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Clashes on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border have ceased

The clashes on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border have ceased, according to defence ministries of Russia and Armenia.

Azerbaijan and Armenia took steps to stabilise the situation on their borders, said a written statement by the Russian Defence Ministry.

It said the clashes in Karakilise have ceased and the situation is currently back to normal and under control.

“As of 5.30 pm with the mediation of Russia, a cease-fire was declared on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the tension on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Putin and Pashinyan agreed to stay in contact, the Kremlin said in a written statement.

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said earlier in a statement that the Armenian forces have carried out “large-scale provocations” against the combat posts of the Azerbaijani army in the Kalbajar and Lachin regions of the state border, while two Azerbaijani soldiers were injured in the attacks.

The Azerbaijani army immediately carried out an emergency operation, the statement said, adding that the movement of the Armenian forces was blocked and its forces and means were damaged.

Azerbaijan’s president and head of the European Council discuss the latest tensions on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

On Tuesday’s phone call Council’s Charles Michel expressed his concern over recent events on the border, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency.

President Ilham Aliyev said Armenia repeatedly resorted to military provocations in the direction of Shusha, Lachin and Kalbajar with the latest large-scale attack, the statement added.

Noting that there were injuries on the Azerbaijani side, he said the necessary response was given to Armenia’s provocation.

Aliyev underlined all responsibility for the current tensions rested with the Yerevan administration.

Earlier, Armenia and Azerbaijan reported military clashes on their shared border Tuesday and blamed each other for starting the conflict amid tensions between the two ex-Soviet nations that have simmered since a six-week war last year over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijan’s military of opening fire on Armenian positions, killing one person and capturing 12 servicemen. The Azerbaijani government, meanwhile, accused Armenia of a “large-scale provocation” on the border.

Armenian lawmaker Eduard Aghajanyan told reporters that 15 Armenian soldiers were killed in Tuesday’s clash, but so far there has been no official confirmation. The Azerbaijani military said two of its servicemen were wounded.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994

Moscow brokered a peace deal last November to end six weeks of fighting over the territory, during which more than 6,600 people were killed. The Russia-brokered truce allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.

Tensions on the two nations’ border have been building since May, when Armenia protested what it described as an incursion by Azerbaijani troops into its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted that its soldiers were deployed to what it considers its territory in areas where the border has yet to be demarcated. Clashes have been reported ever since.

 

 

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