By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan on Tuesday denied Armenia’s claim that the cross-border measure it conducted earlier in the day is a “pretext for escalation.”
“Claims by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia that the measures undertaken by the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan against the provocation of the Armenian side is a pretext for escalation is totally groundless,” said a statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
Azerbaijan eliminated the threat emanating from an Armenian military outpost following what it described as a “provocation” that injured one of its servicemen, it noted.
“This measure was purely a retaliatory one,” the statement further said, adding: “Azerbaijan is committed to the peace process, and calls on the Armenian side to refrain from military escalations that would jeopardize the efforts to that end.”
On Monday, Azerbaijan’s State Border Service said one of its soldiers was injured due to shots fired by Armenian forces toward the country's southwestern Zangilan district.
A day later, Baku declared that it carried out a "revenge operation" in response to the cross-border fire by Armenia a day earlier, during which it said it “completely destroyed” the combat post where its servicemen were fired upon.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said four of its servicemen were killed and one injured.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Azerbaijan liberated most of the region during the war in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, opening the door to normalization.
The Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh last September to establish constitutional order, after which illegal separatist forces in the region surrendered.