BAKU, Azerbaijan
An Azerbaijani soldier died Friday after sustaining serious injuries in border clashes with Armenian forces Thursday night, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.
According to the ministry statement Friday, Farid Aghayev succumbed to his wounds at a hospital.
A separate statement from the ministry said that a woman was also wounded in clashes and a house was burnt down in Azerbaijan’s western province of Tovuz, which came under an alleged Armenian attack for about four hours.
Armenian forces allegedly violated the cease-fire at least 86 times using heavy weapons and mortars, the ministry added.
On May 12, 1994, a cease-fire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia after two decades of conflict over the disputed territory.
In February 1988, the regional parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by ethnic Armenians, voted to declare its independence from Azerbaijan. Armenia's parliament voted to recognize the independence, a move that prompted a forceful evacuation of over 200,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians lost their lives in the resulting conflict.
