Azerbaijan denounces Armenian attacks on civilian targets

Armenia attacked several civilian targets Sunday morning, including the cities of Tartar, Horadiz and Ganja, the second largest in Azerbaijan, denounced the Azerbaijani government.

"Armenia launched rockets on Ganja. Armenian armed forces deliberately attacked the cities of Tartar and Horadiz with heavy artillery and rocket systems. In addition, they have suffered rocket attacks in the Fuzuli and Jabrail regions," said Azerbaijan's presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev.

According to the senior Azerbaijani official, "several civilians were killed or injured as a result of these attacks".

Hajiyev said that in the last few days Armenia had launched more than 10,000 projectiles of different types against densely populated areas, causing serious damage to more than 500 houses.

He stressed the need to distinguish between military and civilians during the confrontation.

"The large-scale Armenian attacks on Azerbaijani villages without any military necessity are not accidental. The systematic attacks by Armenia show that this was a plan prepared in advance and included in the Armenian army's combat readiness programme," he said.

In a telephone conversation with her Armenian counterpart, Nikol Pashinián, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an immediate ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh and the opening of negotiations with Azerbaijan.

German Deputy Prime Minister Ulrike Demmer said on Sunday that the conversation between the two leaders on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict took place on Saturday. "Merkel stressed that all parties should abandon hostilities indiscriminately and that negotiations should begin. She supported the statement by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group," Demmer said, referring to the consensus text of 1 October, adopted by Russia, the United States and France within the framework of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The Chancellor also declared herself in favour of a "humanitarian ceasefire" so that the soldiers who died in the armed clashes of recent days could be buried.

The Azerbaijani armed forces are responding "adequately" to destroy enemy firing points and ensure the safety of the civilian population, she said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's prosecutor general's office has announced the deaths of two more civilians in the town of Beylagan as a result of yesterday's clashes, bringing to 22 the number of civilians killed in the fighting.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan dates back to the time of the Soviet Union, when in the late 1980s, the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was mainly inhabited by Armenians, applied for incorporation into neighbouring Armenia, after which war broke out, killing some 25,000 people.