Azerbaijani military forces were behind the killing of five Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the European Union has confirmed.
Said to have occurred during the country’s military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ambassador Vagif Sadigov emphasised that the country has no desire to sweep the incident “under the carpet”.
Speaking to Brussels Signal, Sadigov described the attack as being accidental, with tough environmental conditions contributing to Azerbaijani forces misidentifying a Russian vehicle as belonging to Armenia.
“We are talking about very rough terrain,” he said. “Mountains, winding roads, fog — things like this.”
“The Azerbaijani military… miscalculated and opened fire on a military-type truck and five military personnel inside were killed.”
Later investigation revealed however that those inside the vehicle were not Armenian troops — who the ambassador said constituted a “legitimate military target” at the time — but Russian peacekeepers.
Sadigov insisted that Azerbaijan had no interest in hiding the accidental attack or its nature from the general public, saying that his country was taking full responsibility for the incident.
“The same day [as the attack], President Aliyev called President Putin and officially presented his condolences to the families of the killed Russian servicemen and his apologies,” he said.
“He explained that that was not a deliberate act… but that does not relieve us of the responsibility,” the ambassador added, saying that Azerbaijan had also committed itself to compensating the families of the victims “financially and everything”.
The senior official also confirmed that the commanding officer responsible for the troops in the region had already been dismissed, and that a joint Russian and Azerbaijani investigation into the finer details of the attack is underway.
Russian state officials have confirmed that a number of Russian peacekeepers were killed in an attack in Nagorno-Karabakh. https://t.co/XtmhN0zmSd
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 21, 2023
Insisting that he does “not want to shift responsibility” over the incident, Sadigov suggested that Azerbaijan’s military were not the only ones to have accidentally killed Russian peacekeepers during the operation.
According to the official, another investigation is underway into an attack on another Russian military vehicle, with it being suspected that Armenian forces may have been involved.
“On the same day, another vehicle of the Russian peacekeepers was shot at,” he said.
“They haven’t yet found those [responsible], but they have simply understood that the shooting was coming from the Armenian military position.”
Sadigov added that things were less certain regarding this latter attack, and that while “work is going on” regarding the investigation of both incidents, officials are only “clear” about the circumstances surrounding the former.
He dismissed a claim, also made to Brussels Signal, by Armenia’s Ambassador-designate to the European Union that Azerbaijani forces had killed civilians during one of these attacks.
“That is a lie,” he said.
The European Union has “failed” in its attempts to appropriately manage relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior German Government politician has said. https://t.co/knipULEPYy
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 21, 2023
