Azernews.Az

The Armenian military has pledged to respond "disproportionately" to the deaths of two Armenian soldiers in skirmishes with Azerbaijani forces reported in the occupied Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Radio Liberty's Armenian Service reports.

Karabakh's Armenia-backed army said the 19-year-old soldiers, Aren Simonian and Mihran Markarian, were shot dead by Azerbaijani snipers in separate incidents over the weekend.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the reports.

A separate statement issued by Armenia's Defense Ministry said, "Since Azerbaijan's political and military leadership does not care about the lives of its own soldiers, we have to remind Azerbaijan's population that as was the case before, the Armenian side's response to the death of every Armenian soldier will be disproportionate."

Defense Ministry spokesman Davit Karapetian spoke of "punitive actions" to be taken against Azerbaijani troops. "That is going to be our natural and legitimate reaction," he told Radio Liberty. "And if the Azerbaijani side suffers casualties as a result of that, it will be fully responsible for them."

Defense Ministry sources in Yerevan claim that 42 Azerbaijani troops have been killed on the frontline so far this year.

The Azerbaijani military has not released any casualty data for 2011.

Earlier this month, the Baku daily "Zerkalo" quoted an independent military expert, Uzeir Jafarov, as saying that 13 Azerbaijani soldiers were shot dead by Armenians while 76 others died in noncombat circumstances in 2011.

"Our losses during the less than 11 months of this year surpassed those of the previous two years," Jafarov said. "This is frightening."

The skirmishes highlight the lingering threat of another Armenian-Azerbaijani war, which is prompting growing concern from the world community.

They came less than a month after U.S., Russian, and French mediators said the conflicting parties had agreed in principle to a "draft mechanism to investigate incidents along the front lines." The three co-chairs announced that following a visit to Baku and Yerevan.