Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of shooting when tensions on the border escalate

News Wire, Quebec, Canada
May 28 2021
| Conflict News

Baku said that after Armenian troops opened fire along the common border, Azerbaijani soldiers were injured in the Nakhchivan enclave.

Azerbaijan stated that one of its soldiers was injured after the Armenian army opened fire along the common border. Armenia has denied this accusation.

Friday’s statement marked the latest in a series of incidents between the two former Soviet rivals.

The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan stated in a statement that the Armenian army fired at its position in Nakhchivan from several directions, which is an Azerbaijani enclave in Azerbaijan, separated by Armenian territory.

It said that the soldier suffered a shoulder injury, received first aid and was taken to the hospital.

According to Russia’s TASS news agency, the Armenian Defense Ministry denied Baku’s claims.

After a six-week war in the Nagorno-Karabakh region last year, this long-simmering border dispute occurred.

The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Even Armenia has a large population and until recently it was controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Friday’s clash took place the day after Azerbaijan captured six Armenian soldiers in the Kelbajar district west of Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenia stated that its troops are carrying out engineering work in the area, while Azerbaijan stated that the soldiers are part of a “reconnaissance and sabotage organization.”

Tensions escalated earlier this month when Armenia accused the Azerbaijani army of “siege” a lake shared by the two countries across its southern border.

Earlier this week, Armenia claimed that one of its soldiers was killed in a shooting incident in the Azerbaijani army. Baku denied responsibility for the incident.

Last year’s conflict ended in November, when the Azerbaijani army drove the Armenian army out of the large tracts of territory they had controlled in and around Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1990s.

Russia eventually led to a ceasefire.

The conflict caused more than 6,000 deaths on both sides and led to a political crisis in Armenia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was widely criticized for being regarded as a humiliating failure.

Pashinyan, 45, said that he had no choice but to admit or see his country’s army suffered even greater losses.

After the crisis, under pressure from opposition protesters, he announced an early parliamentary poll.

The election is scheduled for June 20.

On Thursday, Pashinyan described the situation on the border as “tension and explosive.”

Earlier this month, he said that Armenia and Azerbaijan are negotiating the delimitation and demarcation of the common border between the two countries under the mediation of Russia.

He also said that the two governments can discuss the exchange of territories between the two countries.

Russia’s role as an intermediary between the two countries is largely at the expense of Western powers such as France and the United States.

All three are part of a mediation team that has been trying for decades to find a lasting solution to the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but failed.

Armenia fought a war with Azerbaijan in the region in the 1990s, killing at least 30,000 people.