Artsakh MFA: Azerbaijan is openly and ostentatiously undermining the  efforts of international mediators to end the aggression against the  Republic of Artsakh

ArmInfo.The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh issued a statement on the deliberate actions of Azerbaijan and Turkey aimed at disrupting peace initiatives to cease the hostilities.

''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''.