The Armenian Foreign Ministry slammed actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces as "terrorism" on Sunday, after three Armenian police officers were killed in a deadly armed clash in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 06th March, 2023) The Armenian Foreign Ministry slammed actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces as "terrorism" on Sunday, after three Armenian police officers were killed in a deadly armed clash in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Earlier in the day, Yerevan and Baku reported a shootout between the security forces of the two countries in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan said that the shooting had left casualties on both sides, while Armenia called the incident a staged provocation, adding that Baku spread fake information about Yerevan's alleged transfer of personnel and weapons to the conflict region.
"The official version of events put forward by Azerbaijan is absurd: they have not presented and cannot present any fact and justification supporting that version … The actions of the Azerbaijani forces cannot be described as anything other than terrorism," the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yerevan also urged the global community and international organizations interested in the establishment of real peace in the region "to strongly condemn the use of force and the threat of force by Azerbaijan, as well as another manifestation of provoking large-scale hostilities," and called for "active steps to prevent further violations of Azerbaijan's own international obligations.
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The South Caucasus is considered one of the most conflict-ridden regions of the globe, primarily due to the long-standing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region (also known as the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh).
The most serious escalation of a protracted standoff in years took place in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2022. The hostilities then ended with a Moscow-brokered trilateral declaration signed in November 2020. Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to completely cease fire and exchange prisoners.
However, the situation in the region has still remained tense, with occasional clashes happening between the two countries. In particular, in September 2022, a new wave of hostilities between Yerevan and Baku broke out in an area unrelated to Nagorno-Karabakh, marking the most dangerous situation in the region since 2020.