Azerbaijan announced today that six of its citizens were killed in separate incidents involving landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, accusing "illegal Armenian armed groups" of planting the mines. The majority of the population in Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, is ethnically Armenian and broke away from Baku's control in the early 1990s after a war. Azerbaijan regained large territories in and around the region during the 2020 war.
Baku stated that four employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were killed when a mine exploded in their truck near a tunnel excavation site. It added that another mine killed two civilians who were also in a truck. There has been no comment yet from the Armenian ethnic authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan wants to dismantle in order to reintegrate the region. Armenia stated on Monday that the accusations that its armed forces planted mines in Azerbaijani territory are unfounded.
The incidents occurred a day after food and medicine shipments, critically needed, were delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh via two routes simultaneously, a step that appears to help ease rising tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. However, relations remain severely strained between the two countries.
On Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense accused "illegal Armenian armed groups" of jamming the GPS system of a passenger plane flying from Tbilisi, Georgia to Baku. Meanwhile, the Armenian ethnic group in Nagorno-Karabakh described this accusation as "absolute lies" aimed at diverting attention from what they termed the "humanitarian disaster caused by Baku's illegal blockade" of the region. This refers to the restrictions imposed by Azerbaijan for months on the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, which had not been allowed to be used for humanitarian aid until just a few days ago on the grounds that it was being used for arms smuggling.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry stated on Monday that Azerbaijan's diplomatic stance appears to pave the way for military escalation. Both sides have claimed they remain committed to resolving their disputes through a peace agreement.
