BAKU / YEREVAN (Reuters) – Several Azeri soldiers have been killed and Armenian soldiers and police wounded in border clashes, the two countries said on Monday, accusing each other of invading their territory.
The two former Soviet republics have long been in conflict over the separation of Azerbaijan, mainly the Armenian ethnic region of Nagorno-Karabakh, although the latest clashes occurred around the Tavush region in northeast Armenia, about 300 km ( 190 miles) from the mountainous enclave.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said four of its soldiers had died and five were wounded, while the Armenian ministry said three of its soldiers and two policemen had been wounded in the fighting.
Exchanges of fire began on Sunday and continued until Monday. The two sides exchanged accusations of ceasefire and shelling violations.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused the Armenian leaders of “provocation”.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the Azerbaijani leadership would be responsible for “the unpredictable consequences of regional destabilization.”
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a security watchdog that has tried to help find a solution to the conflict, urged the two countries to talk to each other to avoid further escalation.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan, is run by ethnic Armenians, who declared their independence during a conflict that erupted when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Although a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia continue to accuse each other of firing attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and on the separate border of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has worried the international community in part because of its threat to stability in a region that serves as a corridor for pipelines that carry oil and gas to world markets.
Reports by Nailia Bagirova in Baku, Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Written by Margarita Antidze; Mark Heinrich and Kevin Liffey edition
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