Armenian forces kill Azerbaijani civilian: reports

BAKU (AFP) -- Armenian forces killed an Azerbaijani civilian near the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijani media reported on Monday.

ANS television and the Azeri Press Agency said a 41-year-old man was killed on Sunday when separatist forces opened fire on Azerbaijani positions in the Goranboy region on the de facto border with Karabakh.

The Nagorny Karabakh administration denied its forces had killed a civilian and accused Azerbaijani soldiers of repeatedly firing on its positions over the weekend.

Officials with Azerbaijan's defense ministry could not be reached for comment.

Nagorny Karabakh's armed forces said in a statement that Azerbaijani soldiers had fired on its positions over the weekend and on Monday, but called reports of the civilian being killed “propaganda” from Baku.

“This disinformation from Baku in no way conforms to reality,” the statement said.

Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian forces seized control of Nagorny Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in and around Nagorny Karabakh, often facing each other at close range, and shootings are common.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Germany on Sunday for the sixth round of talks this year on resolving the conflict.

The two former Soviet republics have cut direct economic and transport links and failed to negotiate a settlement on the region's status.

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