Azerbaijan accused Armenia of shelling its territory

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense published a statement on its official website about the shelling from Armenia. Armenia denied these accusations. “On September 9, at 03:55, units of the Armenian armed forces from positions in the direction of the Daveli region subjected to small arms fire the positions of the Azerbaijan Army located in the direction of the Sadarak region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic,” the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement. It is noted that the Azerbaijani military took retaliatory measures. Meanwhile, the Armenian Ministry of Defense also published a statement on its official website. “The message disseminated by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan that units of the Armenian Armed Forces allegedly opened fire on September 9 at around 03:55 in the direction of Azerbaijani positions located in the southwestern part of the border is another piece of disinformation,” the Armenian side said in a statement. Disputes surrounding Nagarno-Karabakh The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has more than once escalated into full-fledged hostilities. Thus, in September last year, clashes occurred on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Later, the parties exchanged mutual accusations regarding the shelling several more times. The situation repeated itself in October - then Armenia and Azerbaijan again exchanged fire on the border. Both sides said their opponents opened fire. At the same time, at the end of October 2022, Pashinyan announced Armenia’s readiness to establish interstate relations with Azerbaijan according to the principles proposed by the Russian Federation. And at the end of January this year, the countries filed lawsuits against each other in the Hague court. In May of this year, Pashinyan said that Yerevan and Baku agreed on mutual recognition of territorial integrity. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in turn, confirmed that Azerbaijan has no territorial claims against the Armenian side. However, the next day, politicians had a row at the EAEU summit. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan also disagreed on the functioning of the Lachin corridor. Pashinyan said that this corridor was blocked, Aliyev did not agree with this. On September 1, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of shelling their territories along their shared border northwest of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian authorities reported the death of two Armenian servicemen, and the Azerbaijani authorities reported the injury of three Azerbaijani servicemen.