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.
Yerevan says that 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. Baku insists that they did not cross into Armenia.
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 Hovannisian, indicated earlier in the day that Yerevan is seeking explanations from Moscow. “Naturally, there is a conversation with our Russian partners,” he told reporters.
Opposition lawmakers criticized the Russian peacekeepers while insisting that the Armenian government is primarily responsible for Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of Karabakh and attacks on Armenia’s sovereign territory.
“Am I 100 percent happy with the actions of our strategic ally and military umbrella?” said Hayk Mamijanian of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc. “Of course not, just like any other citizen of Armenia. But I am conscious of the fact that the Russian peacekeepers standing guard there guarantee the security of my brothers and sisters [in Karabakh] right now.”