Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The International Crisis Group said sporadic armed clashes across Azerbaijani-Armenian front line which began mid-January have continued, albeit with less intensity, since February.

In its statement on March 3, the International Crisis Group noted several reports of deaths from both sides.

Although the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaderships had agreed to respect the ceasefire agreement during the Olympic Games in Sochi, the Armenian Armed Forces killed servicemen of the Azerbaijani armed forces during the Games.

The Armenian units also killed a soldier of the Azerbaijani Army on the memorial day of the Khojaly genocide, committed by Armenian Armed Forces on February 26 in 1992.

The International Crisis Group emphasized that the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick has cited progress in the negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Warlick recently said the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan should maintain the Olympic truce regime.

The situation has remained tense on the contact line since mid-January, and the Armenian Armed Forces have violated the ceasefire repeatedly.

Earlier Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that most ceasefire violations are observed in Fizuli, Agdam, Terter, Goranboy, Khojavend and Jabrayil districts. So far, the ceasefire has been violated over 3,000 times since January 2014. In all cases, the enemy's shooting was replied by retaliatory fire.

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.

As a result of Armenia's military aggressions, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territories, but they have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France, and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.