YEREVAN, December 13. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s forces continued their provocation in the settlements of Metz-Shen and Hin-Shen in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Hadrut Province, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"We strongly condemn this gross violation of commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan’s supreme military and political leadership in a trilateral statement on ending combat actions and deploying Russian peacekeepers. We stress that these steps are directed at playing down Russian peacekeepers’ presence in the conflict zone," the document said.

According to the statement, Azerbaijan staged provocation during the visit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group to the region and this posed a challenge to its efforts on peaceful settlement. This is also part and parcel of unacceptable statements made by the Turkish and Azerbaijani leaders. Yerevan notes that this once again points to the Turkish-Azerbaijani expansionism policy.

"The official Baku’s steps highlight the need for deoccupying the territory of Artsakh (the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic) and returning Armenians of Artsakh to their places of residence. Given the impunity of Azerbaijan, which violates its international commitments, we are calling on co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to unambiguously and clearly respond to the Azerbaijani side’s steps, which are aimed at violating the ceasefire, ethnic cleansing and occupying Armenian settlements," the statement said.

On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the agreement, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides maintained the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region. In addition, Azerbaijan regained control over the Agdamsky, Kelbadzharsky and Lachinsky districts.