Defense Ministry: No attack from Azerbaijan to Armenian positions on border

22 July 2020 10:51 (UTC+04:00)

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By Akbar Mammadov

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has denied as fabrication and misinformation Armenian Defense Ministry report on Azerbaijan’s alleged attack on Armenian positions on the border on July 21.

“There was no new attack in this direction. On the contrary, there is calmness in our state border area, we have no losses,” Chief of the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, Colonel Vagif Dargahli told local media.

Dargahli added that however, on the other side of the border, the panic was observed among the Armenian servicemen.

“Some time ago, shots were heard from the positions of the Armenian armed forces,” he said.

Dargahli noted that apparently, another shootout took place between the Armenian servicemen.

“I want to emphasize once again that no new attacks have been carried out, no casualties have been reported by us. The report of the Armenian side is another disinformation,” he said.

The cross-border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia started on July 12 noon after Armenian troops fired artillery at Azerbaijani military post in Tovuz region.

Azerbaijan lost 12 servicemen, including an army general, during cross-border clashes from July 12 till July 16. Armenian forces have also been shelling civilians in villages in Tovuz. An Azerbaijani civilian in Tovuz’s Aghdam village was killed as a result of artillery shelling by the Armenian armed forces on July 14.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Since 1994, hostilities between the two countries have persisted despite the temporary cease-fire agreement. Usually, Armenian forces violate the ceasefire regime on the line of contact. But recently Armenia has increased military aggression on the border.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97