"Therefore, local anti-terrorist activities have been launched to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement, suppress large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, to disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories, neutralize their military infrastructure, provide the safety of the civilian population returned to the territories liberated from occupation, the civilians involved in construction and restoration work and our military personnel, and ultimately restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the statement said.
The Defense Ministry added that it informed the command of the Russian peacekeepers and the leadership of Monitoring Center about the ongoing events.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "the media are spreading information that the Azerbaijani side allegedly warned Russian peacekeepers 'in advance' about today's 'anti-terrorist operation' in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is not true," she said, adding that "Baku informed Moscow a few minutes before the start of the operation.
"The command of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation and the leadership of the Turkish-Russian Monitoring Center are informed about the ongoing activities," the ministry said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region wedged in between the two nations where both have a military presence. The decades-long conflict reignited in the fall of 2020, marking the worst escalation since the 1990s. Hostilities ended in a Russia-brokered ceasefire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the region.
Yerevan and Baku began discussing a future peace treaty in 2022 with mediation from Russia, the European Union and the United States. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in May that Yerevan was ready to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity within boundaries that include Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that a peace treaty can be signed in the near future if Armenia does not change its position.