Pakistan slams Armenia for targeting civilians in Azerbaijan

Pakistan has voiced concerns over the deteriorating security situation in volatile Nagorno-Karabakh region and rebuked Armenian forces for targeting civilian population of Azerbaijan.

Fighting broke earlier Sunday between Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists claiming military and civilian casualties on both sides, including at least one child.

“Pakistan is deeply concerned on the deteriorating security situation in Nagorno-Karabakh region. The intensive shelling by Armenian forces over the weekend on civilian populations of Azerbaijani villages of Terter, Aghdam, Fizuli and Jabrayil region is reprehensible and most unfortunate,” Foreign Office said in a statement on Sunday.

These clashes, the worst since 2016, have raised fears of a new war between the two countries which have been locked for decades in a territorial dispute over the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh.

Ethnic Armenian separatists seized the region from Baku in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives.

“This could compromise peace and security of the entire region. Armenia must stop its military action to avoid further escalation,” the statement added.

The statement expressed solidarity the brotherly country, saying “Pakistan stands with the brotherly nation of Azerbaijan and supports its right to self-defence”.

Islamabad also backed Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh, “which is in line with the several unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolutions”.

(With input from AFP)