Four ethnic Armenian soldiers from the defense force of the de-facto Artsakh Republic were killed in Azerbaijani artillery and drone strikes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Wednesday morning, the Artsakh Defense Forces stated on Wednesday.
The Republic of Artsakh is a de facto republic internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. In 2020, the area where the republic is situated was recaptured by Azerbaijan.
The Artsakh Defense Forces denied that its forces had fired on Azerbaijani forces at the time, saying the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry was spreading disinformation.
The reported clashes come as the foreign ministers of both Azerbaijan and Armenia meet in the US to continue peace negotiations. The talks are expected to continue until Thursday.
The parliament of the de-facto Artsakh Republic called on Armenia to leave the talks after the clashes, stating on Wednesday that the Armenian delegation should not agree to talks until a full ceasefire is established on the line of contact in the region. The parliament warned that the continuation of talks would “encourage the aggressive behavior of the Azerbaijani side.”
Additionally, on Wednesday, Pashinyan spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan concerning normalizing relations between the two countries and opening the land border between the two countries for holders of diplomatic passports and citizens of other countries.
Additionally, last week the European Union’s External Action Service stated that the EU “has been closely following growing tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the past few weeks.”
The EU additionally expressed concerns about the continued Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor, stressing that it “directly threatens the livelihoods of the local population and raises serious fears of a potential humanitarian crisis.”
Azerbaijan has been blocking the Lachin corridor since December, with limited humanitarian aid let through.
Earlier this month, the Armenian Defense Ministry said two civilian employees of a US-affiliated metallurgical plant in the town of Yeraskh, close to the border with Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, were wounded by Azerbaijani shelling.
At the time, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated “We are deeply concerned that two civilian employees of a US-affiliated company in Armenia sustained injuries from gunfire from the direction of Azerbaijan. We reiterate our call for restraint along the borders as the parties work toward a durable and balanced peace.”
Shortly after that incident, Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of launching attacks along the border between the two countries, with each side reporting service members were wounded in the attacks. Additional exchanges of fire have been reported between the two countries since as well.
In 2020, a war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and nearby areas, ending just over a month later with a new line of contact drawn and Russian peacekeepers deployed along the line. Sporadic clashes have been reported along the line since the war.