Armenia has twice in two days denied Azerbaijani accusations that it had fired at its military positions in Nakhchivan.

Armenia issued two statements this week, on Thursday and Friday, denying that it had fired on Azerbaijani military positions. In both statements, Yerevan reiterated a proposal to establish a joint mechanism with Baku to investigate reports of ceasefire violations on their borders. 

This round of accusations came a week after Azerbaijan agreed to withdraw its demands for the ‘Zangezur corridor’ — a proposal to establish transit links through southern Armenia — from the peace agreement with Armenia, removing a major roadblock to the signing of a treaty. 

Azerbaijan last accused Armenia of attacking its military positions on 28 July, claiming that an Armenian quadcopter had conducted reconnaissance flights near Lachin, which Armenia’s Defence Ministry refuted.

Three days earlier, after the conclusion of a joint US–Armenian military drill, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of ‘provocations’ using heavy weapons and drones along the border. 

In the same statement, they criticised the West’s support of Armenia, including the US military drills and the EU and France’s provision of military equipment and aid to Armenia, describing them as provocations meant to ‘encourage’ new escalations in the region.

In response, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of using a ‘rhetoric of escalation’ and  stated that Azerbaijan had ignored Armenia’s calls to set up a joint mechanism to investigate allegations of ceasefire violations.

The offer to establish the mechanism was first put forward by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in mid-June, in the wake of a series of Azerbaijani accusations that Armenia had opened fire towards Azerbaijani combat positions.

This offer was welcomed by Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus. Klaar also noted that the EU had for 15 years helped organise similar meetings through the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia, and was ‘ready to share its experiences’. 

In early August, Azerbaijani pro-government media claimed that the US had delivered weapons, tracking equipment, and personnel to Armenia as tensions between Iran and Israel continue to mount. They reported that the equipment was designed to track the trajectories of missiles and other airborne objects launched from Iran and that they would be installed on Armenia’s border with Iran.

The US Embassy in Armenia denied the reports, noting that following the conclusion of peacekeeping drills on 24 July, ‘all the U.S. military equipment and personnel have departed Armenia’.

Read in Russian on SOVA.News.