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Azerbaijani army prevents Armenian diversion, enemy suffers losses

29 December 2016 11:28 (UTC +04:00)

A reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces was ambushed by the Azerbaijani army while attempting to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on Dec. 29 morning, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported.

“The enemy suffered heavy losses in the ensuing clash and had to retreat,” said the ministry.

A soldier of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Gurbanov Chingiz, is missing as a result of the shootout. He is being searched for.

“The Armenian side seems to have been unhappy with the relative silence that had been dominating at the frontline and constantly resorts to similar provocations,” the ministry stated.

The Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan warned Armenia of heavy losses in case such provocations continue.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry earlier reported that three Armenian servicemen died in a confrontation on the contact line of troops on Dec. 29.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.