Baku, Azerbaijan
The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia had a phone call on Tuesday to discuss the resumption of fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov informed his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov about the scenario caused by the “massive provocation” of the Armenian army and the measures taken through Azerbaijan to prevent the attack, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Bayramov said Armenia constantly fired on Azerbaijani positions and laid landmines last month. The Armenian armed forces, he added, have not withdrawn absolutely from Azerbaijani territory despite tripartite declarations.
Lavrov the importance of the full implementation of the tripartite declarations signed between the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, and the desire to save conflicts in the region.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of “large-scale provocations” in recent days, saboteurs planted mines and Armenian forces fired “intensively” at Azerbaijani positions.
These movements of Armenian forces led to confrontation, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said, adding that there were casualties on both sides, 50 Azerbaijani soldiers.
Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said 49 Armenians died in the latest outbreak on the border with Azerbaijan.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian army occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory identified worldwide as part of Azerbaijan.
In 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and more than three hundred occupied settlements and villages in Armenia, and the fighting ended with a Russian-brokered settlement.