Azerbaijan warns of Armenian military buildup on border

Baku, Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan on Sunday warned of an Armenian military buildup on the border, saying any provocation would be ‘resolutely suppressed’.

In a statement, the Defence Ministry said intense movements and military buildups by the Armenian army had recently been seen.

“Recently, the concentration of manpower, armoured vehicles, artillery installations, and other heavy firepower of the Armenian armed forces and intensive movement of its troops in different directions of the Armenian-azerbaijani conditional border has been observed,” the ministry said.

“Most recently, there has been a further activation of revanchist forces threatening Azerbaijan with war, the rise of aggressive rhetoric against Azerbaijan to a high level, and increase of the number of provocative information focused on aggravating the situation in the information environment in preparation for sabotage attempts,” the ministry added

“In case of any attempt of military provocation by the Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijan, it will be resolutely suppressed by the Azerbaijan Army,” the ministry warned.

“We once again declare that Armenia and its protectors will bear the whole responsibility for the aggravation of the situation and any possible provocation,” it said. Relations between Baku and Yerevan have remained tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that also opened the door to normalisation. Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh after an ‘anti-terrorism operation’ last September, after which separatist forces in the region surrendered.