Five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed on Tuesday at the contact line between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan, in what is seemed to be another sign of escalating Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said.
The servicemen were killed in a skirmish early on Tuesday, after Armenian troops attempted to enter the Azerbaijani army’s territory in the village of Ashagy-Askipara, in Gazakh district, in northwestern Azerbaijan, the ministry said in a statement.
The attack comes the day after three Armenian soldiers were killed in Armenia’s northeastern Tavush province.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who is currently on a visit to the North Caucasus states, condemned the ongoing border clashes on Monday, saying that "the use of force will not resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in the late 1980s, when Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region on Azerbaijani territory with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, claimed independence from Azerbaijan. The war is estimated to have left more than 30,000 people dead on both sides between 1988 and 1994. The region has since remained under Armenian control.
Russia has been mediating peace talks for nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers have agreed to hold talks over Nagorny Karabakh on June 18 in Paris, following a call from the OCSE Minsk Group mediating the conflict.
