Armenia, Azerbaijan Trade Accusations after Border Clashes

Armenia and Azerbaijan have traded accusations of launching a military attack using artillery fire along their shared border, with Baku reporting casualties.

An armed incident occurred on Sunday on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the Tovuz region.

"The Azerbaijani Armed Forces, for no apparent reason, tried to cross the state border of the Republic of Armenia in the direction of Tovuz in a UAZ car," reports the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

"After a warning from the Armenian side, the enemy troops returned to their positions, abandoning the car. At 13:45, Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces repeated an attempt to seize our stronghold, hiding behind artillery fire, but were thrown back by return fire from their positions, suffering casualties․ Armenian had no losses," reads the statement.

In turn, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said the Armenian army had fired at positions held by Azerbaijan in the northwestern Tovuz region, adding that three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and four others injured in a border clash with Armenian troops, the Anadolu Agency reports. 

"The attack by Armenia, with the use of artillery, against the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, constitutes aggression, an act of the use of force, and another provocation," said Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy chief for Azerbaijan's presidency.

He pointed out that Armenia launched the "offensive and provocation at a time when the international community is fighting COVID-19," bashing Armenia's support of a UN initiative for global cease-fire amid the pandemic as "nothing but hypocrisy."

He urged the international community to condemn Armenia's occupation policy against Azerbaijan and its provocative actions along the border.

There are no diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries. 

By Ana Dumbadze 

Source: www.aa.com.tr/