“Over the Easter weekend EUMA (the EU monitoring mission in Armenia) conducted 27 day and night patrols in its Area of Operation including villages Khoznavar, Khnatsakh and Aravus,” the mission said in an X post. “In Khoznavar EUMA observed the impact of two shots damaging civilian infrastructure, possibly originating from an [Azerbaijani] position in the area.”
The gunfire damaged early on Monday a solar panel on the rooftop of a village house belonging to the family of Karine Hakobjanian including three children.
“They [Azerbaijani troops] shoot every night at 10:20 p.m, at 12:30 a.m., at 2:30 a.m., at 4 a.m.,” the woman told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan urged Azerbaijani side on Monday to investigate the incident and come up with “public clarifications.” Baku did not respond as of Tuesday afternoon.
According to Hakobjanian and another Khoznavar resident, Roman Grigorian, the cross-border gunfire continued overnight. “It has become ordinary,” said Grigorian.
Residents of Khoznavar and the nearby village of Khnatsakh have reported nightly gunfire from Azerbaijani army positions for almost a month. It began days after Azerbaijan started accusing Armenian troops of violating the ceasefire regime on a regular basis. The accusations denied by the Armenian military followed official announcements on March 13 that the two conflicting sides have bridged their differences on the text of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
The Azerbaijani leadership has made clear that it will not sign the treaty without securing more Armenian concessions. Armenian opposition figures and pundits have suggested that the truce violations are aimed at forcing Yerevan to make those concessions or preparing the ground for a large-scale military attack on Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ruled out last week the possibility of such an attack, contradicting statements made by his foreign minister. One of his top political allies, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, downplayed on Tuesday the continuing cross-border gunshots.
“[Armenian-Azerbaijani] negotiations will not reach an impasse, and the likelihood of war will not be increased by any steps,” Simonian told journalists.