Mon 19 October 2020:
Azerbaijan’s army has liberated 13 more villages in the Jabrayil region from Armenian.
The announcement was made on Monday on Twitter by President Ilham Aliyev, who added that the Armenian army publicly violated the temporary humanitarian ceasefire on October 18 and fired heavy artillery on Azerbaijani citizen settlements and positions.
UN urges Karabakh rivals to respect truce
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned attacks from both sides on populated areas and expressed deep regret that the warring parties have “continuously ignored the repeated calls of the international community to immediately stop the fighting,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The UN chief underscored in his latest calls with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan that both sides have an obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, Dujarric said.
Guterres also expects both parties to abide by the October 18 humanitarian truce and resume negotiations without delay under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
We’ve arrived at the scene of the of the latest missile attack on the #Azerbaijan city of Ganja. At least 13 dead, 48 injured, people still missing. Belongings strewn all around. #Armenia #NagornoKarabakh pic.twitter.com/C7XrdDYV4Y
— Andrew Hopkins (@achopkins1) October 17, 2020
Despite a second attempt at a ceasefire, Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of violating the new truce in occupied-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that Armenian armed forces did not comply with the new ceasefire deal which came into force at midnight on Saturday.
The statement added that Armenian forces fired mortars and artillery in the vicinity of Jabrayil city, as well as towards liberated villages located along the Araz River.
The ministry said it incurred no losses of military personnel and its units took adequate retaliatory measures.
In another statement also released on Sunday, the ministry said it had on Saturday attacked Armenian positions and had destroyed two missile guiding stations of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, five T-72 tanks, three BM-21 “Grad” MLRS, two Smerch MLRS, a D-20 gun-howitzer, a KS-19 anti-aircraft gun, and six vehicles.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan.
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