Caucasus
Mutual shelling between Armenia and Azerbaijan
Two soldiers walk at a military post along the front line in the Lachin Corridor in February. The situation on the border with Azerbaijan is tense. photo
© Gilles Bader/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA/dpa/Archive
The better-armed Azerbaijan keeps the pressure on Armenia with skirmishes – as it does today. According to the Armenian military, Azerbaijan is massing soldiers in the border region.
In the tense situation between the Caucasus states of Armenia and Azerbaijan, both sides have fired at each other across the border.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense in Yerevan reported that four of its own soldiers were killed and one wounded. The Azerbaijani side in Baku spoke of three soldiers injured. The information could not be independently verified.
Armenia: Azerbaijan gathers soldiers
Accordingly, army positions in the district of Sotk on the Armenian side and in the district of Kelbecer on the Azerbaijani side were fired upon. The high mountain region on the border where the mutual shelling took place is about 120 kilometers east of the Armenian capital Yerevan. According to the Armenian military, Azerbaijan is gathering soldiers and heavy weapons there.
Azerbaijani forces have only been present on this border since winning a war lasting several weeks in 2020. The militarily better-armed Azerbaijan is keeping up the pressure with skirmishes like . Baku has also been blocking the connecting road from Armenia to the Armenian-inhabited enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan for months. Around 120,000 people there lack food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
EU Council President Michel calls for a corridor
EU Council President Charles Michel called for the immediate opening of the so-called Latschin Corridor in Brussels in order to alleviate the plight of the population. For a political solution, the rights of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan would have to be guaranteed.