Conflict in the Caucasus: Armenia and Azerbaijan, exchange of fire at the border
An exchange of fire on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia resulted in the death of seven soldiers from both sides, in a region that the two countries dispute, the scene of regular clashes, the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities announced on Tuesday. The two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus clashed during a brief war in 2020 over control of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, won by Baku, without the two sides reaching a peace deal. Deadly clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh or on the border between the two countries continue to break out periodically. According to a statement from the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan published on Tuesday evening, three army soldiers were killed during the “repression of the provocation of the Armenian side”, without mentioning any injuries at this stage. On the Armenian side, “four soldiers were killed and six others wounded”, according to the Ministry of Defense in Yerevan.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, “the positions of the Armenian army deployed near the town of Dyg (on the border between the two countries) opened fire on the Azerbaijani positions”, which “responded with gunfire”. According to the Armenian report, “Tuesday, at 16:00 (12:00 GMT), Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire on Armenian soldiers who were carrying out engineering work”. As a result of this escalation of tensions, Armenian Defense Minister Souren Papikian, who was in Brussels, cut short his visit to return to Armenia, his ministry said in a statement. A mountainous region populated mainly by Armenians that broke away from Azerbaijan at the breakup of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh continues to poison relations between Yerevan and Baku. The 2020 conflict led to the military defeat of the Armenians and a ceasefire agreement supported by Russia, which deployed peacekeeping troops. They said they noted “two violations of the ceasefire”. Since then, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have met several times, including with EU and US mediation, to discuss a peace deal. However, there are no conclusive results at this stage. A first conflict between the two sides, in the early 1990s, left 30,000 dead and ended in an Armenian victory with Moscow’s support. The Azerbaijanis took their revenge in the fall of 2020, during a second war, which resulted in 6,500 deaths, which allowed them to recover many territories.
By Paul Bumman
