Armenia Says 2 Killed In Border Flare-up With Azerbaijan

Muhammad Irfan Published February 13, 2024 | 05:46 PM

Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Tuesday of opening fire on their volatile border, with Yerevan saying two soldiers were killed by Azeri forces in the southern region of Siunik

Yerevan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Feb, 2024) Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Tuesday of opening fire on their volatile border, with Yerevan saying two soldiers were killed by Azeri forces in the southern region of Siunik.

Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars -- in 2020 and in the 1990s -- over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured in a lightning offensive last year.

"Units of the Azerbaijani armed forces discharged fire from small arms towards the Armenian combat positions in the vicinity of Nerkin Hand (village)" on Tuesday, Armenia's defence ministry said in a statement.

It said two soldiers had been killed in action and several wounded.

But Azerbaijan's border guards said this was a "riposte" to a "provocation" on Monday by Armenian troops that Baku said had injured one Azerbaijani soldier.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenian troops had opened fire twice late Monday on Kokhanabi village in the northeastern Tovuz region.

Armenia denied the allegation, saying the claim that its troops had twice "fired against the direction of Azerbaijani positions situated in the northeastern part of the border, does not align with reality".

Almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population of Karabakh -- more than 100,000 people -- fled for Armenia following Baku's takeover, sparking a refugee crisis.

The border flare-up comes shortly after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was re-elected for a fifth term to steer the gas-rich Central Asian nation.

His win was an expected outcome after his country's historic victory over Armenian separatists last year.

Aliyev is suspected of trying to wrest control over Armenia's Siunik region to link Azerbaijan to the exclave of Nakhchivan, which is also bordered by Iran and Turkey.