By Mark Dovich
One Armenian soldier was shot dead Monday evening in a clash between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops “in the eastern part of the border zone,” Armenia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
In a separate statement, the ministry rejected reports by its Azerbaijani counterpart saying Armenian soldiers had opened fire, calling it “another disinformation.”
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said the fighting took place between Armenian units in Gegharkunik and Azerbaijani forces in Kelbajar, one of several regions Armenia handed over to Azerbaijan after the 2020 war in and around Karabakh.
It placed blame for the incident squarely on “the Armenian military-political leadership” and reported no casualties on its side.
Since Saturday, Yerevan and Baku have traded several mutual accusations of violating the fragile ceasefire they agreed to at the end of 2020, all near the area between Gegharkunik and Kelbajar.
Just days earlier, the two countries’ leaders held talks in Brussels described by mediator and European Council President Charles Michel as “open and productive.”
After those talks, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to another round of talks “by the end of November.” They also decided to set up meetings between their deputy prime ministers “in November” and between their foreign ministers “within one month.”
Pashinyan later conceded that Armenia’s ongoing normalization efforts with Azerbaijan are “not easy, not clear, and the possible solutions are not obvious,” while stressing his government remains committed to “the peace agenda.”
Monday’s fighting is the deadliest in the region since early last month, when Azerbaijan launched an attack on Karabakh Armenian positions that left at least two Armenian soldiers and one Azerbaijani soldier dead.
In a column for CivilNet Monday — written before the news of the Armenian soldier’s death broke — analyst Benyamin Poghosyan argued the mutual ceasefire accusations over the weekend suggest that “Azerbaijan is once again preparing the ground for the use of force against Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh).”
“After that, the authorities of Armenia and Artsakh will very quickly announce their acceptance of Azerbaijan’s demands,” he added.
In the week leading up to last month’s attack, Yerevan and Baku were trading mutual accusations of ceasefire violations nearly daily, Poghosyan noted.
Following that escalation, the authorities in Karabakh ordered the remaining Armenian residents of Aghavno, Berdzor, and Nerkin Sus to evacuate and handed over the area to Azerbaijan.
