By stationing its firing points in and around civilian objects and making attempts to turn its civilians into a target with return fire from Azerbaijani armed forces, Armenia has chosen the inhumane tactics, the spokesman said.

Two of the Armenian civilians, the 41-year-old Sona Revazian and 94-year-old Shushan Asatrian, were killed in Bertavan, a village in the northern Tavush province bordering the Gazakh district in western Azerbaijan.

The Office of the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office held a regular monitoring of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the direction of the Aygepar village in Tavush region.

“Shelling from large-calibre mortars” was still continuing on Thursday evening, Agaronyan said.

The two countries are in a lengthy standoff because of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region surrounded by Azerbaijan but controlled by majority ethnic Armenians.

Hajiyev went on to add that unlike the case with Armenia, the obligations of the Geneva Conventions and additional protocols are an integral part of the mandatory training program of the armed forces of Azerbaijan.

The deaths are the latest in a two-decade-long conflict between the former Soviet Republics that has claimed almost 30,000 lives.

“Azerbaijan has developed a bad practice of escalating the situation, even at the expense of human casualties, on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and the border with Armenia, ahead of important visits to the region and high level meetings, thus undermining the meetings and impeding the negotiation process”, underlined Minister Nalbandian.

Despite years of negotiations, the two countries have not signed a final peace deal to cement a tenuous 1994 ceasefire.

Armenia – backed by Russian Federation which sells weapons to both Baku and Yerevan – says it could crush any offensive.