Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defence, Zakir Hasanov has said on Tuesday that a soldier had been killed by shelling launched by Armenian forces on the border between the two countries.
“A soldier was killed after provocation by the Armenian Armed Forces at the border,” Hasanov was quoted by Sputnik News as saying in a statement. He said the incident took place in Kalbajar District, Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry strongly condemned what it called “the continual provocations by the Armenian side.”
“Instead of taking steps to normalise relations between the two countries, Armenia carried out a new bloody provocation on the border between the two countries, causing a new wave of tension in the region and taking responsibility for it,” the ministry said in a statement said.
On the other hand, the Armenian Ministry of Defence said “the escalation began as Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenia’s positions, including using drones and artillery systems,” noting that the attack reportedly resulted in the injury of three Armenian soldiers.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence responded to this statement by saying that its forces were “taking equal action in the direction of Kalbajar” in response to the “provocation of the Armenian Armed Forces” without using drones or artillery weapons.
Azerbaijan and Armenia regularly exchange bloody armed clashes despite signing a ceasefire agreement on November 9, 2020 that put an end to a six-week war for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has been contested since the late 1980s.
