Azerbaijan claims soldier killed by Armenian sniper

The claim by Azerbaijan’s defence ministry that one of its soldiers was killed by sniper fire from Armenian forces in the border town of Kalbajar was quickly denied by Armenia.

The Armenian Defence Ministry denied the claim, according to the Interfax news agency, without providing any other information.

The contradictory remarks were made as a large-scale ethnic Armenian flight from the Nagorno-Karabakh territory continued after Azerbaijan last month vanquished the separatist enclave’s fighters in a conflict that dates back to the Soviet era.

According to the chief of the UNHCR, more than 100,000 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians in the area have already departed for Armenia.

The rights of Armenians in Karabakh, a region that is acknowledged by the international community as being a part of Azerbaijan, will be safeguarded, according to Azerbaijan, which has constantly refuted any allegations of ethnic cleansing.

(With agency inputs)