Armenian soldiers opened fire on Azerbaijani military positions in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Region, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Monday.
In a statement, the ministry said Armenian forces opened fire on positions in the Heyderebad neighborhood in the Sadarak district in Nakhchivan at 9:30 a.m. local time.
The ministry noted that no casualties have been reported among Azerbaijani soldiers, who have control over the area.
Meanwhile, the Armenian defense ministry said that a soldier was fatally shot by an Azerbaijani sniper.
Attacks by Armenia on the mutual border have increased in the past few weeks. Most recently, the Turkish defense ministry pointed to this increase and stated that Yerevan has been ignoring the calls for peace by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions. Fresh clashes erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan in late September, rekindling the Caucasus neighbors' decadeslong conflict over the region.
During the conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several towns and nearly 300 settlements and villages from the Armenian occupation. Fierce fighting persisted for six weeks despite efforts by France, Russia and the United States to broker cease-fires, before Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Moscow-brokered peace deal on Nov. 9.
