Artsakh has called on the OSCE Minsk Group to condemn intensified Azerbaijani shelling along the northeastern Line of Contact, warning that Baku is ratcheting up military operations along the border.

In statement released yesterday, the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that Azerbaijani forces shelled frontline Artsakh Defense Army positions near the villages of Talish and Yarimja with 60 and 82 mm mortars.

“Such massive use of mortars occurring for the first time after a large-scale aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in April, has become the continuation of recent escalation of tension on the Line of Contact by Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

Labelling such acts as “flagrant violations” of the agreements reached at summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg, the ministry says Artsakh forces will “suppress any actions of Azerbaijan, threatening the security of the Republic, the peace and stability in the region.”