Tensions between the countries are simmering again after they fought a war last year over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan denies the new allegations from Armenia.
Armenia said on Friday that Azerbaijan had failed to withdraw troops that had crossed the border in a disputed incident.
The statement comes after six months of the worst fighting in decades between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces.
A border incident this week underlined the fragility of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that halted the conflict.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of sending troops across the frontier. Azerbaijan has denied this and said its forces only defended their side of the frontier.
“Yesterday an agreement was reached that today Azerbaijan’s armed forces should leave Armenian territory,” Interfax news agency quoted Armenia’s caretaker prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, as saying at a meeting about the border.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the leadership of its border guards had met with the Armenian side on Friday to discuss tensions at the border. It gave few further details.
While such a meeting would not be extraordinary – border guards from the two sides met as recently as Wednesday – it would be a sign that communications remain open.
What has been happening in the region?
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijani troops on Thursday of encroaching on Armenian territory, months after the two countries fought a war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan claimed Azerbaijani forces advanced 3 kilometers (2 miles) into southern Armenia in an act of “infiltration.” He said that Armenia’s soldiers had responded with an “appropriate tactical maneuver.”
“It is an encroachment on the sovereign territory of Armenia,” Pashinyan said. “This is an act of subversive infiltration.”
Armenia’s prosecutor general has reportedly opened a criminal case into this “infringement” of territorial integrity by Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s leader accused Azerbaijan of attempting to “lay siege” to Sev Lich lake, which is divided between the two countries.
Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, called on the United Nations Security Council to resolve the matter, and urged Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops from Armenian territory.
“Azerbaijani armed forces invaded Armenian territory. They must withdraw immediately,” said Macron.
The United States, which along with France is part of the Minsk Group brokering diplomatic talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, said that it was “closely following” the recent tensions.
How did Azerbaijan respond?
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan said that Pashinyan’s claims were provocative and that Armenia’s border troops were “taking positions that belong to Azerbaijan” in the Lachin and Kalbajar districts.
Armenia had handed these districts over to Azerbaijan last year as part of a ceasefire agreement.
“Azerbaijan is committed to defusing the tensions in the region and urges to take steps in that direction,” said the country’s foreign ministry. The country dismissed the accusations and said that it was enforcing its own border. It said that Armenia’s reaction to the development was “inadequate” and “provocative.”
The latest tensions come after both countries last month accused the other of opening fire in Karabakh and their shared border.
am/wmr (Reuters, AFP)
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