YYerevan — Armenia and
Azerbaijan on Monday
traded accusations of provoking a shootout along their troubled border, just
hours before the arch-foes were to hold US-mediated peace talks.
اضافة اعلان
The incident came ahead of a meeting in Washington
of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun
Bayramov for a fresh round of peace talks hosted by US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken.
With Moscow increasingly isolated on the world stage
following its February invasion of Ukraine, the US and the EU have taken a
leading role in mediating the Armenia-Azerbaijan talks.
The escalation at the border came a week after
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for talks, as Moscow seeks to maintain
its role as a powerbroker between the ex-Soviet republics.
In the early hours of Monday, Azerbaijani forces
opened fire on Armenian positions “in the eastern sector of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border”, the defense ministry in Yerevan said in a
statement.
The statement said there were “no casualties, and
the situation on the frontline was relatively stable” on Monday morning.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry for its part accused
Armenian forces of shooting at the positions of Azerbaijani troops stationed at
several locations on the frontier.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday called on
both parties to “refrain from the actions and steps that could lead to an
escalation of tensions”.
Yerevan and Baku fought two wars over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh — in autumn 2020 and in the 1990s.
Six weeks of fighting in 2020 have claimed more than
6,500 lives before a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities.
Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of
territory it had controlled for decades and Russia stationed peacekeepers to
oversee the fragile ceasefire.
There have been frequent exchanges of fire at the
Caucasus neighbors’ border since the 2020 war.
In September, more than 280 people from both sides
were killed in new clashes.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic
Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The
ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
