Posted in: 09/13/2022 – 08:22
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Yerevan (AFP) – Yerevan announced that clashes are underway on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, stressing that Baku’s forces, supported by artillery and drones, are trying to “advance” within Armenian territory.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement that “battles” are underway at various points along the border and that “the enemy is constantly trying to advance”.
He added that “Azerbaijani forces continue to use artillery, mortars, drones and large-caliber rifles”, accusing them of targeting “military and civilian infrastructure”.
These large-scale clashes erupted Monday evening, Tuesday, with the two sides exchanging the blame.
At night, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of committing “large-scale acts of sabotage”, adding that Armenian fire had caused “losses” in its ranks.
For its part, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of launching “intense bombing” on its sites shortly after midnight on Monday and Tuesday, towards several cities such as Goris and Sotek.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, asking them to respond to Azerbaijani “aggression”.
In separate talks, Pashinyan said he hoped for an “adequate response from the international community” as clashes continued on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to a statement by the Armenian government.
There have been frequent shootings along the common border between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the end of the 2020 war, which was intended to control the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan last week of killing one of its soldiers in border clashes.
In August, Baku announced that it had lost a soldier and the Nagorno-Karabakh army claimed that two of its soldiers had been killed and more than a dozen were wounded.
After a first war that killed 30,000 people in the early 1990s, in the fall of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed over Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous region separated from Azerbaijan with support from Yerevan.
The latest war in 2020 killed around 6,500 people and ended in a Russian-mediated truce.
With the mediation of the European Union, the two countries are negotiating a peace treaty.
© 2022 AFP
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