Armenia Confirms Six Soldiers Killed During November 16 Clashes

YEREVAN — The Armenian Defense ministry has confirmed the death of six servicemen during renewed border clashes with Azerbaijan earlier this week.

The servicemen have been identified as Senior Lieutenant Taron Sahakyan (born in 1990), contract servicemen Junior Sergeant Meruzhan Harutyunyan (born in 1991), Gurgen Sargsyan (born in 1991) Junior Sergeant Artur Martirosyan (born in 1988) and David Amiryan (born in 1980). The identity of another killed soldier is still being found out.

The ministry earlier reported the death of one soldier and said that communication with 24 other servicemen had been lost, while 13 others were taken prisoner by Azerbaijani forces.

On November 18 late evening the Azerbaijani side handed over the bodies of three Armenian servicemen to the Nagorno-Karabakh State Emergency Service.

The handover that took place in the town of Shushi was mediated by the Russian peacekeepers, deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh after last year’s 44-day war.

According to preliminary data, the bodies were evacuated from the administrative district of the Ishkhanasar village of Syunik region. The State Emergency Situations Service of the Nagorno-Karabakh delivered the bodies to Yerevan today.

“Intensive work with the mediation and participation of the Russian side is under way to repatriate soldiers who were taken prisoner or went missing as a result of the fighting,” the ministry said on November 19, adding that the situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remained “relatively stable” through the morning.

Azerbaijan has said seven of its soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in the November 16 fighting.