Four Azerbaijani police officers and two civilians were killed in separate mine blasts in the region of Karabakh, Azerbaijan said on Tuesday and blamed “sabotage groups” as tensions with Armenia escalate.
Security services said two men died early in the morning in the Khodzhavenskiy district. They added that four police officers were killed on their way to the site when their vehicle hit “a mine laid on a tunnel road under construction by illegal Armenian armed groups.”
An investigation is underway into these terrorist groups, the state security service said.
The incident raised the number of people who lost their lives due to the explosion of mines, laid by Armenian forces after the Second Karabakh War, to 61. According to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, clearing mines planted by Armenia on occupied Azerbaijani territories will take nearly 30 years and cost $25 billion.
The standoff between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been steadily heating up despite ongoing talks over a long-term peace agreement.
Earlier on Monday, Baku demanded Armenia immediately withdraw its armed forces from Karabakh and abolish the military and administrative structure of the so-called regime in the region.
Karabakh is a longstanding source of strain between the neighbors, which fought two wars over it – first in the early 1990s and again in 2020 when Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from illegal Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement and Moscow deployed a peacekeeping contingent to oversee it.
Currently, there is an escalation on the line of contact, shelling of positions and a buildup of military personnel on both sides. Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of violating the agreement.
Especially since last December, the blockade of the Lachin corridor – the only land route connecting Karabakh to Armenia – has been the source of strain and left nearly a dozen people dead on both sides.
In a special briefing for diplomats on the current situation in Karabakh, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that despite Azerbaijani efforts through international partners, Armenia and the so-called regime established on Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory continue to harm the normalization process and reject all proposals to reduce tensions.
The ministry argued that the recent holding of “presidential elections” in the region was a provocative act.
There are more than 10,000 Armenian armed forces loyal to the so-called regime in Karabakh, it said, adding that the forces have over 100 tanks and other armored vehicles, more than 200 heavy artillery weapons, including volley rocket systems, and more than 200 mortar systems.
It added that Armenian forces have violated the tripartite declaration signed on Nov. 10, 2020, and Yerevan is preparing for a new attack.
Like every country in the world, Azerbaijan has the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity according to international law, the ministry noted.
It urged Armenia to stop its military activities, give up its “plans for revenge,” stop violating Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and stop supporting separatism and terrorism in the Karabakh region.
According to Baku, Yerevan’s insistence on financing troops in the disputed territory in violation of the 2020 peace treaty is “proof of their objection to the reintegration of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenians into Azerbaijan, which is because they still have irredentist claims on sovereign Azerbaijani territory.”
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