Tension on Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line escalates

STEPANAKERT, November 13. /ARKA/. Tension on Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line has escalated, the press office of the Nagorno-Katabakh Republic's defense ministry reported on Thursday. On Wednesday, a military helicopter of Nagorno-Karabakh republic's army was shot down on the contact line. According to the report, the Azerbaijani side has breached the ceasefire regime 250 times and fired at the opposite side 3,000 times, while the Nagorno-Karabakh army has generally complied with the ceasefire agreement resorting to the return actions only in the worst extremity. Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan. Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it. Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes. On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations. Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France..-0---