Baku: Armenian saboteurs sought to mine Azerbaijani territories
By Vafa Ismayilova
Armenia continues to circulate disinformation to hide provocations committed by a reconnaissance and sabotage group on the Kalbajar section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border at about 0300 on May 27, the Defence Ministry Spokesman Anar Eyvazov has said.
The head of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press service, Anar Eyvazov, made the remarks to comment on Armenian allegations that the group was involved in the engineering activities in the aforesaid area.
He said that Armenia is trying to present the sabotage group that attempted to mine the Azerbaijani territories and commit a sabotage act as engineers and sappers.
"The question arises: what kind of work could Armenian military engineers perform on the territory of Azerbaijan?" he asked.
Eyvazov stressed that anyone with little knowledge of military affairs understands that engineering work is not carried out in small groups.
"Groups of this kind exist in reconnaissance and sabotage detachments, and it is obvious that they penetrated into Azerbaijan's territory precisely with the aim of committing provocations. Their goal was to infiltrate the rear of our forces serving on the border and mine supply routes to ensure that units moving along the supply routes are blown up by a mine and our units suffer casualties," he said.
The senior officer described Armenia's intention to portray the enemy's reconnaissance and sabotage group's actions as an engineering work "a timid attempt to justify itself".
The Defence Ministry earlier reported that in the morning of May 27, Azerbaijan's armed forces foiled an Armenian sabotage act on the border in the direction of Kalbajar region and detained six saboteurs.
It noted that Armenia's two reconnaissance and sabotage groups crossed the state border in two directions at 0300 on May 27. One group consisted of nine servicemen and the other of 15 servicemen. The movement of the reconnaissance and sabotage groups was taken under control. The Azerbaijan army units took urgent operational measures against both enemy groups that were attempting to mine the supply routes and passages on the country's territory leading to Azerbaijani posts.
From May 24 to 26, the Azerbaijani army positions came under fire in Kalbajar and Gadabay regions from Armenia's Gegharkunik region.
Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed the war after that latter started firing at Azerbaijani civilians and military positions starting September 27, 2020. The war ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral peace deal by the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders.
The peace agreement stipulated the return of Azerbaijan's Armenian-occupied Kalbajar, Aghdam and Lachin regions. Before the signing of the deal, the Azerbaijani Army had liberated around 300 villages, settlements, city centres, and historic Shusha city. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.