Enlarge image
Armenian soldier at an observation post (photo from 2021)
Photo: ARTEM MIKRYUKOV / REUTERS
Hopes of an end to hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, fueled recently by a peace offer, have been dampened: a total of five people were killed in a clash between Azerbaijani military and ethnic Armenians working for the regional administration on Sunday.
Both sides blame each other for the incident.
The Defense Ministry in Baku said Azerbaijani soldiers had been shot at while trying to stop vehicles carrying weapons.
"There are dead and wounded on both sides as a result of the exchange of fire," it added.
Two Azerbaijani soldiers have become “martyrs”.
However, Armenia's Defense Ministry announced that the convoy had only transported documents and a utility pistol.
It was "absurd" to speak of arms deliveries.
Rather, it is a matter of a "provocation that was planned in advance and instructed by the top management".
The regional, separatist and pro-Armenian authorities said that "a sabotage group of the Azerbaijani armed forces" opened fire on a car belonging to the passport and visa department of the police.
Three police officers were killed.
Conflict flares up again and again
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been at odds over the border region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is mostly inhabited by Armenians.
The area had declared its independence in 1991, but this was never recognized.
For years, Armenia had militarily secured the region, which was mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians, which meant an illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, around 30,000 people have died in the conflict, which has flared up again and again.
Most recently, the violence escalated massively in 2020, more than 6,500 people were killed in fighting until a ceasefire agreement brokered by Moscow came into force, forcing Armenia to give up large areas.
According to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia presented Azerbaijan with a draft "for a comprehensive agreement" for peace in mid-February.
However, the massive tensions persist.
Since mid-December, activists apparently commissioned by the government in Baku have been blocking the only road to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, severely affecting supplies for the enclave's 120,000 residents.
After Sunday's shooting, Armenia said that sending an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh became an "absolute necessity."
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, on the other hand, said the incidents show that Azerbaijan needs to establish "an appropriate checkpoint" along the route of the incident.
fek/AFP/Reuters
