State Border Service - Armenia staged provocation on Azerbaijani border
By Vafa Ismayilova
Armenia has staged a provocation on the border with Azerbaijan after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's visit to Zangazur region on April 21, the State Border Service’s press service reported today.
The report said that the units of the State Border Service located in Zangilan region's Seyidlar village on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and the positions of the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service serving in this direction on the Armenian side came under the Armenian servicemen's fire in the evening on April 21.
The statement added that the Russian border guards turned to Azerbaijani colleagues, saying that the perpetrators were drunk and asked not to react to the incident.
"Taking into account Russia's appeal, the Azerbaijani border guards showed restraint and did not retaliate. After the incident, the Azerbaijani side was informed that provocative Armenian servicemen had been removed from the area," the service stated.
On the same day, in the direction of Gubadli region's Shurnukh village a group of people moving towards the state border in 30-40 cars chanted anti-Azerbaijani slogans in Armenian, the report said.
"The State Border Service officially states if such provocations repeat in the future, we will take the severest retaliatory measures," the statement added.
On April 21, Nikol Pashinyan visited Meghri and Agarak cities in Syunik (Zangazur) region that borders Azerbaijan. After strong protests, he stopped the visit and instructed law-enforcement agencies to punish organizers of the protests.
Armenia and Azerbaijan resumed the second war over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region on September 27 following Yerevan's provocation on the line of contact. Six weeks of fighting ended with the signing of a Russia-brokered peace agreement on November 10.
The deal stipulated the exchange of prisoners as well as bodies of soldiers following the war. The peace agreement also stipulated the return of Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions to Azerbaijan’s control. Before the signing of the agreement, Azerbaijan had liberated around 300 city centres, settlements and villages, including historic Shusha city.
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