2012 Armenian–Azerbaijani border clashes

2012 Armenian-Azeri border clashes
Part of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Territory controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic   Claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic but controlled by Azerbaijan
Date 25 April – 4 June 2012 (1 month, 1 week and 3 days) Location Armenian–Azeri border and line of contact, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan
Belligerents
Armenia  Nagorno-Karabakh	Azerbaijan
Commanders and leaders
Serzh Sargsyan Bako Sahakyan	Ilham Aliyev
Casualties and losses
3 soldiers killed, 6 wounded 1 soldier killed, 2 wounded	5 soldiers killed Several wounded

The 2012 border clashes between the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in early June. The clashes resulted in casualties on both sides.

The two countries fought a war in the early 1990s over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while tensions have recently escalated. Since the beginning of 2011, 63 people have been killed in skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The most recent tensions have been concentrated along the section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border that runs between Tavush Province and Qazakh Rayon and started in April with cross-border firing on unknown origin.

Previously, it had been noted that Azerbaijan was increasing its defense spending with the goal of taking back control of Nagorno-Karabakh following a US$1.6 billion purchase of military equipment from Israel after it had been largely kept out of other arms markets with the Armenia-Russia relations and Armenia-United States relations hampering their efforts to acquire arms.

On June 2, in response to the reported wounding of a Nerkin Karmirarghbyur resident by gunfire from Azerbaijan hours after a scheduled OSCE monitoring visit, OSCE monitoring officials conducted a unilateral field monitoring mission in the Tavush region to investigate recent incidents along the line of contact at the villages of Aygepar, Moses and Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, and make photographic and video records of the traces of the shelling.

The first clashes occurred early on June 4, in which three Armenian soldiers were killed and six wounded near the villages of Berdavan and Chinari in Tavush Province. An Armenian Defense Ministry statement issued the same day said the soldiers had died while fighting back a cross-border incursion by Azerbaijani forces into the northern Tavush region during which "the enemy was repelled, suffering casualties."

The following day, four Azerbaijani soldiers were killed near Asagi Askipara, in the Qazakh Rayon of western Azerbaijan. An Armenian Defense Ministry statement said they had been part of a unit of 15 to 20 soldiers who had tried to infiltrate Armenian positions in the vicinity of Voskepar village in Tavish province. A separate shooting killed a fifth Azerbaijani soldier in the same district.