Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces have prevented Armenian side’s attempt to violate the country’s state border, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported on March 28.

The Armenian side, with a view to requite for the heavy losses, increased the number of provocations on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, according to the ministry’s report.

Thus, the Armenian armed forces violated the state border of Azerbaijan on the territory of Gazakh region on March 27, and tried to enter the country's territory. However, the Azerbaijani troops acted appropriately to prevent the offensive attempt, and as a result, the invaders suffered losses and were forced to retreat.

An officer of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, lieutenant Galib Zulfugarli and soldier Gafarali Hajiyev were killed in a battle. The leadership of Azerbaijani defense ministry expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved relatives and friends.

Both servicemen were posthumously awarded with the third degree medal "For Distinction in Military Service" in accordance with the order issued by Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov.

The Armenian armed forces have broken the ceasefire with Azerbaijan 130 times in various parts of the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies in the last 24 hours. Azerbaijani armed forces inflicted 131 strikes upon Armenian positions, the ministry reported.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Over the entire period of its existence, the OSCE Minsk Group, which acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, failed to move forward in resolving the long lasting conflict, although the interested parties had pinned great hopes on it.

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Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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