STEPANAKERT (Arminfo.am)—The Artsakh Republic Defense Army on Monday released information regarding casualties and injuries from the previous week of skirmishes between Armenian and Azeri forces, which began on July 28 with an attack on Artsakh by Azeri forces.

 

The Artsakh Defense Army reports 25 dead and 30 wounded for the Azerbaijani side following their attacks on Artsakh in the last week.

On July 28, Azeri soldiers began an offensive on Artsakh’s Martakert region. They were repelled by Artsakh forces, suffering two casualties and several injuries. The same day, Azeri forces suffered one casualty and more injuries in a different, simultaneous attack on the Martuni region.

On July 31, Azerbaijan attempted a takeover of Armenian positions in the area of Gulistan, but failed. They lost two soldiers. On the night of August 1 to 2, Armenian forces thwarted another Azeri attack. Nine Azeri soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the fighting.

On the same night, a group of 50 Azeri soldiers attempted another attack, again in the Martakert region. They lost six soldiers amid seven wounded when Armenian forces again stopped the attack. Meanwhile, the Azeris lost another three soldiers amid four wounded while attacking Martuni once more. An attack on the Askeran region on Aug. 2 resulted in one casualty and several wounded for the Azeri forces.

“The frontline military units of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Defense Army guard the entire Line of Contact with Azerbaijan and take retaliatory actions when necessary, forcing the enemy to retreat with big losses,” the Artsakh Defense Army said in the statement.

The flare-up of violence on the Line of Contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan has led to fears of escalation and calls for calm from international leaders. Russia and he EU have urged the two sides to respect the 20-year-old ceasefire agreement between them. Turkey offered condolences to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the loss of Azerbaijani soldiers’ lives during the violence.

The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are set to meet in Sochi, Russia, later this week in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“At the end of this week, our president is due to hold separate meetings in Sochi with the president of Armenia and then with the president of Azerbaijan,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Itar-Tass news agency. “When they all find themselves in the same place and at the same time they will probably not avoid a conversation on Nagorno-Karabakh. Just how that will be organised depends on us.”