Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange accusations about shooting on the border amid heightened tensions in Lachin

MADRID, 15 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan have exchanged accusations on Thursday about shooting on the common border, amid a new rise in tensions around the Lachin corridor, which connects Armenia with the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabagh.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense has indicated that "at around 1:10 am on December 15, units of the Azeri Armed Forces opened fire with weapons of different calibers against Armenian combat positions in Norabak and Srashen."

"There are no victims on the Armenian side," he said in a statement posted on his website, before adding that at the moment "the situation in the border area between Armenia and Azerbaijan is relatively stable."

For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has said that the Armenian troops began firing on Wednesday night against the Kalbajar region and the Lachin area.

"On December 15, at 8:15 a.m. (local time), members of an illegal Armenian armed detachment in the territory of Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeeping troops are temporarily deployed, fired at positions of the Azeri Army," it denounced. "Azerbaijani Army units stationed at these addresses took appropriate response measures," he concluded.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, expressed his concern on Wednesday about the tension in Lachín and urged the parties to "reduce tensions and guarantee freedom and security of movement along the corridor, in accordance with the agreements reached previously".

The Azeri authorities decided to blockade the area and suspend the gas supply, so that the local authorities - who began to store fuel to avoid a major crisis in the face of the blockade - asked the population to use the car only when necessary, giving priority to ambulances and minimum services.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been involved in various confrontations in recent years over the control of Nagorno Karabagh, a territory with a majority Armenian population that has been the focus of conflict since it decided to separate in 1988 from the Azerbaijan region integrated into the Soviet Union.