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    Categories: 2021

BBC: Azerbaijan captures six Armenian troops on border

BBC News

Azerbaijan captures six Armenian troops on border

Azerbaijan captures six Armenian troops on border – BBC News

Azeri troops have captured six Armenian soldiers on Armenia's border, officials say – the latest incident in continuing tensions since war erupted last year.

Both sides confirmed the incident in Kalbajar region, which lies just west of disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia's defence ministry said the six were doing engineering work. Azerbaijan said they had tried to mine supply routes near Azeri army positions.

Azerbaijan made big gains in Nagorno-Karabakh before a November peace deal.

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The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Caucasus mountains flared up again last September for six weeks. Fighting in the 1990s left Armenia controlling the disputed territory. Internationally, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised as part of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said that on Thursday its troops had taken six prisoners by surrounding an Armenian "sabotage" group near a village called Yukhari Ayrim, in Azeri-held Kalbajar. Two groups had been detected and some of the Armenians had escaped, the foreign ministry in Baku added.

The Armenians said the six soldiers had not crossed the border before they were captured.


Earlier this month Armenia accused Azerbaijani troops of encroaching 3.5km (two miles) inside Armenian territory in Gegharkunik, a region adjacent to Kalbajar. The Armenian authorities said urgent security talks had prevented Azerbaijan from occupying that part of Armenia.

In the same area an exchange of fire killed an Armenian soldier on Tuesday, the Armenian military said. Azerbaijan denied the allegation, calling it an accident.

Why did Armenia and Azerbaijan go to war?

The peace deal was brokered by Russia after six weeks of fighting last year, in which an estimated 6,000 people died. About 2,000 Russian peacekeepers are now patrolling in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS