BAKU, September 19. /TASS/. The Azerbaijani defense ministry said on Tuesday that it maintains communication with the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We are in touch with the Russian peacekeeping contingent temporarily deployed in Azerbaijan’s territory. On our part, all conditions for fulfilling their mandate are ensured," the ministry said.

At the same time, the ministry called on "Armenian army units deployed in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region to surrender arms and capitulate." "In this event the anti-terrorist operations will be suspended," it said.

On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." Residents of the Armenian capital took to the streets to protest outside the Armenian government building, blaming the country’s leadership and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for the situation.