Armenia says situation on border with Azerbaijan is calm

The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border overnight to Tuesday was relatively calm, Armenian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said on Tuesday.

"Overnight to July 28, like now relative calm has been observed on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border," the spokesperson wrote on her Facebook page. The Azerbaijani forces violated ceasefire 17 times at various parts of the border, firing at Armenia’s positions 220 times, she noted.

The situation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border escalated on July 12, when Azerbaijan said that the Armenian army had tried to attack Azerbaijan’s positions with use of artillery systems. Armenia, in turn, said the situation on the border had aggravated after Azerbaijan’s attempted attack. Both sides reported casualties among their forces. Since July 17, the situation on the border has been relatively calm, both sides said. However, reports about shellings near the border and the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh are coming almost every day. On Monday, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported that its serviceman had died from a gunshot wound on the border with Azerbaijan.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.