PM reaches out to Moscow and Paris after Azerbaijan’s attack with artillery and drones

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron in the early hours of Tuesday, after Azerbaijan opened fire with artillery and drones on several areas along the border. 

In separate phone calls, Pashinyan told Putin and Macron about the “provocative, aggressive actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces against the sovereign territory of Armenia, which began at midnight,” and “stressed the importance of an adequate response from the international community,” the government in Yerevan said.

The Armenian Defense Ministry claimed that military and civilian infrastructure in Sotk, Vardenis, Goris, Kapan, Artanish and Ishkhanasar have been shelled, and that there were reports of casualties. Azerbaijani claims that the shelling was started by Armenia were “completely false,” Yerevan added.

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry accused Armenian “saboteurs” of mining roads and infrastructure on the Azeri side of the border over the weekend, causing an unspecified number of military casualties. Baku also denounced as “false” the reports of a “full-scale invasion” by Azerbaijan into Armenian territory.

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Armenian media reported that Russia had mediated a ceasefire that would start at 02:30 local time, but Azerbaijan has denied that. The fighting is reportedly ongoing.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds ever since they declared independence from the Soviet Union, primarily over Nagorno Karabakh – which was inside Azerbaijan but had a majority ethnic Armenian population. Armenians prevailed in the early 1990s, establishing control of most of the enclave and territories connecting it to Armenia proper. In September 2020, Baku launched a campaign to reclaim the territory, with the help of Turkish-supplied drones.

A ceasefire brokered by Moscow left half of Nagorno-Karabakh inhabited by Armenians and protected by Russian peacekeepers, while all other territories previously controlled by Yerevan were ceded back to Baku.