Azerbaijani bombing in Nagorno-Karabakh is aggression. For months, I have been condemning the illegal blockade of Lachin and the risks of a new escalation by Azerbaijan aimed at ethnic cleansing of the region's indigenous Armenian population, Member of the European Parliament Fabio Massimo Castaldo has said, the Armenian Embassy in Italy reports.

“Today’s tragic facts prove Baku’s violent and expansionist intentions. More than 120,000 ethnic Armenians in Artsakh are threatened to be displaced from their homes. There is also a threat of probable aggression against southern Armenia.

The European Union must act now by imposing sanctions on Baku to force the regime to stop this brutal invasion. If they had listened to the joint letter from me and 51 fellow MPs, all of this could have been avoided.

Baku stated that it informed Moscow in advance about the impending attack, which means that the Kremlin did nothing to prevent the attack. This makes them complicit in this crime as well: once again they stabbed Armenians in the back,” the MP also noted.

Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack against Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, among the casualties and wounded are civilians. On September 20, it became known that the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh accepted the proposal of the command of the Russian peacekeeping mission regarding the cessation of fire.

Proposal by Azerbaijan envisages the withdrawal of the remaining units and servicemen of the RA Armed Forces from the deployment zone of the Russian peacekeeping troops and the dissolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed formations, the complete disarmament of the Defense Army, as well as the withdrawal of heavy equipment and weapons from the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in order to quickly eliminate them.

In addition, on Thursday, the representatives of Artsakh and Azerbaijan will meet in Yevlakh, a city in Azerbaijan located about 100 km northeast of Stepanakert, and the issues of ensuring the security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians will be discussed.