It also denounced Russian peacekeepers for asserting that Azerbaijani forces were the first to open fire during Sunday’s deadly incident.
According to the authorities in Stepanakert, an Azerbaijani sabotage group ambushed a vehicle carrying the Karabakh policemen before being repelled by Karabakh soldiers deployed nearby.
In a statement, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry repeated its claims that its soldiers came under fire as they tried to check the police van allegedly smuggling weapons from Armenia. The Karabakh police strongly denies that, saying that the vehicle transported only its officers and in the opposite direction.
The Azerbaijani statement accused Armenia of continuing to send military personnel and weapons to Karabakh. Yerevan must stop doing that, it said.
“Or else, the Azerbaijani side, using all possibilities, will have to take resolute, necessary measures to disarm and neutralize the illegal armed formations [in Karabakh,]” added the statement.
The Armenian government has repeatedly rejected such allegations made by Baku even before Sunday’s deadly incident condemned by it as an Azerbaijani act of “terrorism.”
The sole highway connecting Karabakh to Armenia has been blocked by Azerbaijani government-backed protesters for almost three months. Baku has ignored international calls as well as a UN court order to lift the blockade.
Karabakh’s leadership has linked the weekend shootings to the March 1 meeting between Azerbaijani officials and Karabakh representatives during which the latter refused to discuss the Armenian-populated territory’s “integration” into Azerbaijan. According to it, shortly after the meeting Baku threatened to take “tougher and more drastic steps” if Stepanakert persists in opposing the restoration of Azerbaijani rule.
Speaking at an emergency meeting on Monday, Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, said that Baku could provoke more violence in a bid to force the Karabakh Armenians into submission.
Meanwhile, in Yerevan, a senior opposition lawmaker, Tigran Abrahamian, said the mounting Azerbaijani pressure is also the result of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s “chaotic” policies.
Abrahamian accused Pashinian of reneging on his 2021 election campaign pledge to continue championing the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. Pashinian is now merely seeking international guarantees for “the rights and security” of Karabakh’s population, he said, adding that Baku will not embark on a genuine dialogue with Stepanakert.
“The Armenian authorities have misled the public, saying that there is an opportunity for peace, a ‘peace agenda,’” Abrahamian told reporters.
“What Azerbaijan is doing now has nothing to do with Armenia’s position,” countered Vigen Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker representing the ruling Civil Contract party.
Khachatrian defended Pashinian’s controversial decision to separate the issue of normalizing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations from that of Karabakh’s future.
“The only thing we should probably do [with regard to Karabakh] is to step up the international pressure on Azerbaijan,” he said.
