AZERBAIJAN-KARABAKH-FILE

This picture taken in June 1994, shows laundry drying in a yard in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorny Karabakh. Armenia has controlled Karabakh and seven surrounding regions which make up 14 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory since the two former Soviet republics ended large-scale hostilities with a ceasefire in 1994. Long-simmering tensions over the disputed enclave of Karabakh in the volatile Caucasus have flared recently, sparking fears that the escalation of hostilities along a ceasefire line between Armenian and Azeri forces could lead to a new war. In the past month alone there have been reports of numerous exchanges of fire between Azeri and Armenian forces resulting in the deaths of at least four Azeris and the capture of another three. During 2004, six Azeri soldiers were killed. AFP PHOTO/ ALEXANDER NEMENOV *