YEREVAN (Sputnik) — On Saturday, Armenia and Azerbaijan noted a sharp escalation of the situation in the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh area, with both sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire that has been in place since 1994.
"On April 3 from 6:00 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT),the Azerbaijani side resumed shelling Karabakh positions using rocket artillery and armored vehicles," the statement said.
Earlier on Sunday, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced the shelling from the Armenian side across the line of contact during the night.
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. In September 2015, the conflict escalated, with the sides blaming each other for violating the truce.
