The Armenian Ministry of Defense said that the Azerbaijani forces began yesterday, Tuesday, a large-scale attack on the southern axis of the fighting in the Nagorno Karabakh region, while the Prime Minister of Armenia expressed his country's readiness to make mutual concessions.

The Agence France-Presse reported that Stepankert, the capital of Karabakh province, was bombed throughout the night, and that warning sirens sounded in the city intermittently, almost every hour.

She pointed out that strong explosions were following the sirens, but that it was not possible to verify their nature.

For its part, the Azerbaijani army announced its control of 3 new villages near the border with Iran.

Earlier, Azerbaijan announced that it had thwarted an Armenian army attack on an oil pipeline linking its territory with Georgia and Turkey.

The Azerbaijani Public Prosecution said in a statement that the Armenian army fired a shell on the "Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan-PT-G" pipeline in the section passing through the city of "Yulakh", but the Azerbaijani army managed to repel the attack.

She added that this line is a huge strategic project of great importance for European energy security, describing the Armenian army's attack as a "terrorist operation."

Concessions

Meanwhile, TASS quoted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying that his country can make concessions in Karabakh region if Azerbaijan is ready to do the same.

The Turkish foreign minister had held talks with Azerbaijani officials in Baku, after which he stressed the need for international parties to reach a concrete solution to the crisis in Karabakh, and not just call for a ceasefire.

Earlier, Russia, the United States and France called for an "unconditional" ceasefire, a call repeated Tuesday by Britain and Canada, which showed grave concern about the bombing of residential areas.

On 27 September, clashes erupted on the front line between the two countries after the Armenian army fired massively at residential sites in Azeri villages, killing and wounding people and causing great damage to the civilian infrastructure, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

The conflict over Nagorny Karabakh goes back to the 1990s, when the Armenian-majority region seceded from Azerbaijan, causing a war that left 30,000 people dead.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly stressed that it will not agree to a ceasefire unless Armenia withdraws its forces, a position reiterated on Tuesday by its Foreign Minister, Jihon Bayramov, saying, "We will fight to the last."