Residents of border regions in the Tavush, Gegharkunik and Syunik provinces were on edge on Monday after enduring three days of late night attacks by Azerbaijani forces on Armenian positions.
The European Union monitoring mission observers toured the regions, meeting with residents, to assess the damage in the aftermath of the weekend-long sporadic gunfire from Azerbaijani positions.
Murad Gavalbabunts, a resident of the Tegh village whose house was damaged by the Azerbaijani gunfire, confirmed that EU observers visited his family on Monday.
He told News.am that at around 12:30 to 12:40 a.m. local time on Sunday, shots were fired at his home when his family was sleeping.
Gavalbabunts recounted that the window of the room shattered as his mother and children were sleeping.
“My mother and children were in the room where the window was shot through. My mother was just sleeping under that window. Fortunately, a few days ago we had moved the bed to the wall a bit,” Gavalbabunts recounted, saying that the rearranging of the furniture helped save his mother’s life.
Andranik Kocharian of the ruling Civil Contract Party, who heads the parliament’s defense committee downplayed the weekend shootings.
He told reporters that the shots that Armenia’s Defense Ministry said were fired by Azerbaijani units toward Armenian combat positions, as well as in the direction of some villages near the border over the weekend, were “sporadic, senseless and non-targeted.”
“Perhaps those standing on the other side decided to fire randomly in the direction of our settlements that day. Such things have happened a lot of the time, it has nothing to do with anything,” said Kocharyan, adding that he saw no link between heightened border tensions and Friday’s meeting between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Asked whether he saw behind the shooting Azerbaijan’s attempts to escalate the situation, Kocharyan said he did not see it “yet.” “As soon as we see it, no such questions will arise any longer. We will get into a full defense mode for our populated areas,” he said.
Azerbaijan intensified its attack on Armenian border positions on Friday, just as the Brusseles meeting was concluding.
The meeting was criticized by both Moscow and Baku, with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan saying on Friday that the talks in Brussels were “against Azerbaijan.”
“Although high-ranking U.S. and EU officials tried to convince us during telephone conversations initiated by them in recent days that this meeting is not directed against us, we know that it is against Azerbaijan, against cooperation in the South Caucasus,” Aliyev said. “It aims to create dividing lines and isolate Azerbaijan.”
Beginning late Friday and continuing into early hours on Sunday, Azerbaijani forces fired at several Armenian military positions in the Syunik, Gegharkunik and Tavush provinces, Armenia’s defense ministry reported.
Azerbaijani forces continued to open fire on Armenian positions in the Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces on Sunday, damaging houses. No casualties were reported.
Armenia’s defense ministry said that beginning at 11:45 p.m. local time on Saturday and continuing until 12:25 a.m. on Sunday, Azerbaijani forces opened fired near the Khoznavar region in the Syunik Province. At around the same time, between 11:45 p.m. and 12:48 a.m. local time, Armenian positions were targeted near Aravus, again in Syunik. Much later, at around 2:20 a.m. local time on Sunday, Armenian positions came under fire near Sotk in the Gegharkunik Province.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry issued a statement on Saturday evening, claiming that Armenian forces opened fire at Azerbaijani positions at 6:30 and 10:05 p.m. local time on Saturday.
“The intensity of the firing varied across several directions of the border,” the defense ministry said on Saturday, adding that between 10:25 to 10:50 p.m. local time, Armenian positions near the Sotk village in the Gegharkunik province were targeted. Later, at 11:15 p.m. local time, the shooting continued near the Verin Shorzha region and later around 12:15 a.m. local time on Saturday near the Kut village in the Gegharkunik region. Between 11:15 and 11:20 p.m. local time on Friday Armenian positions near Aravus in the Syunik province were attacked, while simultaneously, from 11:05 to 11:20 p.m. local time Friday positions near the Chinari village in Tavush’s Chinar village were shot at. Later, between 12:15 and 1:20 a.m. Saturday the Movses village area in the Tavush Province came under Azerbaijani fire.
“The units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia observed significant vehicle movements of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces toward Ishkhanasar between 9 to 11 p.m. [local time],” the defense ministry said in its statement.
Local law enforcement agencies reported damage to civilian homes.
In particular, houses and gravestones were damaged in the village of Movses, while a civilian vehicle came under fire in the village of Karmiraghbyur in Tavush province.
The ministry said that the attacks on Friday and Saturday were aimed to provoke the Armenian soldiers, who “refrained” from taking any action as to not further escalate the situation, blaming the renewed attacks on Azerbaijani disinformation.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry issued a statement earlier Friday, claiming attacks by Armenian forces against Azerbaijan positions. This accusation was denied by official Yerevan.
“There was no reason for the provocations by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the night of April 5-6. By opening sporadic fire on numerous sections of the border and moving dozens of military vehicles, Azerbaijan has clearly pursued provocation as its goal to incite the units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia to take countermeasures in order to obtain facts that would ‘substantiate’ the recent Azerbaijani disinformation,” Armenia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The statement said that Armenia is not interested in escalating the situation in the region and calls on Azerbaijan to stop actions aimed at such an escalation.’
“We also consider Azerbaijan’s assessments on the creation of defense structures on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia unjustified since reforms in the army and army infrastructure is the sovereign right of any country,” added the foreign ministry.
“At the same time, we would like to remind that the proposals of the Republic of Armenia for a simultaneous withdrawal of troops from the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, the creation of mutual arms control mechanisms, the signing of a non-aggression pact and the demilitarization of territories adjacent to the state border remain unanswered,” emphasized the foreign ministry.
“The accusations against Armenia regarding the acquisition of weapons for defense purposes are also not understandable since Azerbaijan continue to acquire many times more weapons than the Republic of Armenia, with Armenia receiving comprehensive information about that,” official Yerevan said in its response.
“We officially reaffirm the commitment of the Republic of Armenia to the peace agenda, as well as our proposal to Azerbaijan to create mechanisms for mutual arms control and demilitarization of territories adjacent to the border between the two countries,” the statement added.
