July Fighting in Tovuz Provoked by Armenia - Russian Foreign Minister

Baku / 21.08.20 / Turan: The border conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan on July 12-16 this year became the second largest after April 2016. For the first time in the past 26 years, intense battles using artillery, mortars and attack drones took place not in Karabakh, but on the state borders between the two countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this in an interview with the Moscow newspaper Trud.

Referring to the reasons for the exacerbation, Lavrov noted that "the trigger was the decision of the Armenian side to revive an old border checkpoint located 15 km from the Azerbaijani export pipelines, which caused increased anxiety among some and an unjustified response from others and, as a result, launched a flywheel of confrontation with the most unpredictable consequences."

To stabilize the situation, on July 13 this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry appealed to the parties to immediately cease fire. The Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Popov was in direct contact with the leadership of the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. As a result, not on the first attempt, they reached a ceasefire on July 16.

“We count on the soonest resumption of the negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. We are working on this together with our partners in the OSCE Minsk Group,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov's confession can be considered sensational, since until now the Armenian side claimed that it was Azerbaijan that attacked the Armenian positions. Moreover, the Armenians did not just want to establish a post, but used an inadequate response to the actions of the Azerbaijani side.

According to informed military sources, Armenians moved forward, occupying one of the vacant posts of the Azerbaijani side. As the Azerbaijani military approached this post, the Armenians shot their UAZ vehicle, killing several soldiers. This is what caused the start of large-scale battles.   -02D-