YEREVAN, June 10. /TASS/. Yerevan has reported a shootout between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in the border area of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province, adding that there were no injuries among the Armenian troops. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry’s press service, the incident took place due to the attempt of the Azerbaijani troops to carry out engineering works.
"Units of the Armenian Armed Forces forced the Azerbaijani side to stop the engineering works. There was a shootout. No injuries were recorded from the Armenian side," the defense ministry stated.
After the end of military activity in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in the fall of 2020, when seven districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of Baku, the Armenian-Azerbaijani border moved to the near vicinity of Armenia's Syunik Province and the Gegharkunik Province, with tensions escalating there on May 12. Back then, Armenia's Defense Ministry said that the Azerbaijani forces tried to carry out "certain works" in a border district of Syunik for the purpose of "correcting the border." The ministry added that after the measures taken by Armenia, the Azerbaijani troops stopped these works.
Both sides periodically report new border incidents. On May 27, Azerbaijan announced that it had detained six Armenian servicemen near the border during an alleged sabotage attempt. Armenia confirmed that they had been detained, noting, however, that they were conducting engineering works. Later, Yerevan stated that it had addressed the Collective Security Treaty Organization over the escalation of tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. For its part, the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh regulation offered its own de-escalation plan that supposes that both sides must withdraw their troops and begin the border demarcation and delimitation process with the aid of the Minsk Group.