Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army said that the ceasefire violations have intensified in recent days.
“While enemy forces previously mainly fired in the air, gunshots fired towards the Defense Army’s combat positions and civilian border settlements have now become more frequent,” it claimed in a statement.
It said the Azerbaijani army’s “provocative and aggressive actions” are aimed intimidating Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population and undermining Russia’s peacekeeping mission in the disputed region launched right after the war.
“Any attempt to terrorize the people of Artsakh is doomed to fail,” read a separate statement released by the Karabakh foreign ministry.
It said that Azerbaijani troops targeted on Wednesday Stepanakert and two nearby villages located close to the Karabakh city of Shushi (Shusha) which was captured by them during the six-week war.
The gunfire reportedly damaged the roof of a Stepanakert house rented by a Karabakh Armenian man, Khachatur Munchian, and his family that fled Shushi during the fighting.
“The ceiling was also punctured and a bullet lay next to the hole,” Munchian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He said the house is located just a few kilometers from the nearest Azerbaijani army position.
A spokesman for the Karabakh police said they are investigating the shooting incident and have alerted Russian peacekeepers about it.
Baku did not immediately respond to the reports. It accused Armenian troops instead of firing on Azerbaijani border guards from Armenia’s Syunik province bordering the Zangelan district recaptured by the Azerbaijani army during the war.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry dismissed the claim as an attempt to dodge responsibility for the ceasefire violations in Karabakh.
“The armed forces of both Armenia and Artsakh remain committed to the trilateral ceasefire agreement and call on Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership to do the same,” it said in a statement.
Armenian media quoted the mayor of Syunik’s capital Kapan, Gevorg Parsian, as saying that Armenian and Azerbaijani forces stationed in the area exchanged fire late on Wednesday.