Azerbaijan’s defense ministry reports situation in Karabakh area remains tense

BAKU, April 4. /TASS/. The situation at the line of engagement in the area of the Karabakh conflict is "still tense," head of press service at the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagif Dyaryahly told TASS on Monday.

"The highest tension is at the Agdere-Terter direction, where military actions continued at night," he said. "The situation at the Fizuli-Khodzhaven direction is rather stable."

The ministry’s representative said the Armenian side continued firing at settlements close to the line of engagement.

"Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces keep control over all territories, which were recaptured during Saturday operations," he said.

On Saturday, April 2, the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan.

Neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan fell out with each other in the late 1980s because of Nagorno-Karabakh, the disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians.

In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994.

Talks on Nagorno-Karabakh have been held on the basis of the so-called Madrid Principles suggested by co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - Russia, France and the United States - in December 2007 in the Spanish capital. They include three key principles written in the Helsinki Final Act: refraining from the threat or use of force, territorial integrity and the right to self-determination.