Separatists continue controlling Azerbaijani territories with Armenia's support:U.S. Department of State
By Sara Rajabova
Separatists, with Armenia's support, continued to control most of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other Azerbaijani territories, the U.S. State Department`s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 said.
The report further says the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh remained the subject of international mediation by the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France, and the United States.
During the year, shooting incidents continued along the militarized line of contact separating the two sides in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and resulted in numerous casualties on both sides, it reads.
Armenian units has shot dead recently, the soldier of the Azerbaijani Army on the memorial day of Khojaly genocide, committed by Armenian armed forces in1992.
Also, Armenian armed forces killed the servicemen of the Azerbaijani armed forces during the Sochi Olympic Games, despite the Azerbaijani and Armenian leadership agreed to respect ceasefire agreement during Olympic Games.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.