New conflict on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan

This is a special program from the ’ANNA NEWS’. I am Constantine Reztsov.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of violating its border. According to the official data of Yerevan, the Azerbaijani troops entered the Armenian territory by 3.5 km in the area of Lake Sevlich. They came from the Lachin region, which became part of Azerbaijan after the Karabakh war of 2020.

The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the Baku’s actions «a planned provocation». He asked the ’Collective Security Treaty Organization’ to consult on an act of aggression against one of the members.

The Investigative Committee of Armenia opened criminal cases under the articles «Illegal border crossing» and «Violation of the territorial integrity». The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on the political and military circles of Armenia to abandon the provocative statements, to not panic, and to «Accept the reality of the inter-state border regime, and to not escalate the situation in the region.»

According to Baku, the Azerbaijani troops were on their territory. As a proof they mentioned the soviet era maps, on which Lake Sevlich is located between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nikol Pashinyan called Baku’s 1988 paper arguments to be fake.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held telephone conversations with his counterparts Ara Ayvazyan and Jeyhun Bakhramov. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Sergei Lavrov called on both sides of the conflict to resolve the territorial disputes only via political and diplomatic methods.

Jeyhun Bakhramov discussed the situation with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. The head of the diplomatic service of Armenia, Ara Ayvazyan, consulted with the Secretary General of the CSTO, Stanislav Zas, about the «use of tools» of the organization to resolve the conflict.

The CSTO did not intervene in the conflict of 2020 because it was about Nagorno-Karabakh, which isn’t a part of the organization’s sphere of activity. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is an unrecognized state. The current escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border directly affects the Syunik region of Armenia. The CSTO should thus respond to a territorial dispute, concerning a country that is part of the military-political union.

The ’ANNA NEWS’ agency follows the events. Stay tuned