YEREVAN — Military authorities in Yerevan have disproved a statement made in Baku about an alleged concentration of a large number of Armenian troops and military hardware near the border with Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that the statement of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to that account did not correspond to the facts.
“The statement released by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming that the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia have concentrated a large number of weapons, military equipment, and personnel near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border does not correspond to reality”, the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“In addition, regarding another false allegation mentioned in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia once again declares that the Republic of Armenia does not have an army in Nagorno-Karabakh”. Read the statement.
Official Baku stated, in particular, that “armed forces of Armenia illegally stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan have intensified military engineering works and other military activities in recent weeks”, and “in recent days, a large amount of weapons, military equipment and personnel of the armed forces of Armenia have been accumulating along the un-demarcated border with Azerbaijan.”
At the same time, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that “Armenia has not stopped its territorial claims against Azerbaijan and its verbal recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan differs from its actions.”
“Azerbaijan reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry underscored.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also described the Azerbaijani statement as disinformation. “The spread of such false information indicates Azerbaijan’s intention to escalate the situation in the region,” it charged in a statement.
