Azerbaijani aggression against Armenian civilians 'will receive proportionate response ' - Foreign Ministry spokesperson

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported fresh Azerbaijani military actions against an Armenian civilian settlement, condemning the neighboring country for an aggressive behavior.

In a public post on Facebook, Anna Naghdalyan said that the adversary launched strikes against the civilian population and civilian objects in the border town of Berd, Tavush region, on Tuesday afternoon.

"The Azerbaijani side continues its aggression on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, deliberately targeting civilian infrastructures and population, and expanding the geography of escalation. Today the civilian infrastructure of the city of Berd was shelled by unmanned combat aerial vehicles.

"These aggression against the security of the civilian population of Armenia will receive a proportionate response, for which the Azerbaijani side bears full responsibility," reads her statement.

The report comes after the past days' escalations along Armenia's north-eastern border with Azerbaijan. The Ministry of Defense reported an infiltration attempt by the adversary on Sunday afternoon. An official statement by the Ministry said that several Azerbaijani servicemen had tried to cross into Tavush in a minvan. After a warning by the Armenian side, they returned to the starting positions, leaving the vehicle on Armenia's territory.

The adversary repeated the border transgression attempt at 1:45 am local time, opening fire in the same direction, but was subsequently suppressed and pushed back with losses. Armenia reported no casualties.

Azerbaijan continued firing mortars against Armenian outposts also on Monday afternoon. The situation abated later during the day. In a Facebook post on Tuesday morning, Stepanyan reported a relative calm in the border zone. She later published a video featuring the Armenian Armed Forces' retaliatory operation of neutralizing an Azerbaijani tank and Azerbaijani military outposts.  

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The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 when the Armenian majority of the then autonomous region declared its intention to break away from Azerbaijan. In a referendum held on December 10, 1991 (days before the collapse of the USSR), the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence (99.89%). The move was followed by Azerbaijan’s large-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring regions. The armed violence left around 25,000-30,000 people dead; thousands were internally displaced. The Ceasefire Accord, which went into effect in May 1994, formally put an end to the armed attacks in the conflict zone, but sporadic fighting in the area breaks out time and again. Since 1994, the OSCE Minsk Group, a mission co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia, has been spearheading the efforts towards  a peaceful solution to the conflict. .

The hostilities escalated to an unprecedented degree in April 2016 in what was later dubbed a Four-Day War. In the early hours of April 1, 2016, Azerbaijan's armed forces launched heavy offensives along the Line of Contact,  provoking large-scale confrontations with the Defense Army of Nagorno-Kkarabakh. The adversary also shelled civilian settlements, particularly the southern and north-eastern regions of Hadrut and Marakert.

A ceasefire was reached on 5 April between the chiefs of the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow. The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities also welcomed the verbal agreement.