Armenia, not Azerbaijan asked Russia to assist Karabakh truce - Aliyev
BAKU. June 3 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan did not ask Russia to help deescalate the hostilities which broke out in the Karabakh conflict zone in early April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"This is another lie told by the Armenian administration. We responded to the Armenian provocation and launched a counteroffensive. After the Armenians realized that they were unable to resist and would lose more territories, they asked Russia for help. The Russian General Staff chief called the Azerbaijani General Staff chief and offered to meet," Aliyev said at the Fourth Congress of World Azerbaijanis in Baku on Friday.
"Armenia does not want the conflict to be resolved or the status quo to change. This is why it stages provocations in the conflict zone and shells our populated localities. Two soldiers of ours were killed as a result of an Armenian provocation in April," he said.
The Armenian side also wanted to 'distort the situation' of the early April escalation in the conflict zone. "They wanted to misinterpret the April events but failed to do so. They wanted to present those events as a victory of Armenia, yet we demonstrated our might. Now everyone knows what happened in April and who won," Aliyev said.
In his words, the Azerbaijani army freed 2,000 hectares of land in April, rather than the 800 hectares alleged by Armenia. "In fact, we are in control of a bigger area," Aliyev said.
Tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone abruptly escalated in the small hours of April 2. Hostilities engaging aircraft and artillery began. The sides traded accusations of the breach of ceasefire along the contact line, as well as claiming the adversary's substantial losses and limited losses of their own.
On April 5, Baku and Stepanakert, the capital of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, announced that an agreement had been reached to cease fire in the Karabakh conflict area from midday local time. Since then the sides have been daily trading accusations of multiple truce breaches.
