Armenian forces continued to shell residential areas in Azerbaijani districts, severely violating the terms of a ceasefire, which was meant to stop fighting along the Contact Line in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
"The Armenian armed forces do not adhere to the humanitarian truce and continue inflicting rocket and artillery fire at Azerbaijan’s cities and villages located away from the area of combat operations. On October 10 and 11, at different times, the invasive troops fired at the Ganja and Mingachevir cities, as well as the villages of Goranboy, Terter, Aghdam, Aghjabedi, Fizuli, and Jabrayil regions," the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan said in a post on its official Facebook page one day after the humanitarian ceasefire came into effect.
Today, the Ministry has made similar statements about the Goranboy, Terter, and Aghdam regions, which have been subjected to artillery fire by the Armenian forces.
After 11 hours of talks between Russian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Moscow on Friday and early Saturday, the humanitarian truce was agreed. The aim of the agreement is to put an end to the hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan after two weeks of fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, which remains occupied by Armenia. The agreement allows both countries to exchange captives and fallen soldiers through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Shortly after the attacks on the cities of Aghdam and Tartar, the Armenian armed forces targeted Azerbaijan's second-largest city of Ganja, more than 60 kilometers away from the conflict zone, killing 10 Azerbaijani civilians, including 5 women, and wounding 35 innocent people, including 16 women and 6 children.
Similar attacks have taken place in the central Azerbaijani town of Mingachevir, which is home to the country's largest hydroelectric power and water reservoir, twice. However, the latest Armenian attack on Azerbaijan's fourth most populous city, home to the country's largest water dam, resulted in no serious damage to infrastructure and civilians due to prompt action by Azerbaijani forces, according to Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant President of Azerbaijan and Head of Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration.
"Armenia launched NATO Code name "SCUD" ballistic missile to Mingachevir city of Azerbaijan from its territory. It was destroyed by our air defense forces S-300. In launchpad insulting Armenian speech sounds. Armenia's state terror must be stopped," Hajiyev tweeted on the evening of Saturday, uploading a video showing the missile launch by Armenian forces.
Officials at the National Center for Environmental Forecasting believe that the consequences of a possible strike on the Mingachevir reservoir could be catastrophic for Azerbaijan and the entire region. As a result of such an attack, water from the dam could over 240 kilometers inundate the vast territory of Azerbaijan stretching from the central part of the country east to the capital of Baku. Such damage could lead to environmental, infrastructure, and humanitarian disasters that could kill countless civilians.
Over the last two weeks of intense fighting between the two countries of the South Caucasus, Armenian forces have launched intensive missile attacks against Barda and Beylagan. They also hit the Khizi-Absheron region near Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, with medium-range missiles.
The skirmishes erupted after the Armenian forces deployed in the occupied Azerbaijani lands had struck Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions. Since the deadly clashes erupted on September 27, Armenia's armed forces have continually invaded densely populated areas and strategically important civilian and energy infrastructure, located far from the frontlines.
A total of 41 civilians have been killed in Azerbaijan, while 205 people have been injured as a result of Armenia's planned aggression against Azerbaijani civilian settlements.
In addition, the Armenian forces were targeting the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline with a prohibited cluster rocket. The air defense units of Azerbaijan neutralized the missile before reaching the strategically important energy infrastructure that is transporting crude oil from Azerbaijan to the markets of Europe.
Armenia's offensive along the Line of Contact prompted immediate counter-attack measures by Azerbaijani forces. So far, the national army has freed the town of Jabrayil, the settlements of Hadrut and Sugovushan, and more than thirty villages in the districts of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Khojavand, and Tartar from the occupation of Armenia.
Armenia's occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan came after both nations gained independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Armenia launched a military campaign against Azerbaijan to occupy the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. A large-scale war between the two countries lasted until a ceasefire agreement was reached in 1994. As a result of the bloody war, Armenia occupied 20% of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territories – the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. Azerbaijan was confronted with a humanitarian crisis during the war in which 30,000 of its citizens were killed, while a million others were forcibly displaced from their homeland.
Although the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions calling for the immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces from Azerbaijani lands and for the return of internally displaced Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands, Armenia failed to comply with all four legally binding documents.
