Baku rejects demands to withdraw its militaries from Karabakh village

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence (MoD) has treated the actions of its militaries stationed near the village of Pirler (Khramort) as consistent with the statement of November 9, 2020. The Azerbaijani militaries are in its territory, analysts in Baku have noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Nagorno-Karabakh MoD stated that on March 8, Azerbaijani militaries shelled the village of Khramort from a grenade launcher. Azerbaijan objected stating that its militaries had only opened a return fire, but did not shell the village. On March 10, Azerbaijani militaries fired about 23 mortar shells in the direction of Khramort village, Karabakh insists. A villager was wounded in his back.

The Azerbaijan MoD has denied the information that there is a threat to residents of the village of Pirler in the Khodjaly District (the Azerbaijani name is Khramort in the Askeran District).

According to Adalat Verdiev, a military expert, Baku is reasonably warning Pirler (Khramort) villagers about the inadmissibility of building defensive structures, since the village is located some 500-800 meters from the Azerbaijani military positions; and such structures threaten soldiers' safety.

Mr Verdiev treats the fears of residents of border villages as unjustified. In his opinion, there will be no reason for shooting if the Armenian party withdraws its military units from this village and other Karabakh territories; in Baku, these units are treated as illegal.

Elkhan Shainoglu, a political analyst, also believes that the demands of residents of Nagorno-Karabakh are unjustified. "This is the territory of Azerbaijan... They demand to remove the Azerbaijani Army, and at the same time they want Baku to provide them with uninterrupted gas supply," he said.