World Bulletin/News Desk

An Armenian soldier has been killed in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.

The clashes erupted on Monday between Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers when an Armenian reconnaissance unit tried to cross the front line in southern Azerbaijan, the statement said.

The situation is now under the control and the Azerbaijani army suffered no losses, the statement added.

Armenian officials strongly denied these Azerbaijani statements and claimed the Azerbaijani army had attacked an Armenian soldier.

On May 12, 1994 a cease-fire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia after two decades of conflict over the disputed territory. 

In February 1988, the regional parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is largely populated by ethnic Armenians, voted to declare its independence from Azerbaijan.

Armenia's parliament voted to recognize the independence, a move that prompted a forceful evacuation of over 200,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia. 

Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians lost their lives in the resulting conflict.