Azerbaijan accused Armenia at the weekend of continuing to send military personnel and weapons to Karabakh with the help of Russian peacekeepers deployed there. Yerevan was quick to deny that.
Meeting with the Azerbaijani army top brass in Baku on Saturday, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said his troops must be prepared to take “preventive” and “resolute” actions to thwart Armenian “provocations.”
In a statement released after the meeting, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry demanded that “illegal Armenian armed units” be disarmed and removed from Karabakh. It said the Russian peacekeepers must help Baku achieve that objective.
The Azerbaijani military already threatened to “disarm and neutralize” Karabakh Armenian forces on March 7 two days after a shootout outside Stepanakert left three Karabakh Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. It claimed that its soldiers came under fire as they tried to check a Karabakh police vehicle allegedly smuggling weapons from Armenia.
The Armenian side strongly denied that, saying that the vehicle transported only policemen and was ambushed by Azerbaijani special forces. Yerevan accused Baku on March 8 of preparing the ground for another attack on Karabakh.
The Armenian government’s press office reported that Pashinian raised with Putin the March 5 shootings and their “consequences” during what was their third phone conversation in 41 days.
“In the context of overcoming the crisis in Karabakh, the Armenian prime minister prioritized a targeted response by the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement. It did not elaborate.
According to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, Putin “emphasized the need to resolve all emerging issues in a constructive manner, in close contact and interaction of the parties with Russian peacekeepers.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry last week criticized “bellicose rhetoric” on the Karabakh conflict and urged both sides to “strictly” comply with their Russian-brokered agreements.
Moscow has still not publicly reacted to the Azerbaijani allegations that the Russian peacekeepers escorted Armenian military convoys in Karabakh.