Armenian armed forces injure Azerbaijani adolescent

As a result of Armenia's shelling of settlements on the line of contact of troops, as well as along the border with Azerbaijan and deliberate shelling of civilians, thirteen-year-old resident of Garalar village of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district Ramin Yusifov was wounded, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev said.

The diplomat stressed that Yerevan will be held utterly responsible for possible steps Azerbaijan may take to respond to Armenian provocations and attacks.

He recall the killing of Sahiba Allahverdiyeva and her two-year-old granddaughter Zakhra Guliyeva.

"Despite coming under harsh international condemnation for targeting children and women, Armenia seems to not have drawn a conclusion. Armenia carried out another barbarity that left 13-year-old Ramin Yusifov wounded. Brutality, aimed at slaughtering civilians, including children, is the state policy of terrorism implemented by the Armenian military and political leadership," Hikmet Hajiyev said.

The director of the Institute of Political Studies Sergei Markov noted that Russia plays an important role in promoting a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "Russia should promote the peaceful negotiation process and try to bring the parties to the negotiating table so they could hold substantive negotiations, as the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev repeatedly said, and could move towards resolving the conflict," he stressed.

The director of the Institute of Contemporary Economics Nikita Isayev, in turn, drew attention to the importance for Russia of active mediation in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. "It is necessary for Russia to maintain its influence in the South Caucasus and, in particular, in this settlement. At the moment, Russia needs to enter into direct consultations with the United States and, possibly, France, in order to secure its status as the main mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement," he believes.

Nikita Isayev noted that Yerevan has already strengthened contacts with Russia's opponents on the international arena. "If Russia does not step up its work, the parties to the conflict will have to increase the level of cooperation with other mediators. We see that Armenia has already do it, participating in practical military exercises with NATO. Azerbaijan may start to reconfigure its relations with the United States and France, if there is no activity on the Russian side. In this connection, Russia needs to declare new formats for the Karabakh settlement, since the current ones do not work," the director of the Institute of Contemporary Economics urged.

On July 4 at about 20:40, the Armenian armed forces, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled the Alkhanli village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district. As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Allahverdiyeva and Zahra Guliyeva were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva was injured and hospitalized.