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Ethnic Armenians In Karabakh Claim 'Saboteurs' Killed Teenager


Authorities in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh say they have "serious grounds" to believe Azerbaijani "saboteurs" are responsible for killing an ethnic Armenian teenager whose body was found on July 15.

Relatives of Smbat Tsakanian, 17, also believe he was kidnapped and killed by Azerbaijani commandos.

The prosecutor's office in Nagorno-Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert said Tsakanian, missing since July 4, died of gunshot wounds.

Tsakanian was a resident of the Nor Erkej village in the ethnic Armenian-controlled Kelbajar district.

He disappeared as troops from Nagorno-Karabakh were reportedly "neutralizing" an Azerbaijani saboteur group in the area that purportedly killed an Armenian officer and wounded a civilian.

Two Azerbaijani citizens were arrested during the operation.

Baku and Yerevan remain locked in hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, which was violently seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian-backed separatists in the early 1990s.

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