Yerevan, Armenia (AP) – Armenian officials and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused the Azerbaijani leader of “crushing” Armenian forces with an “iron fist” for violating the peace agreement that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. The clashes mark the first significant breach of the peace agreement issued by Russia on November 10, which regained control of Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding lands, which had been under Armenian control for more than a quarter of a century. Karabakh said separatist officers in Nagorno launched an attack on the Azerbaijani army late Friday, injuring three local ethnic Armenian soldiers. Russian peacekeepers sent to the region to monitor the peace deal said on Friday that a ceasefire had been violated in the Qadr region. A statement from Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday did not comment. The Armenian Defense Ministry has accused the Azerbaijani army of carrying out an attack on Saturday south of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev responded on Saturday, blaming Armenia for the new conflict and saying “I will break its head” with an iron fist. “Armenia should not try to restart this,” Aliyev said during a meeting with top diplomats from the United States and France, who sought to mediate the decades – long conflict. This time, we will destroy them completely. This should not be a secret to anyone. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said in a statement late on Saturday that its forces had repulsed Armenian “provocations” and restored a ceasefire. Fighting broke out near the villages of Armenian authorities, Hin Dajer and Ktsabard, the only settlements in the Ghatrud region still controlled by Armenian forces. Both villages are completely surrounded by the Azerbaijani army, which controls the only road leading to them. Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994. That war left considerable environs in the hands of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenians. The 44-day fighting began in late September and killed more than 5,600 people on both sides, pushing the Azerbaijani army deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing Armenia to accept last month’s peace deal and reclaiming the separatist region of Azerbaijan and surrounding areas. Russia has deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace deal and facilitate the return of refugees. Azerbaijan marked its victory with a military parade on Thursday attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and included more than 3,000 troops, dozens of military vehicles and fighter jets. The peace deal came as a shock to Armenians and sparked protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nicolas Bacchian, who has refused to step down. He described the peace deal as a bitter but necessary step, which prevented the occupation of all of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan .__ The Associated Press writers Vladimir Izachenkov in Moscow and Ida Sultanova in London contributed to this report. .
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