
Clashes resume between Armenia and Azerbaijan after a brief truce 

2020-07-16 15:37:59


	&nbsp;

	NEWS CENTER - Border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan started again after a day of truce.

	&nbsp;

	Defense Ministry officials in Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed that the clashes resumed near the border on Thursday after a day of truce. The two countries, which had been in conflict for decades, had ceased fighting between Wednesday midnight and Thursday morning, after three days of deadly confrontations.

	&nbsp;

	The new fighting has been concentrated in the Armenian province of Tavush and across the border in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz province; it is the worst violence this area has seen since the 1990s.

	&nbsp;

	PARTIES BLAME EACH OTHER

	&nbsp;

	Both Yerevan and Baku claims to have replied to an opposing offensive. Armenian Ministry of Defense said Azerbaijani forces were "shelling Armenian villages with mortars and howitzers". Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence said clashes were ongoing near the border after "Armenians shelled Azerbaijani villages with large-caliber weapons".&nbsp;

	&nbsp;

	MORTARS FEEL INTO CIVILIAN AREAS&nbsp;

	&nbsp;

	Artsrun Hovhannisyan, Press Spokesman for the Information Crisis Center in Ijevan announced that Azerbaijan targeted civilian areas, two factories and one gas pipeline, but there were no civilian losses.&nbsp;

	&nbsp;

	Footages shared by the Armenian media show that Azerbaijani mortars fell into civilian settlements and many houses were damaged.

	&nbsp;

	Since Sunday, 11 Azerbaijani soldiers, 1 of them a general, have lost their lives in the clashes. The Armenian government has official confirmed the death of 4 Armenian military servicemen.&nbsp;

	&nbsp;

	WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF 30 YEARS OF CLASHES?

	&nbsp;

	Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have frequently engaged in clashes as the two countries have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994.

	&nbsp;

	The latest incident began on Sunday when Armenian and Azerbaijani troops exchanged fire in the northern section of their border. This has been the first major escalation between the sides since the April War of 2016 and particularly since Nikol Pashinyan took over the political leadership in Armenia in mid-2018.

	&nbsp;