Karabakh soldier killed in Azeri fire during presidential talks in Vienna

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Azerbaijani army violated the Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire on the night of May 16-17, using various caliber firearms and an infantry fighting vehicle, as well as 60-mm mortars and automatic grenade launchers. Especially intense violations were registered in the southeastern (Hadrut) and eastern (Martuni) directions of the contact line.

As the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Ministry notes, Azerbaijan took steps to destabilizing the situation on the contact line during a meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Vienna.

President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev participated in a meeting on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement on Monday, May 16. The summit was the first one since the escalation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone.

Karabakh army conscript Khachatur Harutyunyan (b. 1996) received a fаtal gunshot wound on May 17, at around 12:50 am, as a result of Azeri violations.

An investigation into the details of the incident is underway.

The Nagorno Karabakh Defense Ministry declared that Azerbaijan bears the whole responsibility for the escalation on the contact line.

At the Vienna-hosted meeting, the parties discussed the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone following early April's 4-day war, and the ways to overcome the consequences. The representatives of the co-chairing countries insisted on the need for an unconditional adherence to the 1994 ceasefire agreement and the 1995 ceasefire consolidation agreements.

Also, the sides agreed to take steps to install mechanisms for monitoring and investigating ceasefire violations, increase the capacity of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office's team, also pledging to work towards a possible renewal of the negotiation process.

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