Armenia violates fresh cease-fire with Azerbaijan

By Sena Guler

ANKARA (AA) - The Armenian army violated a new temporary humanitarian cease-fire with Azerbaijan just after it went into effect on Monday.

“On Oct. 26 at 08.05, the Armenian armed forces violated the new humanitarian cease-fire and shelled units of the Azerbaijani Army located in the Safiyan village of Lachin from the direction of Lachin city,” Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter.

The ministry also said that Azerbaijani army units were fully complying with the cease-fire.

“Since 08.04, armed forces of Armenia started shelling Tartar region and its villages in violation of humanitarian ceasefire,” Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the Azerbaijani president, said on Twitter.

The US-brokered agreement was announced Sunday and had just come into effect as of Monday morning.

The first cease-fire reached on Oct. 10 was violated by the Armenian army within 24 hours as it claimed several civilian lives when it carried out missile attacks on Azerbaijan’s Ganja city.

The second one on Oct. 17 was again violated by Armenia.

- Upper Karabakh conflict

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

Four UN Security Council resolutions and two from the UN General Assembly as well as international organizations demand the "immediate complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces" from occupied Azerbaijani territory.

In total, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory -- including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions -- has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

Since recent clashes erupted on Sept. 27, Armenia has repeatedly attacked Azerbaijani civilians and forces.