Armenian forces fired at Azerbaijani military positions in the western Lachin region overnight, Azerbaijan said Monday.
A statement from the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that its forces near the villages of Zabukh and Jaghazur were fired upon by Armenian forces late Sunday between 10 p.m. and 10:10 p.m. local time.
"We would like to inform you that in recent days, units of Armenia's Armed Forces have fired on our positions several times, and all these cases have been registered accordingly," the statement added.
Armenia's Defense Ministry later denied Baku's statement, claiming it "doesn't correspond to reality."
The incident is the first of its kind to be reported by Baku since September 2024.
Relations between Baku and Yerevan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions, including Lachin.
Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization talks and the demarcation of their border.
After a series of slow-moving negotiations, Azerbaijan rushed in troops last year September and swiftly seized back Karabakh, whose entire population of nearly 120,000 people returned to Armenia after rejecting a reintegration program Baku offered.
Baku and Yerevan are currently working to sign a peace treaty, which they say is 80% complete, including border delineation, to end the decadeslong dispute over the enclave.
The talks have been tense, with both nations in recent weeks accusing the other of not being interested in signing a treaty to end their more than three decades of conflict that started before the two countries gained their independence from Moscow.
Baku rejects signing a deal with provisions “that have yet to be agreed upon.”
Azerbaijan has said Armenia must change its Constitution to remove indirect references to Karabakh's "independence" before signing a peace treaty.
Earlier in 2024, Armenia withdrew from several Azerbaijani villages it controlled since the early 1990s as part of the peace process.
