The Armenian Defense Ministry said the report was an “absolute lie.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said one of the members of the Armenian commando unit that allegedly attempted the raid at 11:15 am was wounded and detained by Azerbaijani forces in the Kelbajar region. The ministry said that other members of the unit, whose number it did not specify, retreated.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry promptly issued a statement, strongly condemning “continued military provocations” by Armenia on the day when the UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh requested by Yerevan.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Defense Ministry reminded its earlier report that according to preliminary data, an Armenian reservist participating in military training assemblies had left his combat positions.
“A possible scenario of the reservist’s appearing on the Azerbaijani side and related circumstances are being examined,” the Armenian ministry said.
Later the Armenian ministry confirmed that the Armenian reservist was detained by Azerbaijani servicemen. It published a video showing a group of Azerbaijani soldiers approaching and talking to the Armenian, who appeared in Azerbaijani territory under yet unclear circumstances, before apprehending and taking him to an unknown direction on a truck.
“This video disproves the false information spread by Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry about an attempted penetration by an Armenian commando unit,” it said.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, said the video disseminated by Armenia’s Defense Ministry had “nothing to do with the incident” and itself posted photographs of the detained Armenian serviceman identified as Gagik Voskanian born in 1983.