Azerbaijan downs another Armenian drone

By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU (AA) - Azerbaijan has shot down an Armenian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the country’s Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

“On October 21, at about 12:00 [p.m. local time], another UAV belonging to the Armenian Armed Forces was destroyed by our Air Defense Units over the Horadiz city,” the ministry said in a statement.

The forces had also destroyed two Armenian drones on Tuesday, one over Azerbaijan’s second-largest city of Ganja and the other over the Goranboy region, according to the ministry.

In less than two weeks, Armenia has violated two humanitarian cease-fires in Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

A new humanitarian cease-fire entered into force last Saturday.

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.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.

World powers, including Russia, France, and the US, have called for a new cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

*Writing by Havva Kara Aydin