The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have exchanged accusations Thursday over gunfire on the common border, amid a new upsurge in tensions over the Lachin corridor, which connects Armenia with the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic.
The Armenian Defense Ministry has indicated that «at around 1:10 a.m. on December 15, units of the Azeri Armed Forces have opened fire with weapons of various calibers on Armenian fighting positions in Norabak and Srashen.»
«There are no casualties on the Armenian side,» it said in a statement posted on its website, before adding that at the moment «the situation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan border area is relatively stable.»
For its part, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry has said that Armenian troops started firing on Wednesday night on the Kalbajar region and the Lachin area.
«On December 15, at 8:15 a.m. (local time), members of an illegal Armenian armed detachment on the territory of Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeeping troops are temporarily deployed, fired at positions of the Azerbaijani Army,» it has denounced. «Azerbaijani Army units stationed in these directions took appropriate countermeasures,» he said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday expressed concern over the tension in Lachin and urged the parties to «reduce tensions and ensure freedom and security of movement along the corridor, in accordance with previously reached agreements.»
The Azeri authorities decided to blockade the area and suspend the gas supply, so that the local authorities – who began to stockpile fuel to avoid a major crisis in the face of the blockade – asked the population to use cars only when necessary, giving priority to ambulances and minimum services.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been involved in several clashes in recent years over the control of Nagorno Karabakh, a territory with a majority Armenian population which has been the focus of conflict since it decided to separate in 1988 from the region of Azerbaijan integrated into the Soviet Union.
