Azerbaijan carries out ‘revenge’ against cross-border fire by Armenia

Istanbul, Turkey - Baku early on Tuesday said it carried out a ‘revenge operation’ in response to a cross-border fire by Armenia a day earlier, injuring one Azerbaijani serviceman.

“As a result of the operation, the combat post of the Armenian Armed Forces near the Nerkin-and settlement of Gafan district, where our soldiers were fired upon yesterday (Monday), was completely destroyed, and the combat positions were silenced,” said a statement by Azerbaijan’s State Border Service.

There are reports of serious casualties among the personnel of the destroyed combat post, the statement noted, saying: “Every provocation of the Armenian side aimed at aggravating the operational conditions at the Azerbaijan-armenia conditional state border will be answered with more serious and decisive measures from now on.”

“The military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the incident,” it added.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said four of its servicemen were killed and one injured.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry also said its military positions in the country’s northwestern Tovuz district were fired on by Armenia late on Monday.

The operation came as Azerbaijan’s State Border Service said on Monday that one of its soldiers was injured due to shots fired by Armenian forces toward the country’s southwestern Zangilan district.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry defined the cross-border fire as a ‘serious blow’ to the peace process between Baku and Yerevan, saying such actions, in light of the stable situation in the region over the last four to five months, ‘blatantly contradict’ Armenia’s peace messages.

“Moreover, such a provocation that was undertaken exactly in the territories observed by the European Union Mission in Armenia raises serious concerns about the aims and purposes of this Mission,” it added.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Azerbaijan liberated most of the region during the war in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, opening the door to normalisation.