Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blows again on Monday, two days before resuming talks aimed at concluding a peace deal that would, in theory at least, resolve their decades-long conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

The two former Soviet republics of the Caucasus were involved in two wars, in the 1990s and 2020, over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azeri territory but inhabited mainly by Armenians. In the most recent six-week blitzkrieg in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured territory controlled by Armenia for decades.

Negotiations between the two governments appeared to be making progress in recent weeks, especially after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

But Yerevan accused Baku of threatening to use force again, commenting on statements by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev demanding the dissolution of the “autonomous” local government in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A statement from the Armenian Foreign Ministry denounced that Mr. Aliyev is again making “threats of genocide” and “is preparing the ground for another aggressive operation against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” according to the Armenpress news agency.

Tensions remain high, despite peace talks brokered by the US, the EU and Russia, especially after the Azeri army installed a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor, the only link between Armenia and the enclave. Border hostilities are frequent.

Mr. Aliyev, speaking the day before Sunday in the city of Lachin, said that it is time, after the Azeri successes on the battlefields in 2020, for Armenians to abandon the “delusions” about the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Which means “obey the laws of Azerbaijan, become normal, state-loyal citizens, throw the symbols of their pseudo-state into the wastebasket and dissolve their so-called parliament,” the president said in his speech, broadcast by Azeri state television.

Mr Aliyev met last week with Mr Pashinyan in Moscow, where their host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he believed the parties were making progress in trying to reach a peace deal, “despite difficulties”.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the two leaders are scheduled to meet in Moldova, in the framework of a development meeting organized by the EU, with the participation of more than 40 states and European institutions.

Nagorno-Karabakh remains the main point of contention between the two states, while issues such as the demarcation of their borders, the exchange of prisoners and the opening or unblocking of each country’s trade “corridors” that pass through the other’s territory are also pending.