One Armenian soldier killed in preventing Azeri infiltration attempt

One Armenian soldier killed in preventing Azeri infiltration attempt –

An Armenian serviceman was killed early on Friday in an engagement following a reported attempt by an Azerbaijani sabotage-reconnaissance group to infiltrate into the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

According to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Ministry, the incident happened in the northeastern direction (Talish) of the Line of Contact separating the Karabakh-Azerbaijani troops.

The report says that the advanced units of NKR Defense Army spotted the advancement of special units of the Azerbaijan army, stopped and pushed them back to their initial positions, also inflicting casualties on them. 

NKR Defense Army serviceman Erik Grigoryan (born in 1995) was fatally wounded in the skirmish.

An investigation is underway to find out the details of this incident.

The military authorities in Stepanakert also say that in the period from Thursday to early Friday morning, the Azerbaijan side violated the ceasefire regime along the Line of Contact around 80 times. 

During this time Azerbaijani forces fired more than 650 shots at the Armenian military positions using firearms, mortars, grenade launchers, and a reactive rocket propelled howitzer. 

According to the NKR Defense Ministry, the army’s vanguard units are taking retaliatory actions to suppress Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions.

The new escalation comes hours after the top diplomats of the United States, Russia and France called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to resume negotiations on a settlement of the protracted conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Speaking at an OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, on December 3, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian accused Azerbaijan of undermining the negotiating process not only through defying the peace proposals made by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, but also by continuing provocations on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and at the borders with Armenia.