Four of those soldiers were killed and as many as 16 others wounded in northeastern Karabakh [ Nagorno-Karabakh ]on Friday evening.
According to Armenia’s Defense Ministry, they were struck by Azerbaijani artillery fire several kilometers away from the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around the disputed territory. A ministry statement said the Azerbaijani army used Russian-made D-30 howitzers in the attack.
The 122-milimeter artillery systems have a firing range of 15 kilometers. Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army claimed that the Azerbaijani side fired a total of 30 D-30 rounds on Friday and early Saturday.
President Serzh Sarkisian pointed to the soldiers’ deaths and the fact that three Armenian civilians were killed by Azerbaijani shelling on Thursday as he vowed “punitive actions” against Baku on Friday. “We will certainly force Azerbaijan’s government to be accountable to its people for more suffering inflicted on them,” Sarkisian said at a meeting with senior officials in Yerevan.
The Defense Ministry elaborated on the promised retaliation in a special statement. “In order to silence the enemy, thwart its actions and thereby support the [Karabakh] peace process, from now on the Armenian Armed Forces will use adequate means of artillery and rocket fire, constantly targeting the sites of Azerbaijani troop deployments and movements, military hardware and personnel,” it said.
There was no immediate reaction to these statements from Baku. Earlier in the day, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that its frontline units are “using more powerful weaponry to resolutely thwart any action by the enemy.”
Until last year ceasefire violations in the Karabakh [ Nagorno-Karabakh ]conflict zone took the form of periodical exchanges of automatic and sniper fire between the two warring sides and overnight incursions by their commando units. Over the past year, the Armenian side has accused the Azerbaijani army of increasingly resorting to mortar fire during skirmishes. Baku says that the Armenians themselves are now using 60-milimeter and 82-milimeter mortars.
The use of heavier and more devastating artillery, if it becomes a regular occurrence, would mark a further escalation of the conflict and seriously complicate international mediators’ efforts to broker a peaceful settlement.
“The use of artillery by the Azerbaijani side … is yet another step towards full-scale hostilities,” warned the Armenian Defense Ministry.
Both the ministry and Sarkisian claimed that the Azerbaijani leadership has been emboldened by the international community’s reluctance to explicitly blame Baku for increased truce violations. Sarkisian said that Yerevan is now left with no choice but to ensure that “the adversary does not think that it has gotten away with its impudent behavior.”
“We are prepared to take up the gauntlet,” Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian told reporters. “We know who we are dealing with. We have such experience.”
http://asbarez.com/140195/armenia-will-use-heavy-artillery-says-defense-ministry/
26/9/15
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President Serzh Sarkisian on Saturday, took the podium at the 6th session of the State Commission on Coordination of the Events for the Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to criticize the international community for its false parity toward Azerbaijan in the wake on renewed and more hostile attacks by Azerbaijan and vowed retaliation in the absence of world’s inability to condemn Azerbaijan...
ReplyDelete“On the eve of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly and amid the regular peacemaking efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairs, before the eyes of the entire world, confident in is impunity, and inspired by the practice of numerous international players to place parity between the conflicting sides’ actions, Azerbaijan again unrepentantly violated its very obligations to maintain the ceasefire. As a consequence of the ceasefire violation, we have suffered painful losses: 4 Armenian young soldiers, the guardians of their motherland’s tranquility, soldiers who were very far from the immediate danger zone and were engaged in their everyday activities 5 km away from the frontline, were killed. And one day ago, in their own house, in their own garden, in front of their beloved people were killed 3 women, a mother, a sister and a daughter, who would take care of their family with their peaceful work,” Sarkisian said, according to a translated text of his remarks provided by the presidential press service.
“They were killed because an entire world can’t make Azerbaijan understand that the path of human losses, bloodsheds, sufferings and tortures, and of drowning out the voice of its own citizens does not lead to peace, does not lead to prosperity, and does not lead to stability and security,” added Sarkisian....................http://asbarez.com/140193/sarkisian-calls-out-international-silence-on-bakus-aggression-vows-retaliation/
26/9/15