BAKU, September 19. /TASS/. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has announced the start of what it described as ‘local anti-terrorist measures’ in Nagorno-Karabakh.
"In order to enforce the provisions of the trilateral statement [adopted by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on November 9, 2020], to suppress large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, to disarm and achieve the pullout of Armenian military units from our territories, to neutralize their military infrastructure, to ensure the safety of civilians who have returned to the territories liberated from occupation and of civil servants involved in repair and reconstruction works and our military personnel, as well as to restore the constitutional system of the Azerbaijani Republic local anti-terrorist measures have begun to be taken in the region," the Defense Ministry said in a news release.
It notes that within the framework of measures involving the use of high accuracy weapons the positions of the Armenian armed forces, their long-term fire emplacements, as well as military means facilities will be liquidated. The Defense Ministry said that "civilians and civilian infrastructure are not on the list of targets."
"The command of Russia’s peacekeeping contingent and chiefs of the Turkish-Russian Monitoring Center have been informed about the current activities," the news release stressed.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani authorities reported the death of two employees of a road agency and four employees of the republic's Interior Ministry as a result of explosions of landmines planted by Armenian illegal armed groups in the territory of Karabakh's Khojavend district. The law enforcement agencies said they considered the incident as a terrorist attack.