The hatchet is not yet buried between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two countries accused each other on Tuesday February 13 of having carried out shooting at the border, an incident which left at least four Armenian soldiers dead according to Yerevan.
Tuesday morning, "fire by the Azerbaijani armed forces towards Armenian combat positions near Nerkin Hand (in the south-east of Armenia, Editor's note) left four dead in combat and one injured on the Armenian side", indicated the Armenian Ministry of Defense in a press release. A previous report given by Yerevan reported two soldiers killed in this border clash.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Border Guard Service affirmed that the Azerbaijani army had carried out a "revenge operation" in response to a "provocation" by Armenian forces committed Monday evening according to Baku and having injured an Azerbaijani soldier.
The Kremlin calls for “restraint”
According to a statement from the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Armenian forces fired twice on Monday evening at its positions "in the direction of the village of Kokhanabi, in the Tovouz region" (northwest Azerbaijan).
At the end of the operation on Tuesday, "the military post from which these shots came (...) was completely destroyed", assured the Azerbaijan Border Guard Service, promising an "even more severe and resolute response " to "every provocation" on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Armenian Defense Ministry, for its part, rejected these accusations, saying that they “do not correspond to reality”.
The Kremlin called on “both parties to exercise restraint”.
This incident occurs a few days after the re-election as head of Azerbaijan of Ilham Aliev, in power for two decades in this hydrocarbon-rich country.
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The 62-year-old strongman from Baku is riding high on his military victory against the Armenian separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, which put an end to three decades of secessionism marked by two wars.
In September 2023, the Azerbaijani army, thanks to a lightning offensive, took full control of this mountainous enclave which had been ruled by Armenian separatists for decades, prompting tens of thousands to flee to Armenia. of inhabitants.
Precarious balance
The Azerbaijani president is, however, suspected by Yerevan of having other territorial ambitions: control of the Armenian region of Siounik to connect the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhitchevan to the rest of Azerbaijan.
With this in mind, Armenia officially joined the International Criminal Court at the end of January, which investigates and judges those accused of the most serious crimes affecting the entire international community.
Azerbaijan, for its part, denies any desire for territorial expansion.
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But the balance remains fragile between the two enemy neighbors in the Caucasus: armed incidents like that of Tuesday still regularly take place at the border. Enough to push many informed observers to remain cautious about the progress of negotiations between Baku and Yerevan, as the disagreements and sources of tension between the two countries have accumulated over thirty years.
In recent months, several rounds of negotiations led separately by the European Union, the United States and Russia – Armenia's traditional ally – have not produced results.
At the end of January, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said he had proposed to Azerbaijan to sign a "non-aggression pact", pending a peace treaty, a few weeks after his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, had assured that he did not want a “new war”.
At the beginning of December 2023, the two countries committed to taking “concrete measures” to “normalize” their ties. Less than a week later, they exchanged prisoners of war.
With AFP
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