Armenia and Azerbaijan have blamed each other for gunfire along their restive border days in advance of European Union hosted talks aimed at resolving their 30-year-old territorial dispute. The fighting came today as the two countries are in negotiations on a peace agreement to end a decades-long standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by Armenians. Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said, the Armenian side has once again violated the ceasefire agreement with large-calibre weapons.
The incident comes just days before European Council President, Charles Michel is to host Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev for talks in Brussels on Saturday. The two also agreed to meet together with the leaders of France and Germany on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova on June 1, according to the European Union. Armenia and Azerbaijan were both republics of the Soviet Union that gained independence in 1991 when the USSR broke up. They have gone to war twice over disputed territories, mainly Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region inside Azerbaijan.
Chidozie Chima | September 13, 2024
