Baku reports shootout, fatalities in Karabakh – Armenian MoD 'unaware of fighting'
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reports a shootout took place on December 27 between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in the Khojavend region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which came under the control of the Azerbaijani army as a result of the second Karabakh war (September 27-November 10, 2020).
The Armenian Ministry of Defense stated that it is unaware of fighting, and that the Armenian forces are strictly adhering to the ceasefire.
The second Karabakh war began on September 27, 2020 and was stopped 45 days later, on November 10, after Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed a peace agreement. The agreement provides for the return to Azerbaijan of control over several regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh; the introduction of Russian peacekeepers into the region and the exchange of prisoners and the return of refugees.
According to Azerbaijan, the incident took place in the direction of the village of Aghdam (Akaku) in the Khojavend region and was provoked by ‘an illegal Armenian armed group or a detachment of six people who remained on the territory, which attacked units of the Azerbaijani army.’
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One Azerbaijani soldier was reportedly killed and another wounded, and ‘all six members of the illegal Armenian armed group were killed.’
Azerbaijani social media write that the attack was organized through a previously dug tunnel.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense stated that the village of Tog (Tug) is under the full control of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, and not a single emergency has been recorded there from the Armenian side.
“The Armenian side is trying to get additional information, not excluding the possibility that we are dealing with an Azerbaijani information provocation,” the statement of the Armenian Defense Ministry says.
This is the second incident in Karabakh since the signing of a trilateral ceasefire agreement. The previous one took place in approximately the same area on December 15-16 and was confirmed by both sides and also by Russian peacekeepers.
