Intimidation operation or real threat? Since the beginning of September, large troop movements from Azerbaijan have been reported on the Armenian border. Authorities in Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated enclave Artsakh and Armenia's Defense Ministry on Tuesday released images of military and artillery equipment circulating in the Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik and Syunik regions.
On social networks, various testimonies and videos posted by Internet users also report movements around Artsakh, a region with a majority Armenian population located in Azerbaijan.
European Union experts, sent to the border to observe tensions, themselves said on 5 September that they had "witnessed with concern the increase in tensions and crossfire in the border areas". "We reported on the situation in Brussels," the observers said.
Recurrent shootings at the border
Azeri border fire has increased in recent days. On 1 September, three Armenian soldiers were killed and another wounded in the border region of Sotk. The attack came two days after a French humanitarian convoy led by elected officials tried to defy the blockade that condemns the road to Artsakh. A move that Baku described as "interference". "Taking into account the September 1 aggression and the increase in the dissemination of false information by the country's Defense Ministry, it is obvious that Azerbaijan is preparing for a new war," an Armenian diplomatic source said.
On the bodies of Azeri military vehicles, a white V crossed out with a line was drawn, a symbol that some observers interpret as a map of Armenia separated from its southern region, the Syunik.
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The world can no longer turn a blind eye to Aliyev's ethnic cleansing project in Nagorno-Karabakh," Aix-en-Provence MP Anne-Laurence Petel, president of the France-Armenia friendship group in the National Assembly, said on Twitter.
No communication from Baku
While Baku has not made any communication about any movements, the Azeri media has been redoubling its communication on "Armenian terrorism" in recent days. On Tuesday, Azerbaijan's Press Council accused the BBC of "promoting Armenian separatism" after its publications on the blockade of the Lachin corridor.For 8 months, the 120,00 inhabitants of Artsakh have been deprived of the 400 tons of daily food that previously reached them from Armenia. The Western media, according to Baku, broadcast "false sentimental scenes that are contrary to the reality of the current situation", with the aim of "sowing confusion in the world community".
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Today, the West has launched a 'crusade' against Azerbaijan via YouTube, Facebook and other social networks," former Finance Minister Fikret Yusifov said Tuesday in an interview with Yeni Musavat, a media outlet close to the state. "As a state and nation, we have to deal with it. We must find ways to limit or completely stop the spread of these social networks in Azerbaijan."
The last open conflict between the two countries dates back to 2020. After a 44-day war, a ceasefire brokered by Russia allowed Azerbaijan to take control of 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region populated mostly by Armenians and remained autonomous after the fall of the USSR in 1991.