Azerbaijan, Barda, 17 May / Trend corr Sh. Jaliloglu/ As a result of violation of ceasefire at the Armenian-Azerbaijani troops contact line by the Armenian Armed Forces, senior lieutenant of the Azerbaijani National Army was killed. On 16 May at 7.30pm, Armenian troops located in the Azerbaijani occupied village Yusifjanli in Agdam region fired at the opposite positions of the Azerbaijani troops. Senior lieutenant Vugar Najafov was shot and died from the wound.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and Nagorno-Karabakh's seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful, but fruitless negotiations.
In 1992, about 10 OSCE countries established Minsk Group for peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Since 1997, Minks Group includes co-chairmen from three countries - USA, Russia and France.
The Defence Ministry has not yet confirmed the reports.
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