Armenian troops wound Azerbaijani soldier
By Sara Rajabova
Armenian armed forces wounded an Azerbaijani soldier, keeping tension high on the contact line of two sides' troops.
A conscript from Azerbaijan's occupied Lachin region, soldier Elsevar Mammadov, born 1996, was wounded as a result of a ceasefire violation by Armenian armed forces, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on July 3.
The soldier has been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and his condition is satisfactory.
This come after the OSCE monitored the contact line of troops and reported that there was no incident along the line.
The monitoring was carried out on July 2 under the mandate of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office personal representative of the Contact Line located on the south-west of the Tapgaragoyunlu village of Azerbaijan's Goranboy District.
Armenians tend to follow the ceasefire agreement when OSCE representatives are monitoring the frontline but after the monitoring, they immediately breach the ceasefire and blame Azerbaijan for the violation.
They sometimes even fire at the OSCE representatives while conducting monitoring on the frontline.
Back in January, Armenian armed forces fired at the OSCE monitoring group members who arrived in the Contact Line to monitor the ceasefire violations under the mandate of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative.
The Armenian armed forces broke the ceasefire on the Contact Line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops 19 times on July 2.
The Azerbaijani positions came under fire by Armenian troops deployed near the villages of Horadiz, Garakhanbeyli, Ashagi Seyidahmadli, Ashagi Veyselli of Fizuli region, Yusifjanli, Shikhlar of Aghdam, Kuropatkino of Khojavend, Mehdili of Jabrayil, Chayli of Terter, Tapgaragoyunlu of Goranboy region and at the nameless heights. The opposing side was silenced with return fire.
The Armenian armed forces have intensified ceasefire violations on the Contact Line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops since the beginning of 2014. As a result of ceasefire breaches, several Azerbaijani soldiers were shot dead.
Two servicemen of the Azerbaijani army were killed and another four were wounded in late May. The Armenian armed forces further escalated the situation on the frontline by killing two servicemen and wounding one lieutenant of the Azerbaijani army in June.
The Armenian armed forces didn't hesitate to fire at the civilians, who live in the villages located near the frontline.
Four civilians were wounded as a result of Armenian armed forces' shelling of the houses and fields in the border villages at the end of June.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994, but Armenia has continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its forces.
Peace talks mediated by Russia, France, and the U.S. have produced no results so far.