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Yerevan: Fierce fighting continues along contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh

Most fierce fighting is reported in the northern and southern direction

YEREVAN, October 4. /TASS/. Fighting continues along the entire contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the most fierce clashes being reported in the north and the south of the region, Armenian Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said on Sunday.

"Fighting continues along the entire line of Artsakh-Azerbaijani confrontation (the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh - TASS). Most fierce fighting is reported in the northern and southern direction. The enemy keeps on staging attacks which are repelled by the defense army [of the non-recognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic]," she wrote on her Facebook account.

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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