YEREVAN, May 16. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s forces shelled the northeastern part of Armenia’s border overnight, Armenia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The shelling was conducted from small arms and sniper weapons of different caliber. Azerbaijan also "continued violating the ceasefire agreement" in Nagorno-Karabakh using small arms despite "relative calm," the ministry said.
The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began.
The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. At a meeting of chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow an agreement was reached on the ceasefire from April 5. Since then, the sides have reported sporadic ceasefire violations along the contact line.
On Monday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan are due to hold their first face-to-face meeting in Austria’s Vienna after the deterioration of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The talks will be mediated by foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries - Russia, the United States and France.
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