Azerbaijan and Armenian forces exchange fire hours before Washington talks

Europe, News November 8, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Armenian and Azerbaijani border forces shot fire at each other on November 7, 2022. The incident took place only a few hours before a high-level diplomatic meeting was to take place in Washington between the foreign ministers from both sides.

Both sides have blamed each other for initiating the recent border clash and provoking the shootout. Top diplomats from the two arch-rivals are currently in Washington to attend U.S.-mediated peace talks.

The current round of peace talks between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov has been arranged by the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The Armenian defense ministry in Yerevan released a statement regarding the shootout in which it said that Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian positions in the early hours of November 7, the incident took place “in the eastern sector of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.” The statement further stated that there were “no casualties, and the situation on the frontline was relatively stable”

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry also published a press release that accused Armenian forces of initiating the shootout at several locations on the frontier. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called on both parties to “refrain from the actions and steps that could lead to an escalation of tensions.”

The current escalation at the border has come only one week after the leaders from both countries met in Russia for a peace talk. Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for talks.

The meeting arrangement was perceived as Moscow’s attempt to maintain its role as a powerbroker between the two ex-Soviet republics. However, the meeting ended without any substantial progress on the matter.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that the President and the Prime Minister had a trilateral conversation. Foreign ministers from Azerbaijan and Armenia also met separately on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting.

^{Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L), Russian President Vladimir Putin (C), and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attend a news conference following their trilateral meeting in Sochi, Russia, Nov. 26, 2021. (Image Credit: Reuters)}

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has resulted in hundreds of deaths. The latest episode of fighting came on September 13 when more than 100 soldiers died from both sides. Russia was the first country to respond to the conflict and came forward to mediate between the two ex-Soviet republics.

Kremlin claims that Russian intervention and a call between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin brokered a ceasefire between the two sides during the September conflict.

A six weeks long fighting spree between the two countries in 2020 also claimed more than 6,500 lives, until a Russian-brokered truce ended the hostilities. Under the 2020 deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Russia stationed peacekeepers to oversee the fragile ceasefire.