On the night of September 13, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced shelling from Azerbaijan. The agency claims that at about 00:05, units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened intense fire on Armenian positions in several sections of the border, using artillery, mortars and UAVs. However, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denies the invasion allegations and in response accuses Armenia of provocations.
“Positions located in the direction of Sotk, Vardenis, Goris, Kapan, Artanish and Ishkhanasar were fired upon. Civilian infrastructure facilities are also being shelled.”
The press secretary of the military department Aram Torosyan reported on the dead and wounded in the ranks of the armed forces, TASS reports. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also reports on casualties in the ranks of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Their number is not specified by the parties.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held an emergency meeting of the Security Council of the republic and announced that he had decided to seek help from Russia, the UN Security Council and the CSTO. The emergency meeting chaired by Pashinyan was attended by Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturian and Chairman of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan. In addition, Pashinyan spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, they discussed the escalation of the conflict.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, as of 08:00 on September 13, the situation on the border has not changed significantly, shelling continues.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan called the news spread in the Armenian media about the republic's invasion of the territory of Armenia absurd.
“The only aggressor and occupier in the region is the Republic of Armenia. The presence of personnel and equipment of the Armenian armed forces in the Karabakh economic zone of Azerbaijan is still ongoing.
In response to the large-scale provocation of Armenia, the Azerbaijani Army is implementing local countermeasures and neutralizing firing points.”
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan claims that over the past month, Armenia has been shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the Kalbajar, Lachin, Dashkesan and Gedabek directions, and today it has committed "large-scale provocations." The Ministry of Defense laid the responsibility for the conflict on the military-political leadership of Armenia.
In addition, in the morning, a message appeared on the website of the Ministry of Defense that Armenia was laying mines on the supply roads of Azerbaijani units. Only in the territory of Kelbajar and Lachin regions, 1390 anti-personnel mines (PMN-E) produced in Armenia were found, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry assures.
At the same time, pro-Russian Telegram channels publish videos that allegedly record night shelling of the territory of Armenia by Azerbaijan.
Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan will address parliament at 11:00 (10:00 Moscow time).
The escalation of the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh took place on September 27, 2020. On the night of November 10, Pashinyan, together with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, adopted a tripartite statement on ending the conflict, bringing peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh and transferring a number of regions in the region to Azerbaijan. In Armenia, because of this decision, protests and demonstrations for the resignation of Pashinyan began. In April of this year, large-scale protests took place in Armenia after the prime minister's statements that the international community expects the Armenian side to lower the bar on demands for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. A crowd of thousands of protesters blocked the streets and demanded Pashinyan's resignation because of his intentions to make concessions to Azerbaijan on the Karabakh issue.