Armenia denies repeated Azerbaijani claims of clashes on border

Baku has repeatedly accused Armenia of opening fire on the border, with Yerevan denying the accusations, or that any exchange of fire took place.

As of Friday evening, Azerbaijan had accused Armenia of firing at its military positions three times since Thursday. Armenia issued three statements in response accusing them of spreading disinformation.

On Friday, the EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia also stated that their monitors ‘haven’t observed any unusual movements or incidents’. They stated that they were continuing daily patrols on the Armenian side of the border. 

Azerbaijan has not claimed any deaths or injuries took place. However, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor’s Office stated that they were investigating the death of a soldier whose body was found near the border for aggravated murder.

After the soldier went missing on Sunday, Armenia stated that they had no evidence that any Azerbaijani soldier had crossed the border.

Azerbaijan’s accusations also came days after US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia James O’Brien’s visit to Armenia.

In a joint US–Armenian statement following his visit, the two countries resolved to ‘initiate formal Armenia-U.S. Bilateral Defence Consultations to regularise planning of defence cooperation objectives’. 

While Armenia and Azerbaijan regularly accuse each other of instigating border clashes, Azerbaijan’s accusations were the first since the two countries agreed to delimit their shared northern border. 

The two last traded accusations over border clashes in April in the leadup to a trilateral meeting between Yerevan, Washington, and Brussels. 

At the time, Baku openly expressed its disapproval of the meeting and accused the West of bias towards Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s accusations follow statements made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in which he stressed that changes to Armenia’s constitution could not be part of the peace negotiations with Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan also said that the draft peace agreement with Azerbaijan was ‘fully developed’ and ‘ready to be finalised and signed’.

He was responding to comments made by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev about how a peace treaty would be ‘impossible’ to reach with Armenia’s current constitution. 

Azerbaijan has previously criticised Armenia’s constitution for containing ‘territorial claims against Azerbaijan’ through its citing of the Armenian Declaration of Independence, a joint decision by the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Karabakh Council to ‘reunify the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh’.

On Wednesday the Prime Minister did not rule out that Armenia and Azerbaijan may start discussing reopening transport links before the signing of the peace treaty.

Read in Georgian on On.ge.