YEREVAN, June 7. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said today that a group of Azerbaijani military personnel made another attempt today morning to carry out engineering work on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border near the village of Verin Shorzha in Gegharkunik region.
“The Armenian troops took steps to counteract this attempt and demanded that Azerbaijani troops stop immediately the work and withdraw the engineering equipment. After that the work was stopped, the equipment was removed to the Azerbaijani section of the border,” the ministry said.
Azerbaijani forces had advanced 3.5 kilometers into Armenia’s Syunik province early on May 12 and also breached two other sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in Sisian and Vardenis on May 13 under the pretext of ‘clarification of border.’ Some of them are still on the Armenian territory
Armenia has officially asked the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to take action against Azerbaijani incursions into its territory.
On May 25, an Armenian contract serviceman V. Khurshudyan was fatally wounded in a shootout that began after Azerbaijani troops fired shots at an Armenian military post near Verin Shorzha village.
On May 27, Azerbaijani troops advanced 800 meters into the Armenian territory surrounded and captured 6 Armenian servicemen who were carrying out engineering work to beef up the protection of the border in Gegharkunik province.
On the same day Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggested that international observers from Russia or other Minsk Group countries be deployed at Sotk-Khoznavar section on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
Speaking at a Security Council meeting later in the day Pashinyan said his proposal was prompted by the tension that has reached an explosive point in that section of the border.
He said his proposal is addressed to the international community and the government of Azerbaijan- Azerbaijan and Armenia must agree to pull back their troops from the border to their permanent deployment places, so that international observers from Russia or other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing county (France or the United States) be deployed along the entire section of the border. -0-