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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

Azerbaijan forces take control of seven villages near Nagorno-Karabakh - president

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27

Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defence Ministry Press Office/TASS

Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev

© Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defence Ministry Press Office/TASS

BAKU, October 3. /TASS/. Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said his country’s armed forces had seized control over seven villages in regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday.

"Today Azerbaijan’s Army has liberated Talish village of Terter district, Mehdili, Chaxirli, Ashagi Maralyan, Sheybey and Guyjag of Jabrayil district, and Ashagi Abdurrahmanli of Fizuli district," he said.

Earlier on Saturday, Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani forces had taken control over the village of Madagiz, and he had made the decision to rename it Suqovusan.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.

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