A senior pro-government lawmaker in Yerevan has stopped short of linking the shootings reported along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in recent days to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s meeting with top EU and U.S. officials in Brussels on April 5.
Talking to reporters on Monday, Andranik Kocharyan, who heads the parliament defense committee, said the shots that Armenia’s Defense Ministry said were fired by Azerbaijani units towards Armenian combat positions as well as in the direction of some villages near the border over the weekend were “sporadic, senseless and untargeted.”
“Perhaps those standing on the other side decided to fire randomly in the direction of our settlements that day. Such things have happened a lot of the time, it has nothing to do with anything,” said Kocharyan, adding that he saw no link between heightened border tensions and Pashinian’s trilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had earlier denounced as one “directed against Azerbaijan.”
Asked whether he saw behind the shooting Azerbaijan’s attempts to escalate the situation, Kocharyan said he did not see it “yet.”
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“As soon as we see it, no such questions will arise any longer. We will get into a full defense mode for our populated areas,” he said.
At the same time, Kocharyan highlighted the importance of the EU border-monitoring mission in terms of evaluating the border shooting incidents, pledging that the Armenian authorities will do everything “for there to be no more shooting.”
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border began to grow hours after Pashinian’s meeting in Brussels, with both sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire.
Both sides reported shooting at various sections of the heavily militarized border during the nights of April 5-6 and April 6-7. Armenian authorities also reported damage to some homes and civilian infrastructure in two borderline villages.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said Azerbaijan was sporadically firing in an attempt to goad an Armenian military response, triggering further escalation. It called on Azerbaijan to halt its actions.
Azerbaijan brushed aside Yerevan’s accusations, blaming the Armenian side for the border shooting.
