Baku accuses Armenian army of 50 truce breaches
BAKU. Jan 13 (Interfax) - The Armenian military committed 50 truce violations on the contact line with the Azerbaijani armed forces in the past day, the press service of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"Armed units of Armenia violated the ceasefire regime at different sectors of the frontline a total of 50 times in the past 24-hour period using large-caliber machineguns," the Defense Ministry said.
Gunfire was coming "both from the territory of Armenia itself and from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan," it said.
A ceasefire between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh self-proclaimed republic for the one part and Azerbaijan for the other part was established in May 1994. The OSCE assisted by the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office arranges regular monitoring trips to the frontline to verify the conflicting sides' compliance with the truce.
Tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone abruptly escalated in the small hours of April 2, 2016, and hostilities involving aircraft and artillery erupted. The sides traded accusations of breaching the truce on the contact line. They said the opposite side suffered heavy casualties and claimed minor casualties of their own.
It was announced in Baku and Stepanakert, the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, on April 5, 2016, that the sides had agreed to cease fire in the Karabakh conflict zone. Mutual accusations of truce breaches have been made on a daily basis since then.
