YEREVAN (Sputnik) — The Azeri defense minister threatened earlier on Monday to order artillery strikes against the capital of the self-proclaimed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Hankendi (Stepanakert), if the Armenian army continues to carry out artillery strikes against settlements of the territory of Azerbaijan.
"The order by the Azeri defense minister means that Baku only now realized that a real combat action is taking place in Karabakh. But those in Azerbaijan must know that the Armenian side will retaliate with even more powerful strike," Armenia's ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
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.
