Two years after deadly conflicts, tensions reignite between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Situation in the Karabakh region is turning volatile with Azerbaijan accusing its arch rival Armenia of targeting its military positions.

According to the Daily Sabah report published on Monday, Azerbaijan claimed that Armenia targeted its military positions 10 times over the past 24 hours. The ministry said there was no loss of personnel or military equipment, adding that the Azerbaijani military took “adequate retaliatory measures” in all cases.

Since Azerbaijan regained control over much of the region through the 2020 war, Nagorno-Karabakh is connected to Armenia only via the so-called Lachin corridor.

For the last several days, both the countries trade blame for the recent clashes that violated a ceasefire over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Political analyst at Khazar University, Elmar Mustafayev, reported to have told Aljazeera that Armenia recently attempted to break the terms of the trilateral agreement signed by leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia that ended the 44-day war in November 2020. “The provisions of the trilateral agreement remain unfulfilled by Armenia,” Mustafayev said.

“The agreement envisaged the deployment of Russian peacekeeping forces in parallel with the withdrawal of Armenia’s forces as well as the disarmament of local illegal armed groups,” he said. “However, over the one year and eight months since the conclusion of the trilateral agreement, Armenia failed to meet the commitments on withdrawal and disarmament,” he told Al Jazeera.

Azerbaijan reiterated that the “Armenian military-political leadership bears all responsibility for the recent tension that occurred on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, as well as in the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed.”

The recent tension flared after an Azerbaijani soldier was killed by Armenian fire last week in the border region of Lachin, pushing Baku to launch a retaliatory operation against Armenian forces in Karabakh, according to report.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions, according to Al Jazeera.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM