YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh issued a statement, emphasizing that Azerbaijan and Turkey take deliberate actions aimed at thwarting the peace initiatives of ending the military operations, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Artsakh.

 ‘’During October 23, the Azerbaijani-Turkish armed forces fired rockets and artillery shells at a number of settlements of the Republic of Artsakh. On the same day, in the evening hours, Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert was subjected to an intense missile attack. As a result, damage was caused to civilian infrastructure, and there were casualties among the civilian population. It is noteworthy that the missile attack on Stepanakert was launched immediately after the separate meetings held in Washington, D.C. between US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Foreign Ministers of the Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan with the aim of achieving a truce in the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict zone.

The timing and the target of the strike leave no doubt that Azerbaijan is openly and ostentatiously undermining the efforts of international mediators to end the aggression against the Republic of Artsakh. Earlier, the Azerbaijani authorities disrupted the implementation of the agreements on a humanitarian truce reached on October 10 at the initiative of the President of Russia, and on October 17 at the initiative of the President of France.

These consistent and purposeful actions of Azerbaijan, which enjoys the full military and political support of Turkey, indicate that the war is a conscious choice of the Azerbaijani authorities. This very fact does not allow the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and the international community as a whole to make progress in their attempts to stop the hostilities and resume the peace settlement process. The vicious circle created by Azerbaijan, the repeated declarations of empty verbal promises to cease fire and the simultaneous continuation of armed aggression, can be broken through international recognition of the independence of the Republic of Artsakh and the application of sanctions against Azerbaijan, including the individual ones - against the top leadership of this country’’, reads the statement.