MoD: Armenia fires at Azerbaijani positions in Kalbajar direction

By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's army positions came under Armenia's regular fire in the direction of Kalbajar region, the Defence Ministry reported on June 11.

"Starting from 1345 on June 11, the positions of the Azerbaijan Army in the direction of Kalbajar region were periodically subjected to fire, using small arms from the positions of the Armenian armed forces in Yukhari Shorzha village of Vardenis region," the ministry said.

It ruled out any casualties among the military personnel of the Azerbaijan army.

At present, the situation in this direction is stable, the operational situation is under the control of Azerbaijani units, the report added.

Since June 10, Azerbaijani positions have come under Armenia's fire for the second time. The ministry earlier confirmed that Armenian troops fired at Azerbaijani positions in Kalbajar region.

The fact of firing on the positions of Azerbaijani armed forces by the Armenian armed forces has been confirmed. No Azerbaijani servicemen were killed or wounded as a result of the fire, the ministry said on June 10.

This fact once again proves that Armenia is deliberately pursuing a policy of aggravating the situation on the state border of the two countries and committing military provocations in the run-up to the elections in Armenia, the ministry said.

"The Armenian side bears the full responsibility for the incident," the ministry stressed.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have failed to come to an agreement on the demarcation of their state border following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tension over border delineation gained fresh momentum following the end of the Second Karabakh War in 2020.

Since the end of the last year's war, Armenian-planted mines on Azerbaijan's liberated territories killed 27 of over 140 victims. 

President Ilham Aliyev earlier described Armenia’s failure to provide the mine maps as the main difficulty for Azerbaijani IPDs to return to their homes. He said that this is yet another war crime by Armenia as several servicemen and civilians were killed in mine blasts on the liberated territories after the war.