Yerevan rejects Baku’s ceasefire violation accusations, claims Azerbaijan has fired towards Armenia

Armenia’s Defence Ministry has again refuted Azerbaijani allegations of ceasefire violations, while in turn accusing the Azerbaijani Armed Forces of opening fire towards a settlement in Syunik, ‘resulting in damage to a residential house’.

Following a week of silence, Azerbaijan has again accused Armenia of violating the ceasefire, claiming that on the evening of 29 March and the morning of 30 March, ‘units of the Armenian armed forces using small arms repeatedly subjected to fire the positions of the Azerbaijan Army’ from the direction of Goris, in Syunik, and Vardenis and Chambarak in Gegharkunik.

In a separate statement published on Monday, Azerbaijan claimed that the same actions occurred from 22:30 on 30 March to 04:35 on 31 March.

Azerbaijan in both official statements also claimed that Armenia had used ‘unmanned aerial vehicles and drones’ in an attempt to ‘carry out  reconnaissance flights over the Azerbaijan Army positions’.

Armenia’s Defence Ministry refuted all allegations, claiming that the statements issued by Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry did ‘not correspond to reality’. The ministry also recalled that Pashinyan’s office has repeatedly proposed the establishment of a joint Armenia–Azerbaijan mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations, which Azerbaijan has yet to respond to, and that the ministry itself has also offered to investigate any accusations should Azerbaijan provide evidence.

For the first time since the most recent round of accusations began in March, however, Armenia accused Azerbaijan armed forces of opening fire, stating that at approximately 00:50, the Azerbaijani fired towards the Khnatsakh settlement in Syunik, damaging a residential house.

In their official statement, Armenia’s Defence Ministry included photos of a broken window and of the bullet which reportedly caused the breakage. They noted additionally that no casualties were reported, but urged the Azerbaijani side to ‘conduct an investigation into the shelling of a residential building in Khnatsakh and to provide public clarifications regarding the incident’.

Since 21 March, there have been numerous reports that shots have been recorded along the Armenia–Azerbaijan border in Syunik and Gegharkunik, ostensibly by Azerbaijani armed forces firing towards Armenian settlements.

That day, various media reports claimed that Azerbaijani troops had opened fire towards Armenian positions in the Gegharkunik region the previous night, while allegations appeared on social media that ‘bullets were also found on the territory of Sotk mine’.

In response to these claims, Armenia’s Defence Ministry characterised the allegations as ‘information that does not correspond to reality’, noting that  ‘sometimes shots are recorded along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border which do not target’ Armenia’s territory.

In turn, Armenian Defence Minister Suren Papikyan said that the ministry always issued statements on ‘all dangerous shots and violations directed at our positions and personnel’, insisting that the shots heard were not targeted towards Armenian territory.

Following this, on 26 March, CivilNet’s journalist Gevorg Tosunyan wrote on Facebook that while filming in Kutakan, Gegharkunik region two days prior, he and his colleagues heard shooting several times, with locals commenting that previously they had heard shooting only at night.

In the period leading up to 21 March, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of violating the ceasefire at least 13 times, which Armenia repeatedly denied.

Shootings heard in the Armenian villages bordering Azerbaijan

Armenia’s Defence Ministry admitted that there were shootings on the border, though they claimed that they did not target Armenia.

OC MediaArshaluys Barseghyan