Armenia and Azerbaijan said on Friday that they had sustained casualties in fighting around their common border, northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia’s Defence Ministry said four of its servicemen had been killed and another wounded in shelling near the border villages of Sotk and Norabak. Azerbaijan said Armenia had struck its positions across the border in the Kalbajar region using drones, wounding three servicemen.
The incident came a day after Armenia accused treaty ally Russia of “absolute indifference” towards attacks on its territory.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of massing forces close to the border, and striking its positions using drones, mortars and small arms fire. Azerbaijan denied gathering forces, but said it was taking “retaliatory measures”.
Meanwhile, four Armenian servicemen were killed and three Azerbaijani soldiers wounded, the two countries said, as they accused each other of engaging in a new round of clashes.
Tensions between Baku and Yerevan have escalated sharply in recent months, as both sides accuse the other of cross-border attacks.
“As a result of an Azerbaijani provocation, four servicemen were killed and one wounded on the Armenian side,” Armenia’s defence ministry said, after earlier reporting two were killed.
The ministry said earlier that Azerbaijan had fired at Armenian positions near the town of Sotk, less than ten kilometres from the Azeri border.
Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers were injured by an Armenian drone strike in the region of Kalbajar, on the other side of the border, while another was injured in cross-border fire.
“We declare that all responsibility for the tension and its consequences lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia,” Baku’s defence ministry said.
Both sides regularly blame each other for starting the violence and both sides accuse the other of spreading disinformation.
The latest clashes mark another blow to achieving peace between the two ex-Soviet republics, which have for decades been locked in a bitter dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars for control over the region, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but largely populated by ethnic Armenians.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of blocking food and aid supplies to Armenian-populated towns in Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Armenia to the region.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but inhabited primarily by ethnic Armenians, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbours since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenians and Turkic Azeris for well over a century.
Despite sporadic discussions on a peace deal to agree on borders, settle differences over the enclave and unfreeze relations, tensions remain high and skirmishes along the shared border are a regular occurrence.
Continued fighting, along with a months-long blockade of Karabakh by Azerbaijan, have strained once warm relations between Armenia and Russia, which is Yerevan’s traditional ally, and which has a peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh.
In a statement on Thursday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry accused Russia of “absolute indifference to the aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia”, and of using a “false excuse” to avoid supporting Armenia. — Agencies
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