Armenia alert on disputed border

YEREVAN: Armenia’s leader accused Azerbaijani troops of crossing the southern border and trying to stake claim to territory, in a new escalation of tensions between the arch foes.

Last year Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The sixweek conflict claimed about 6000 lives and ended after Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.

In the early hours of Thursday, Armenia’s acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of new transgressions as he convened an emergency meeting of his security council.

Mr Pashinyan said Azerbaijan’s troops had advanced more than 3km into southern Armenia and were trying to “lay siege” to Lake Sev Lich, which is shared by the two countries.

“It is an encroachment on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,” Mr Pashinyan said. “This is an act of subversive infiltration.”

He said Armenian soldiers had responded with “appropriate tactical manoeuvres” but stressed that the latest tensions should be settled through negotiations.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry termed Mr Pashinyan’s claims provocative, saying the country’s “border troops are taking positions that belong to Azerbaijan, in the Lachin and Kalbajar districts”.

The reaction of Armenia, “which makes provocative statements — is astonishing”, the ministry said in a late-night statement. “Azerbaijan is committed to defusing the tensions in the region and urges to take steps in that direction.”

Armenia, which had controlled Lachin and Kalbajar since the 1990s, handed the districts to Baku last year under the ceasefire agreement.

The US, a key peacekeeper in the region, said it was “closely following” the tensions.