Azerbaijani troops on Wednesday killed an Armenian soldier in the latest clash along the volatile border of the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region, separatist officials said. 

"Soldier Karen Hovhannisyan was fatally injured from a shot coming from the enemy's side," the defense ministry of the contested Armenian-backed region said.  

A Russian soldier accused of killing a family of seven in Armenia, including two children, went on trial for desertion Wednesday at a Russian army base in the former Soviet state.

Conscript soldier Valery Permyakov is accused of murdering a man and a woman and their grown-up son and daughter, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren at their home close to the Russian base in Gyumri, some 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the capital Yerevan.

Two prosecutors behind a graft probe that targeted the inner circle of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fled to Armenia via Georgia after an arrest warrant was issued against them, officials said Friday.

The Istanbul prosecutor's office on Monday ordered the arrest of Zekeriya Oz, Celal Kara and Mehmet Yuzgec on accusations of "forming an organization to commit crime" and "attempting to overthrow the government by force".

Azerbaijan on Saturday accused arch-foe Armenia's troops of killing its soldier in a new clash amid a Western-mediated push to cauterize the protracted conflict in the South Caucasus.

Friday's skirmish violating the brittle truce comes a day after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the presidents of the two feuding nations were ready to "meet each other later this year" in an effort to end years of hostility.

The Russian military ordered Tuesday a snap combat readiness check of its troops stationed in Armenia as the Caucasus country grapples with anti-government protests.

"During the snap inspection, a commission will assess the readiness of duty troops in the air force unit stationed in Erebuni and at the military base in Gyumri to perform assigned tasks," Russia's southern military district said in a statement.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on a central square in the Armenian capital on Monday pledging to carry on protests over energy price hikes after police cleared a key artery they had blocked for weeks.

Riot police earlier detained dozens of protesters and dismantled a barricade of dumpsters they had built across an avenue close to the presidential palace in Yerevan, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Armenian authorities launched a criminal investigation Friday into police officers involved in a brutal crackdown on demonstrators protesting against electricity price hikes.

Mikael Aharonyan, spokesman for Armenia's special investigative service, told AFP that the inquiry had been opened into alleged police violence, abuse of power and obstructing journalists.

Moscow is to give Armenia a $200 million loan to purchase sophisticated Russian weapons at a discount, officials in Yerevan said on Thursday.

Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, has been shaken by nearly two weeks of protests over plans by a Russian-owned company to hike electricity prices in the small Caucasus country. 

Armenian authorities threatened Sunday to forcefully break up a protest against rising electricity prices and police brutality after the president announced concessions in a bid to calm tensions.

Thousands of demonstrators were expected to take to the streets of the capital Yerevan in the evening after President Serzh Sarkisian's promise that the government would shoulder the burden of a controversial hike in electricity prices failed to appease the activists.

The Armenian government on Thursday refused to reverse a controversial electricity price hike, sparking fresh anger among thousands of demonstrators who have rallied in the capital for a week.

Under pouring rain, some 7,000 protesters rallied Thursday evening near the presidential palace after Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said his government would proceed with raising power tariffs despite anger in a country already hard hit by the economic crisis in Russia.