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Baku disproves reports of two downed Azerbaijani drones by Armenia

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry informed that it is "a groundless lie"

BAKU, October 17. /TASS/. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has disproved reports of the Armenian side claiming that two Azerbaijani drones had been destroyed while flying over Armenia.

"The reports of two Azerbaijani drones downed in the sky over Armenia are a groundless lie," the ministry informed.

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 over 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.