Azernews.Az

Four Azerbaijani soldiers were reportedly killed after Armenian armed forces breached ceasefire in the frontline Terter and Goranboy districts on Tuesday.
The Azerbaijan Defense Ministry confirmed two casualties so far, but the death toll may climb in the days to come as stand-off continues. The latest clashes are the worst fighting seen in the region in years.
The Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroghlu told AssA-Irada later in the day that the shooting was still under way and no accurate information was available to that end.
The Armenian side is said to have suffered numerous casualties as well. Armenian soldiers were reportedly seen abandoning their wounded fellows and heavy machinery at the battlefield and retreating.
Eyewitnesses said Armenian troops subjected the Tapgaragoyunlu village in Goranboy to shooting from large-caliber machine guns and several shells hit the area.
In another development, Armenian forces violated ceasefire by opening fire from their positions in the occupied Talysh village of Terter at Tapgaragoyunlu, wounding two civilians. The injured persons were rushed to a hospital.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim told Radio Liberty that authorities in Yerevan devised the conflict in order to divert attention from the weekend chaos.
"This is a clear provocation by Armenia," Ibrahim said. "They are trying to use the situation which is taking place in Yerevan after the elections and to divert the attention of their citizens and population from the internal and domestic issues in order to seek an external enemy. This also affects the negotiating process."
Azerbaijani military chief of staff, Najmaddin Sadigov, said Armenia was trying to instigate Azerbaijan to military action.
"Azerbaijan's army is giving worthy response to the Armenians, and we are fully capable of defending the independence of our country," Sadigov told ANS television.
Military expert Azad Isazada said ceasefire violations have always been frequent, but given the current tense socio-political situation in Armenia, "a minor spark could ignite the fire".
Isazada believes that considering the current tensions in Armenia, its neighbors should place its armed forces on alert. "The Azerbaijani military too should stand ready to ward off potential subversions."
As the fighting raged, President Ilham Aliyev said on a visit to the western regions that Azerbaijan would ensure its territorial integrity no matter what it takes.
"We have been buying military machinery, airplanes and ammunition to be ready to liberate the occupied territories, and we are ready to do this," he said.
Armenian officials blamed the opposing side for initiating the clashes. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian claimed that Azerbaijani forces attacked Armenian positions northeast of Upper Garabagh early Tuesday, wounding several Armenian servicemen.
Oskanian accused Baku of striking at a moment when Yerevan is particularly vulnerable, with the state of emergency in place since government troops and police forcibly dispersed opposition protesters in clashes on Saturday that left at least eight people dead and over a hundred injured.
"We condemn this challenge, and we think that this is an attempt by the Azerbaijani side to exploit the current situation in Armenia," Oskanian said. "Perhaps they thought we had focused all of our attention on our internal situation, and that this could provide them with a psychological advantage, but this hasn't proved the case."
Thousands of Armenian demonstrators protested for 10 days after the February 19 presidential poll that they say was rigged. The protests kicked off after Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian was officially declared the winner.
Serzh Sarkisian, Armenia's prime minister and president-elect, said later that Azerbaijani forces had temporarily seized positions held by forces of separatist Upper Garabagh, but that the ethnic Armenians regained control in a counteroffensive.
"The enemy has suffered many deaths," he said, without providing any specific figures.
The US State Department reports that 30-40 people die each year in Garabagh as a result of ceasefire violations.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics reared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory since the early 1990s in defiance of international law. The ceasefire accord was signed in May 1994, but over a decade of efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been fruitless so far.