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Yerevan, Baku should refrain from reckless steps, Medvedev says

Tensions escalated on the two countries’ border on July 12. Azerbaijan reported that Armenia’s Armed Forces had tried to launch an attack on its positions with the use of artillery systems, whereas Armenia said that the situation on the border had aggravated after Azerbaijan’s attempted assault.

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called on Yerevan and Baku to refrain from reckless steps, he wrote on VK social network on Friday.

"We considered the resumption of air travel to some counties taking into consideration the coronavirus-related problems, discussed the relations of the Russian Federation with CIS countries, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, in the light of the ongoing escalation on the border of those republics. Yerevan and Baku should refrain from reckless actions," his post says.

Conflict on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Tensions escalated on the two countries’ border on July 12. Azerbaijan reported that Armenia’s Armed Forces had tried to launch an attack on its positions with the use of artillery systems, whereas Armenia said that the situation on the border had aggravated after Azerbaijan’s attempted assault. Baku said that its twelve service members had been killed since last Sunday. Yerevan reported that four troops had been killed and ten more wounded. According to both sides, the situation on the border has been relatively calm since July 17.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.