Armenia and Azerbaijan have blamed each other for gunfire along their restive border days before EU-hosted talks to resolve their 30-year-old territorial dispute.
The fighting came on Thursday as the two countries negotiated a peace agreement to end a decades-long standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh. A region recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by Armenians.
On Thursday, Armenia’s defence ministry released a statement that Azerbaijani forces firing artillery. And mortars at Armenian positions in the Sotk region in the east led to four Armenian soldiers being wounded.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said “the Armenian side has once again violated the ceasefire agreement” with “large-calibre weapons”.
“A soldier from the Azerbaijani army killed after a provocation from the Armenian forces.” Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said.
The incident comes just days before European Council President Charles Michel is to host Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev for talks in Brussels on Saturday.
The two also agreed to meet with the leaders of France and Germany on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova on June 1. According to the European Union.
The EU-hosted meeting comes after the United States said “tangible progress” had made at talks between foreign ministers in Washington. DC last week aimed at ending the dispute over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are republics of the Soviet Union. It gained independence in 1991 when the USSR broke up.
They have gone to war twice over disputed territories. Mainly Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region inside Azerbaijan.