Armenian troops keep on provocations on contact line

/AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The Armenian armed troops regularly open fires on Azerbaijani positions and perform various provocations in the Agdam district's territory, where the Azerbaijani armed forces shot down a combat helicopter.

"Azerbaijani troops were forced to reply Armenian military forces' provocative actions, and then the Armenian side announces the whole world that they can not pull the corpses of died soldiers out of the crash site," Defense Ministry Spokesman Vagif Dargahli said.

He said Armenia claimed that their helicopter did not pass to the territory controlled by the Azerbaijani AF. "According to the Armenian side, the downed chopper should fall down on the territory under their surveillance. If this claim is true, then why they are unwilling to take out the corpses? Because, the chopper was knocked near the positions of Azerbaijani army," Dargahli noted.

He went on to say that Armenia, as usual, attempts to mislead the international bodies by spreading lies about the helicopter downing.

The Armenian armed forces have intensified the ceasefire violations on the contact line, particularly in the Agdam district's territory in recent days. They breached the armistice for 72 times on November 16, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Azerbaijani armed forces shot down Armenia's attack helicopter, which violated the airspace of the country, on November 12. The MI-24 combat helicopter illegally entered the airspace over the territory controlled by the Azerbaijani troops and was adequately knocked to kill three crew members on board.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.