One Armenian soldier has been killed and one Azerbaijani serviceman wounded in fresh skirmishes reported from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said late on Monday that the soldier, Vanik Ghazarian, died at an Armenian army outpost in eastern Gegharkunik province that came under fire from across the border.
The mayor of the nearby village of Akhparadzor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he heard the sounds of gunfire late in the afternoon. He said there were no signs of further shooting in that border area the following morning.
The Azerbaijani military said, meanwhile, that one of its soldiers was wounded by Armenian forces on Tuesday. It did not specify where the incident occurred while accusing Armenia of escalating tensions along the volatile border.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan issued on Tuesday at least three statements denying Armenian ceasefire violations alleged by the Azerbaijani side.
Tensions at various sections of the long border have run high in recent months despite major progress reported in Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on a bilateral peace treaty. According to Yerevan, one of the main remaining obstacles to such a deal is Baku’s rejection of an Armenian proposal to use Soviet-era military maps for delimiting and demarcating the frontier.
Fresh shooting incidents were also reported from the “line of contact” in and around Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The authorities in Stepanakert on Tuesday accused Azerbaijani troops of continuing to shoot at residents of an Artsakh village trying to harvest their wheat.
The authorities report such incidents on a regular basis. They claim Azerbaijani is deliberately trying to disrupt agricultural activity in Artsakh in an effort to aggravate food shortages resulting from the Azerbaijani blockade of the Berdzor (Lachin) corridor. Baku claims that its troops only open fire to stop Artsakh Armenian forces from fortifying their positions.
Source: Azatutyun.am
