YEREVAN, July 13. /TASS/. The intensity of artillery fire from the Azerbaijani side has decreased but aggravations occur regularly, Armenian Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said on Monday.
"Azerbaijan aggravates the situation at the border periodically. As of now, the intensity of artillery shelling and attacks of unmanned aerial vehicles has decreased. The Armenian armed forces are in control of the situation. There are no losses on the Armenian side," she wrote on her Facebook account.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said on Sunday Armenian army units had tried to attack Azerbaijan’s positions at the Tovuz section of the border with use of artillery systems. According to the ministry, clashes continued through the night. Four Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and four more were wounded.
Armenia’s defense ministry said, in turn, that the border situation had aggravated after Azerbaijan’s attempted attack. The Armenian defense ministry said that two Armenian policemen and three soldiers had received minor wounds in shelling by the Azerbaijani side.
Earlier on Monday, Russia’s foreign ministry expressed serious concern of the dramatic aggravation of the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and called on the side to show restraint and stay committed to the ceasefire. The Russian side expressed readiness to help settle the situation.
The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the early 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic.
In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them.
Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been held since 1992 in the format of the so-called OSCE Minsk Group, comprising along with its three co-chairs – Russia, France and the United States – Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey.
