Moscow’s Ambassador Summoned to Armenian Foreign Ministry to Protest Russian Peacekeepers Action on Hakari Bridge

YEREVAN — Armenia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Yerevan on Friday to accuse Russian peacekeepers of being responsible for Thursday’s shootout between Armenian and Azerbaijani border guards near the Lachin corridor.

The incident, which reportedly left one Azerbaijani border guard wounded, happened near an Azerbaijani checkpoint that was controversially set up in late April on the sole road connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian border guards deployed nearby opened fire to stop a group of Azerbaijani servicemen manning the checkpoint from advancing into Armenian territory and placing an Azerbaijani flag there.

A video of the incident suggests that the Azerbaijani servicemen were escorted and seemingly protected by Russian soldiers as they crossed a bridge over the Hakari river flowing through the Lachin district in order to hoist the flag. This fact raised eyebrows in Armenia, with many pointing out that Moscow too had criticized the Azerbaijani checkpoint as a violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.

Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin was seen entering the Foreign Ministry building in Yerevan. He spent about an hour there.

In a written statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the Foreign Ministry said afterwards that it conveyed to Kopyrkin Armenia’s “strong discontent” with the Russian peacekeepers’ actions. It said it urged Russia to “take all necessary steps to ascertain the circumstances of the incident and correct the situation.”

A senior pro-government lawmaker, Artur Hovannisyan, indicated earlier in the day that Yerevan is seeking explanations from Moscow. “Naturally, there is a conversation with our Russian partners,” he told reporters.