Armenian armed forces violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan 1,063 times in January 2017, according to the results of the APA’s monitoring based on the reports confirmed by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
 
The Armenian military was using 60mm, 82mm and 120mm-caliber mortars, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and sniper rifles to shell Azerbaijani positions. 
 
In January, the Armenian armed units shelled the Azerbaijani army positions located in the districts of Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Terter, Khojavend, Goranboy, Gazakh, Gadabay, Tovuz and Aghstafa.
 
Last month, Armenian troops once again resorted to provocation to deliberately escalate the situation on the frontline. The Azerbaijani military prevented the provocation, taking retaliatory measures. Last month the Azerbaijani army fully controlled the operational situation.
 
In addition, an unmanned aerial vehicle, belonging to the Armenian army, was destroyed by Azerbaijani forces in January while attempting to carry out reconnaissance flights over the contact line of troops.
 
A serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Bashirov Fikrat, was killed as Armenian troops violated the ceasefire in January.
 
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.
 
A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar,  Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil,  Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.
 
The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.
 
Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.
 
Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996. 
 
Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.
 

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