The Azerbaijani Army on Tuesday expelled around 40 Armenian troops that entered 400 meters into Azerbaijan’s territory amid heightened tension on the border.
The Armenian armed forces illegally entered Armudlu village in Kalbajar border region on June 1 evening, the ministry’s press service reported on June 2. The coordinates of the stationed troops were 40 degrees 04 minutes 30 seconds north latitude and 45 degrees 54 minutes 42 seconds east longitude. The border infiltrators were withdrawn from the area immediately without the use of any force, the ministry said.
Azerbaijan’s defence and foreign ministries described the incident as yet another provocation staged by Armenia to intensify the situation on the border. The Foreign Ministry issued a press statement on June 2, urging Armenia to put an end to provocations on the border, to refrain from unnecessary escalation of tension and to abide by the international law. The ministry had issued a similar warning after Armenia sent around 20 saboteurs to Kalbajar on May 27. Azerbaijan detained six of the saboteurs who sought to infiltrate into Azerbaijan and plant mines on the supply routes leading to the Azerbaijani Army near Kalbajar. The ministry’s spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva reminded that dozens of Azerbaijanis have been killed due to explosion of Armenian-planted mines, adding that Armenia must not further aggravate the situation by putting more mines in the Azerbaijani territories.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged that the detained men were planting mines but not in Azerbaijan’s but Armenia’s territories.
The situation on the border has been tense since the end of last year’s war that saw Azerbaijan liberate most of Nagorno-Karabkah region and the surrounding regions from the three decades of occupation. The two countries have not agreed on the demarcation of their joint border since they gained independence in the early 1990s.
