'Armenia is now a global issue': Turkish speaker

ANKARA

The Turkish parliament speaker on Sunday criticized Armenia's truce-breaching attacks on Azerbaijani settlements.

"These attacks are a war crime because they directly target civilians," Mustafa Sentop said on Twitter, urging for a trial.

"Armenia is now a global issue," Sentop said.

An Armenian missile attack hit Azerbaijan's second largest city of Ganja, violating a temporary cease-fire, at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday (2200GMT Saturday).

Armenia's attacks continued despite a humanitarian truce agreed on Saturday for the exchange of prisoners and retrieval of bodies in Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

The armistice came after a trilateral meeting in Moscow on Friday between the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

Since clashed began on Sept. 27, as many as 41 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and more than 200 injured.

Some 1,165 houses, 57 residential and commercial buildings, and 146 public buildings have also been destroyed or damaged, the Azerbaijani officials said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said their army repulsed Armenia's attacks throughout the night.

Also criticizing Armenia's attacks was Turkey's Vice President Fuat Oktay, who took to Twitter to say that "Armenia is committing a crime against humanity targeting civilians while it has not been even 24 hours since the cease-fire took effect."

He blasted the international community for their ignorance.

"By ignoring this hypocritical attitude, the international community becomes a party to the crime," Oktay said.

- Upper Karabakh conflict

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh.

The fresh clashes began when Armenian forces targeted civilian Azerbaijani settlements and military positions in the region, leading to casualties.

Many world powers, including Russia, France, and the US, have urged a new cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as many international organizations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying forces.

The OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US -- was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.