Azerbaijan holds military drills ‘in Nakhchivan’ as tensions with Armenia continue

Azerbaijan is holding military drills which Armenia has said took place in Nakhchivan. The drills followed over a month’s worth of reports of ceasefire violations between the two.

On Thursday, Armenpress, an Armenian state-owned news outlet, reported that Azerbaijan had conducted command and staff exercises in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, west of Armenia.

Armenpress cited Azerbaijani pro-government media and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence as saying that the exercises were part of Azerbaijan’s 2025 training plan.

However, while Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry and pro-government media have reported on the drills which have been in session since at least Monday, they have not specified where they were taking place.

The exercises come at a time of heightened tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as fears of a new escalation continue.

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The first mention of the drills on Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry’s website dates back to Monday, with a post saying that reservists were trained in the use of small arms and other equipment at a special purpose military unit’s camp. The ministry also said that reservists were given tactical and reconnaissance training.

During the practical classes, the participants completed tasks on withdrawing to the designated area, practicing methods of covert group movement, approaching an enemy facility, setting up ambushes and jointly seizing imaginary enemy’s equipment along with its personnel, as well as other training tasks.

The following day, the ministry announced that a group of reservists were provided with military uniforms and had undergone medical examinations at a training session. According to the ministry, this group of reservists also received small arms and grenade launcher training.

Also on Tuesday, the ministry published another statement about another round of training on artillery units ‘conducted under conditions close to real combat’. The ministry said the objective of the training was focused on ‘improving the practical skills of soldiers, improving the managerial skills of commanders, and improving interoperability’.

On Thursday, the ministry said that reservists conducted another exercise ‘in conditions close to real combat’.

The drills were reported on by several of Azerbaijan’s pro-government media outlets and news agencies.

The drills were carried out amidst a barrage of nearly 30 ceasefire violation accusations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in over a month, including on the border between Armenia and Nakhchivan. The latest accusations came on Monday morning — the day Azerbaijan’s drills began.

That morning, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry accused the Armenian army of firing at Azerbaijani positions from Gegharkunik, saying that its own units ‘took adequate retaliatory measures in the mentioned direction’.

Armenia denied the accusations within the hour, stating that they did ‘not correspond to reality’. They reiterated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s offer to establish a joint Armenian–Azerbaijani mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations and its readiness to investigate the reports.

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