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Baku says Armenian servicemen attempted to gain foothold on Azerbaijani territory

According to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, on June 1, a unit consisting of approximately 40 servicemen of Armenia’s Armed Forces infiltrated Azerbaijan’s territory in the vicinity of the Armudlu settlement and took up positions

MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry has stated that a group of servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces had infiltrated the republic’s territory and attempted to gain a foothold in the Kalbajar District.

"On June 1, around 20:00 (19:00 Moscow time) a unit consisting of approximately 40 servicemen of Armenia’s Armed Forces infiltrated Azerbaijan’s territory in the vicinity of the Armudlu settlement in the Kalbajar District and took up positions. <...> As a result of the measures undertaken by the Azerbaijani army, the Armenian servicemen were expelled from the republic’s territory," the statement of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The agency added that "no weapons were used during the expulsion of the Armenian servicemen." The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry called the incident "yet another provocation", placing the responsibility for it on the Armenian side. "The incident once again demonstrated that Armenia escalates tensions on the border between our countries," the agency said.

Following the end of military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone last fall, when seven regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh fell under Azerbaijan’s control, the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan moved to the immediate vicinity of the Syunik and Gegharkunik Regions. The situation there aggravated on May 12. Then, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attempted to carry out "certain operations" in the Syunik Region in a bid to "redefine the border." The Azerbaijani forces ceased their activities after the Armenian Armed Forces took measures in response.

However, both parties regularly report new incidents. On May 27, Azerbaijan announced that it had captured six Armenian servicemen during an attempt to cross the border. The Armenian side confirmed that the servicemen were captured yet emphasized that at the time, they were involved in engineering works in the border area of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Region. Later, Yerevan said that it turned to the CSTO with regards to the escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In their turn, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh proposed their plan for de-escalation, which involves the parties withdrawing troops and beginning the process of demarcation and delimitation of the state border with the assistance of the Minsk Group.