St. Petersburg, aimed at the stabilization of the situation on the Line of Contact. The immediate implementation of these agreements, torpedoed by Azerbaijan, will allow to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.”

STEPANAKERT. – The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Defense Army (NKR DA) subdivisions closely watch the actions of the adversary, the NKR Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan, who is also the commander of the NKR DA, told journalists on Thursday, Artsakhpress reports.

In his words, after the April military actions, the cases of ceasefire violations at the frontline have decreased 2-3 times as compared with the same period last year. However, according to Mnatsakanyan, this does not mean that the Armenian intelligence and subdivisions carrying out shift, have weakened their vigilance; the adversary still continues to carry out active land and aerial intelligence actions.

“The Karabakh Defense Army subdivisions closely watch the adversary’s actions and continue carrying out military shift,” the Defense Minister said.