Alwaght-An Armenian soldier has been killed by Azerbaijani troops in a new
clash in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh border region, Karabakh’s Defense
Ministry says, according to Press TV.
“Serviceman Arsen Karapetyan, 20, was mortally wounded when
Azerbaijani forces violated the ceasefire at the Karabakh frontline,” the
region’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Scuffles
between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops intensified again in January after an
unprecedented surge in violence last year.
Some
15 people from both sides reportedly lost their lives and 18 others were
wounded this year in clashes in the region.
The
two ex-Soviet Caucasus countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan claim the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by Armenians but located in
Azerbaijan.
Ethnic
Armenian forces took control of the enclave, which accounts for 16 percent of
the Azerbaijan territory, in the early 1990s during a war, which lasted from
February 1988 to May 1994.
The
conflict left an estimated 30,000 people dead and one million others displaced
before the two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1994. A permanent peace accord has never been inked
and the dispute remains unsettled.
Azerbaijan
has threatened to take back the region by force if negotiations between the two
sides fail to yield results, while Armenia has pledged to retaliate against any
military action.
