Violence along the Azerbaijan–Armenia border has flared up again amid claims by Armenia that Azerbaijan has imposed an illegal blockade on the flashpoint Nagorno-Karabakh region.
On the morning of Sept. 1, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed that Armenian troops had opened fire on Azerbaijani border positions, injuring one soldier.
The ministry also stated that three soldiers were injured by an Armenian attack drone, and it vowed to take “retaliatory measures.”
Soon afterward, Armenia’s Defense Ministry stated that two Armenian soldiers had been killed—and a third injured—by cross-border shelling by Azerbaijan.
It also asserted that Azerbaijani forces had opened fire on Armenian border positions.
“At 12:25 p.m. [local time], units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire on Armenian military outposts near [the village of] Norabak,” Armenia’s defense ministry stated.
The Epoch Times couldn’t independently verify claims made by either side.
Border violence has flared up intermittently since late 2020, when the two former Soviet republics fought a six-week war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Although most of Nagorno-Karabakh’s roughly 120,000 inhabitants are ethnic Armenians, the region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenian forces captured most of Nagorno-Karabakh—an area of roughly 2,730 square miles—along with several adjacent regions.
Armenia remained in control of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh in Armenian) until 2020, when Azerbaijan—with Turkish support—retook most of its lost territories.
The war, in which thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed, ended with a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement.
In the wake of the conflict, Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the Azerbaijan–Armenia border, where they still maintain a significant presence.
The Lachin Corridor
Russian peacekeepers were also deployed along the so-called Lachin Corridor, which represents Armenia’s only land route to Nagorno-Karabakh.In recent months, Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of blocking the corridor in breach of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.
According to Armenian officials, the closure of the Lachin Corridor has led to a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh that includes food and medicine shortages.
Azerbaijan, for its part, rejects those claims and is accusing Armenia of exploiting the land route to bring troops and weapons into the region, which Armenia denies.
In April, several soldiers from both sides were killed in an armed clash near the Lachin Corridor.
Soon afterward, Azerbaijan erected a military checkpoint on the corridor with the stated aim of stopping weapons from being funneled into Nagorno-Karabakh.
At the time, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry stated that the checkpoint, which operates in conjunction with the Russian peacekeeping contingent, wouldn’t impede civilian traffic.
The issue was raised at an Aug. 16 U.N. Security Council meeting, where Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan claimed that Azerbaijan’s “blockade” of the region was tantamount to “genocide.”
At the meeting, Yashar Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s U.N. envoy, rejected what he described as Armenia’s “groundless allegations of a blockade or humanitarian crisis.”
He accused Armenia of engaging in a “political campaign” aimed at undermining Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over both Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor.
Mr. Aliyev said the checkpoint had been set up to prevent Armenia from using the route “for illegal military activities.”
After the meeting, the Security Council refrained from releasing a final statement.
But Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington’s U.N. envoy, said the meeting had seen “strong statements” from council members “that the Lachin Corridor should be reopened.”
Moscow in the Middle
On Aug. 17, Dmitry Polyansky, Moscow’s deputy U.N. envoy, called for “urgent steps to de-escalate the situation, including the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor and the use of alternative humanitarian routes.”Russia was “doing its best to resolve the crisis as soon as possible and help normalize relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he told the Security Council.
On Aug. 30, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed claims that Russian peacekeepers were responsible for the controversy.
The peacekeepers’ mission was to “provide assistance on the ground to ensure the rights and security of Karabakh-based Armenians under new conditions that have emerged because of [Armenia’s] recognition that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan.”
“This was agreed at summits attended by the two countries’ leaders and held under the EU’s auspices in October 2022 and May 2023,” Ms. Zakharova said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan both maintain good relations with Russia, despite occasional disagreements.
Since 2002, Armenia has been a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a six-nation military alliance led by Russia.
Azerbaijan isn’t a CSTO member.
However, only days before Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in early 2022, Russia and Azerbaijan signed a wide-ranging political-military agreement.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev later said the agreement had brought his country’s relations with Russia “to the level of an alliance.”
