Armenia and Azerbaijan blamed each other on Thursday in a fresh exchange of fire on the border between the two countries, and the government in Baku said one of its soldiers was killed in the incident, Reuters reported.
The standoff comes despite a recent intensification of diplomatic talks between the two countries aimed at avoiding another full-scale conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The enclave is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its population is predominantly Armenian, and the region has been at the center of a decades-long dispute.
Last month, the government in Baku established a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor – the only land route connecting Armenia with Karabakh – in what Yerevan called a “gross violation” of the 2020 ceasefire brokered by Russia.
Both countries say Thursday’s new standoff was provoked by the other side and that their armed forces were acting in self-defense.
Azerbaijan said Armenian forces staged a “deliberate provocation” and that an Azerbaijani soldier had lost his life.
The Ministry of Defense in Yerevan, however, reported that four soldiers were wounded after Azerbaijani forces shelled positions near the village of Sotk on the shared border between the two countries.
Tensions are rising again between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the incident was an attempt by Azerbaijan to derail peace talks between the two countries as their foreign ministers met in Washington for four days earlier this month.
Pashinyan is scheduled to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels on May 14 as part of the European Union’s bid to mediate the conflict.
Both Russia’s and the United States’ attempts have so far failed.
Armenia has been asking Russia to intervene militarily in the conflict since last September, as it is part of the CSTO, a military alliance led by Moscow, but its calls have been ignored.
The government in Yerevan appealed to the CSTO for help after new large-scale clashes erupted in September on its border with Azerbaijan, when Armenia accused Azerbaijani forces, backed by artillery and drones, of trying to “advance” into Armenian territory.
As a result of the hostilities, 50 Armenian soldiers were killed, and fears of a “re-ignition” of the conflict were renewed.
Source: Hot News
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