Baku accused Yerevan today that Armenian forces opened fire on Azeri military forces overnight and that units of the Azerbaijani army carried out “retaliation”, incidents which Armenia denied.

The claim and denial come amid rising tension between the two rival countries as foreign leaders have expressed concern over the escalation.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been involved in two wars, in the 1990s and 2020s, over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which is internationally recognized as part of Azeri territory but inhabited mainly by Armenians.

On Thursday, Yerevan accused Baku of preparing a “military provocation” by building up Azeri military forces along the border between the two Caucasian rivals and near the disputed enclave. Baku denied this claim.

Today, the Azeri Defense Ministry announced that Armenian military units opened fire with small arms on Azeri soldiers in Sadarak in northern Nakhchivan, an enclave of Azerbaijan bordering Armenia, Turkey and Iran.

The ministry’s statement did not say whether there were any casualties. Armenia’s defense ministry denied that its forces opened fire on Azerbaijani positions.

International concern

The Armenian government and Armenian media reported that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke by phone with the leaders of France, Germany, neighboring countries Iran and Georgia, and with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Baku said the Azeri foreign minister discussed the situation in the region with a senior State Department official, Yuri Kim.

Yerevan reported that Pashinyan told Blinken and Iranian President Ebrahim Raishi, a traditional ally of Armenia, that tensions were rising on the border and Azerbaijan was building up troops around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan told Blinken and Raisi that he was ready to hold an urgent meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev aimed at de-escalating tensions. Armenian state news agency Armenpress said Pashinyan also held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, told Reuters that Baku had not received a proposal for a meeting.

The German chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Hebstreit, said in a statement that Scholz expressed to the Armenian prime minister in their telephone conversation his “deep concern” about the rising tensions between Yerevan and Baku over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Soltz referred to “tensions that have been rising steadily in recent weeks, particularly with the deployment of military units.”

“The German government strongly calls for refraining from any military escalation,” Scholz said, stressing that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan “can only be resolved through diplomatic channels.”

Macron also had a phone call with Pashinyan yesterday and also called for a solution “only through diplomatic channels”.

Yerevan has accused Baku since December of blocking supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, of imposing a blockade on a strategically important route, the Lachin Corridor, causing major shortages and a “humanitarian crisis”.

Baku responds that it has installed a barricade at the entrance to the road for security reasons and stresses that transport can continue unimpeded.

Tension also around the elections

At the same time, Baku denounced the presidential elections held today in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The enclave’s separatist parliament elected Samvel Sahramanian, a military officer and former head of the region’s security service, as its new speaker after the previous speaker resigned earlier this month, citing his presence in the post as an obstacle to talks with the Azerbaijan.

In a speech to parliament, Sakhramanian called for direct negotiations with Azerbaijan and the restoration of transport links with Armenia.

In a statement, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry called the Armenian leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh an “autonomous puppet regime”, calling the elections illegal.

“The Republic of Azerbaijan will resolutely deal with threats to its sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” the statement said.

“The only way to achieve peace and stability in the region is the unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the dismantling of the puppet regime.”

Russia has since 2020 deployed peacekeeping forces in the region, but Armenia has increasingly expressed frustration at what it describes as the ineffectiveness of Russian peacekeeping forces.

Yesterday Friday, Russia summoned Armenia’s ambassador to Moscow to protest recent comments made by the speaker of the Armenian parliament regarding Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the ministry said in a statement.

In its statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized a series of “unfriendly moves” by Armenia, including joint military exercises with the US and humanitarian aid it sent to Ukraine.

Relations between Russia and Armenia have soured sharply in recent weeks, with Yerevan making overtures to Western countries while accusing Moscow of showing “absolute indifference” to Armenia, with which it is officially an ally.