Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, raised his government’s concerns with the ambassadors of foreign states during a meeting in Yerevan.
According to his office, Grigorian gave them “details of the Azerbaijani military buildup along the Karabakh line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border“ and “stressed the importance of international partners’ efforts to prevent possible Azerbaijani aggression.”
A senior Armenian Defense Ministry official, Levon Ayvazian, met with Yerevan-based foreign military attaches to brief them on the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. A ministry statement cited Ayvazian as telling them that the Armenian army is taking “all necessary steps to prevent a further escalation of the situation.” No other details were reported.
Karabakh’s army claimed late on Tuesday that “large numbers” of Azerbaijani soldiers and military hardware are massing at various sections of the line of contact. It released purported videos of the troop movements. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said afterwards that its troops are simply engaging in routine training.
Similar videos were circulated in recent days by Azerbaijani social media users. Azerbaijan’s state security service on Wednesday warned them to stop doing that or face prosecution.
Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition parliamentarian, also alleged Azerbaijani troop movements in Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“It’s still hard to tell whether this is blackmail, a threat or muscle-flexing or a preparation for hostilities,” said Abrahamian.
He suggested that Baku is heightening the tensions in a bid to force Yerevan to accept all Azerbaijani terms of a bilateral peace treaty discussed by the two sides.
A European Union mission monitoring the ceasefire regime along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that it witnessed “increased tensions and crossfire” there for the last few days. “We reported on the situation to Brussels,” added the mission.
Three Armenian soldiers were killed and two others wounded when fighting broke out at one of the border sections on September 1.