Three Armenians were killed Wednesday, September 28 in new clashes on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to the Armenian authorities.
"
Azerbaijan forces opened fire with mortars and other large-caliber weapons towards the east of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border
," the Armenian Defense Ministry said.
“
This resulted in three deaths on the Armenian side
,” the ministry added.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tweeted that these three Armenians were killed "
in an attack on Armenia's independence, sovereignty and democracy
".
"
The withdrawal of troops from Azerbaijan and the deployment of an international observation force on the territories of Armenia occupied by Azerbaijan and the border areas are an absolute necessity
", he underlined.
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”
Deadly clashes
Deadly clashes, killing nearly 300 people, broke out on September 13 on the border between the two countries, which mutually blame each other for the fighting, the most violent since the war in 2020. Calm had returned in recent days, but the situation remains tense between the rival former Soviet republics.
Armenia, an ally of Russia, and Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, have clashed in two wars over the past three decades for control of Nagorny Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian-populated enclave attached to the Azerbaijan, and having unilaterally proclaimed its independence in 1991. After a first war which claimed more than 30,000 lives in the early 1990s, Yerevan and Baku clashed again in the fall of 2020, in battles which cost lives to more than 6500 people.
After an agreement signed under the aegis of Russia, in November 2020 Moscow deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to Nagorny Karabakh.
Busy with its offensive in Ukraine, Russia is isolated on the international scene.
Therefore, the historic mediation of the Minsk Group, led by the Americans, Russians and French, is called into question in the conflict between the two Caucasian countries.
