BAKU, Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijani army in a move to shield against fire from Armenian armed forces have begun digging ditches and constructing soil barricades.
The tension between the two countries came to the forefront of the world's agenda in recent days after a total of 13 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed by Armenian forces that violated the twenty-year Russian-brokered truce.
The two former Soviet republics fought a six-year war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh between 1988 and 1994. In 1994 a ceasefire was agreed, which has been periodically disrupted by cross-border incidents.
The clashes over the past week have seen the highest number of casualties since the 1994 ceasefire.
Locals in Cirakli village of Agdam region are on high alert at nights due to the fierce clashes between the two sides.
A villager Sveta, vowing not to leave their homeland, told Anadolu Agency that she has not slept for twenty days due to the sounds of bullets fired during the gun battles.
In another incident, press members reached the remotest military position on the Azerbaijani border and tried to take some video footage of the Armenian soldiers over the concrete walls erected on the border.
Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders will table the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and the fragile truce in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi at the weekend.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet separately with Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan in a bid to resolve the tension between the two sides.
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