All news

Azerbaijani servicemen down another Armenian drone in Karabakh conflict zone

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said the drone was downed near the village of Talysh

BAKU, December 12. /TASS/. Another Armenian drone was downed by Azerbaijani servicemen in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Monday.

"In the evening on December 12, Azerbaijani servicemen spotted and downed an Armenian unmanned aerial vehicle near the village of Talysh," the ministry said.

Earlier in the day, the ministry reported downing an Armenian drone "on a reconnaissance mission over positions of the Azerbaijani army" in the Fizuli district.

The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2, 2016 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. On April 5, a ceasefire agreement was reached with Russia’s mediation.

The participants in talks on Nagorno-Karabakh in Vienna on May 16 involving the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia and mediated by the foreign ministers from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, the United States and France) agreed to observe ceasefire in the region in compliance with the 1994-1995 accords. The parties to the conflict also agreed to complete as soon as possible the work on an OSCE tool on investigating incidents on the contact line.

In a trilateral statement adopted on June 20 following a summit of Russian Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg, the sides confirmed their commitment to the normalization of the situation along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s.

In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994.