Azernews.Az

Armenia’s armed forces repeatedly violated the ceasefire on their contact line with Azerbaijani troops on Wednesday, killing two servicemen, according to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry.

The ministry’s deputy spokesman, Teymur Abdullayev, said that the soldiers, aged 20 and 22, were killed after Armenian forces opened fire close to Azerbaijan’s frontline Terter and Tovuz regions.

The Azerbaijani troops repelled the attack, neutralizing several Armenian servicemen, he said.

Armenian media reported that one soldier of the country’s armed forces was killed and two others were wounded in the shooting.

The clash came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy begins a visit to the South Caucasus region, arriving in Armenia on Thursday before traveling to Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.

The deadline frontline skirmishes were discussed in a meeting of Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev and his Armenian counterpart Seyran Ohanyan in Brussels, Russian Interfax news agency quoted the Armenian Defense Ministry as saying. Their short conversation took place on the sidelines of a ministerial of the countries contributing to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a war in the early 1990s. Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since then. A ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far, and sporadic clashes on the frontline continue.