Stepanakert blames Baku for use of civilians as live shield in attacks on Karabakh
YEREVAN. July 5 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan is in violation of the norms of international humanitarian law, deploying firing positions in populated localities, the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's (NKR) Foreign Ministry said.
"The Azerbaijani side in violation of all norms of international humanitarian law does not shun employing civilian residents as a human shield for attacks on Karabakh. Civilians on both sides of the border have long been taken hostage of Azerbaijani authorities' policy seeking to constantly fuel tensions on the contact line [...]," the unrecognized republic's Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani Armed Forces have fired TR-107 multiple rocket launcher systems from positions which are located in the community of Alkhanlu in the immediate vicinity of residential houses on July 4.
"The defense army of Artsakh [Armenian name for Karabakh] had to take retaliatory actions to suppress the Azerbaijani army's gunfire. The incident provoked by the Azerbaijani side unfortunately injured several residents in the community," the unrecognized NKR Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The incident once again confirms the importance of the agreements aimed at stabilizing the situation on the contact line reached at the summits in Vienna on May 16, 2016 and in St. Petersburg on June 20, 2016. Urgent implementation of these agreements torpedoed by Azerbaijan will allow for avoiding the repetition of similar incidents in the future," the statement said.
"Armenian Armed Forces' deliberate attacks in the territory, where civilians live densely, are systematic and are a breach of international conventions," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Khikmet Gajiyev said earlier on Wednesday.
In turn, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office said that it has launched a criminal inquiry into "the death of Sakhiba Guliyeva, who was born in 1967, and her two-year-old granddaughter Zakhra, who was born in 2015, in the Azerbaijani village of Alkhanlu, Fuzuli district, in mortar and grenade launcher shelling by the Armenian side."
The unrecognized NKR Defense Army earlier said that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces' firing emplacement had been suppressed in the village of Alkhanlu. "In efforts to thwart the enemy's offense NKR Defense Army vanguard units had to undertake retaliatory actions from 20.31 p.m. through 20.40 p.m. [19.31 p.m. - 19.40 p.m. Moscow time] that resulted in the suppression of a firing emplacement located in the village of Alkhanlu. According to the NKR Defense Ministry's credible data, the hostiles suffered losses," it said.