Neither side reported any casualties. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday morning that its troops deployed in the Nakhichevan exclave came under cross-border fire from Armenian army units.
The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the claim, saying that no skirmishes occurred in that area. It said that Azerbaijani forces themselves opened fire at Armenian positions at two other sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Kut, a village in Armenia’s eastern Gegharkunik province, is located at one of those sections. The head of the village administration, Grigori Avakian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that several local residents heard gunfire the previous night.
Baku alleged the truce violations after saying on Sunday and earlier on Monday that Armenia is massing troops and military hardware along the long border. The Armenian military dismissed the claim. An EU monitoring mission deployed on the Armenian side of the frontier likewise twice denied any Armenian military buildup there.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, pointed to the mission’s statements when he commented on the risk of another upsurge in violence in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone.
“We caution and will continue to caution against escalating rhetoric or hostilities along the border,” Miller told a news briefing. He said Washington will keep telling the conflicting sides that “escalation is in no one’s interest.”
Baku claimed that Yerevan may be preparing for a “military provocation” after expressing serious concern over Pashinian’s meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slated for April 5 in Brussels. In a March 27 statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said the United States and the EU are encouraging Yerevan to take “destabilizing actions.”
Miller sought to dispel the Azerbaijani concerns, saying that the Brussels talks will be “about Armenia’s reforms and its democracy, economy and resilience.” “The peace process is not the focus of this meeting,” he said.
Blinken’s and von der Leyen’s unprecedented talks with Pashinian are seen as another show of Western support for the Armenian government’s ongoing efforts to move away from Russia. Predictably, Moscow has also criticized them.
