Eurasia Press & News
Armenia and Azerbaijan reported casualties after intense shelling near their common border on September 1, northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said three soldiers were killed on September 1 in intense shelling near the border with Azerbaijan northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ministry initially reported two soldiers had been killed and then raised the number to four but later said one of those believed to have died was resuscitated. The soldier has a severe gunshot wound and is in critical condition. One other soldier was wounded.
The ministry said Armenian positions were hit near the settlements of Sotk and Norabak, which are about 8 kilometers from the border.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry in turn said Armenian forces in the area had been firing on positions in Azerbaijan and that Armenia was bringing more troops to the area.
Azerbaijan said Armenia had struck its positions across the border in the Kalbacar region using drones, wounding three soldiers.
The latest escalation escalation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border comes amid a continuing crisis over Nagorno-Karabakh where Yerevan and local ethnic Armenian authorities accuse Baku of continuing an “illegal blockade” of the region, resulting in severe shortages of food, fuel, and other basic products.
Baku denies it is blockading the region and has proposed opening an alternative road passing through the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Agdam, but ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have rejected that offer.
The United States on August 31 again expressed serious concern over the dire humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and renewed its calls for the immediate reopening of the only road connecting the region to Armenia.
Separately, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader, Arayik Harutiunian, who announced his resignation on August 31, called on his colleagues to soberly assess the situation and support the newly emerging government on the challenge of overcoming the humanitarian catastrophe.
Harutiunian made the comments on September 1 at a meeting with representatives of the government during which he introduced newly appointed State Minister Samvel Shahramanian, according to the press service of the president’s office.
“The president expressed his gratitude to Samvel Shahramanyan for accepting the offer to take the post of state minister in this difficult historical period,” the press service said.
Harutiunian’s resignation comes amid rising political tensions in the region over the blockade and apparent differences in approaches to dealing with the situation.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but inhabited primarily by ethnic Armenians, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbors since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
