Armenia Violated Karabakh Ceasefire 125 Times in 24 Hours - Azerbaijani MoD

The Armenian military has violated the ceasefire along the contact line in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh 125 times over the past 24 hours, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

BAKU (Sputnik) — On April 5, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a bilateral ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, which came into force at noon on the same day.

"Despite the Karabakh contact line ceasefire agreement [we] previously reached, the Armenian side has violated the ceasefire along the entire line 125 times over the past day," the ministry said in a press statement.

Azerbaijan's forces retaliated with 125 artillery strikes, the statement added.

Azerbaijan does not recognize the ethnically Armenian self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and considers the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army to be a part of the Armed Forces of Armenia.

On April 2, Armenia and Azerbaijan declared a dramatic escalation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku and Yerevan traded blame for breaching the truce in the conflict and reported heavy fighting in the area.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported shelling and numerous ceasefire violations by the Armenian armed forces. In turn, Armenia reported offensive actions from the Azerbaijani side.

Initially, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The conflict escalated further in September 2015, with the sides blaming one another for violating the truce.