“Armenia-Azerbaijan border tension: Shootout kills soldier, exacerbating conflict”

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A shootout occurred in the border area between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thursday (11/5/2023). This has exacerbated the tension between the two countries.

The shooting action also resulted in the death of one soldier from Azerbaijan. Where, according to Azerbaijan, the Armedia troops were accused of intentionally provoking it.

The clashes came amid an intensification of diplomatic talks between the two rivals in the South Caucasus aimed at bringing them back from the brink of all-out conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The enclave is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is inhabited primarily by ethnic Armenians and has been at the center of decades of strife.

Baku last month installed a checkpoint at the start of the Lachin Corridor – the only road route linking Armenia to Karabakh – in a move Yerevan said was a “gross violation” of the Russia-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement.

In Thursday’s clashes, the latest in a series of border flare-ups, both sides said they were acting in self-defence and blamed the other for firing first.

Azerbaijan said Armenian forces had staged a “deliberate provocation” and had killed an Azerbaijani soldier. Armenia’s defense ministry said four of its soldiers were wounded after Azerbaijan shelled its positions near the village of Sotk on their shared border.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the incident was an attempt by Azerbaijan to disrupt ongoing peace talks between the two sides.

The two countries’ foreign ministers met in Washington for four days of talks in early May that yielded no breakthrough. Pashinyan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels on May 14 for EU-brokered talks aimed at easing tensions.

The latest clashes are also seen as a test of Russia’s ability to influence events in the South Caucasus.

Russia is a formal ally of Armenia through a mutual self-defence agreement, but also seeks good relations with Baku. Moscow says a 2020 peace deal brokered to end a six-week war that has killed thousands of people is the only basis for a long-term solution.

(pgr/pgr)