BAKU, May 14. /TASS/. Azerbaijan is committed to de-escalation in the region and is in talks with Armenia on the border situation, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on Friday during a telephone conversation with US Acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.
"The sides have discussed the current situation in the region and have exchanged views on the border tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. <…> Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stressed that Azerbaijan was committed to de-escalation efforts in the region. He informed the US diplomat that in a bid to settle the tense situation on the border as soon as possible Azerbaijan’s State Border Service senior officials had been dispatched to the area within hours and are in talks with the opposite side," the country’s foreign ministry said, adding that both parties agreed on the importance of settling the situation through negotiations.
Border incident
Armenia’s defense ministry said on Wednesday the Azerbaijani armed forced had tried to carry out "certain works" in a border area in the Syunik Province. Later that day, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Azerbaijani troops had crossed Armenia’s state border and moved 3.5 kilometers deep into its territory.
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry said on Thursday the country’s forces were moving "along Azerbaijan’s positions."
After the end of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone last autumn, seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh came under Baku’s control and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan was moved closer to the Syunik Province. Territorial disputes between the parties have surfaced now and again.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the breakup of the Soviet Union, 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.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachinsky corridor that connects Armenia with the enclave. Apart from that, several districts came under Baku’s control.