Whilst contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the political and diplomatic level appear to be active, the situation on the ground in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, where the two sides continue to face each other, with sometimes the Russians in the middle, remains tense and fragile.
On Monday (4 April), Azerbaijan accused Armenian troops of shelling its position along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Yerevan has maintained that since the recent escalations last week, the situation on the border has remained relatively calm and incident-free.
A statement from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence stated that Armenian forces had ”subjected to fire the position of Azerbaijani troops in the direction of the Aghdam settlement of the Tovuz region”. It added that the Azerbaijani army had taken appropriate retaliatory measures, and that any casualties among personnel and equipment had been ruled out.
Armenia responded to this accusation, claiming that the statements alleging shelling were false, and stressing that its troops had not opened fire on the Azerbaijani position. The Armenian Ministry of Defence added that the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was relatively stable, and under the full control of the Armenian troops.
Speaking at a Q&A session earlier today, the deputy defence minister of Armenia, Arman Sargysan, said that the overall situation in the village of Farukh remained the same. The village has been the focal point of the recent tensions between Armenian and Azerbaijan, after Yerevan accused Baku of “invading” the territory last week following deadly skirmishes. It is now understood that Azerbaijani troops have withdrawn from the village, which remains under the control of the Russian military contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. Sargysan also said that while there were currently no major clashes, a wave of escalation could happen at any moment, because the peace was “fragile”. He added that due to current events happening in the world, “it is not ruled out that any state will attempt to destabilise the situation”.