Azerbaijan has accused the Armenian side of attempting a military diversion.  

To note, the diversionary teams of Azerbaijan had attempted to carry out a simultaneous infiltration at the line of contact between the Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing forces. The attempts were recorded at around between 11:50pm on January 19 and 12:15am on January 20, in the northeastern (Jraberd) and the southeastern (Korgan) directions of the line of contact. As a result of the ensuing skirmish, Junior Sergeant Armen Hovhannisyan was killed at the military position located in the northeastern direction, and from the gunshot wound he sustained from the adversary.  

The Azerbaijani side, however, either kept silent or denied, for two days, the fact of attempting a military diversion. In the meantime, the Azerbaijani media were telling stories about the wounding of Azerbaijani soldiers.    

And Azerbaijan made a come-back accusation on the third day.

“An Armenian diversionary-intelligence team attempted to cross the line of contact in the southwestern [i.e., Nagorno-Karabakh] direction. [But] thanks to the vigilance of the Azerbaijani armed forces, response measures were taken, as a result of which the enemy attempts to vigorously prevented, the enemy suffered losses, and it was forced to retreat,” the Azerbaijani MOD reports.       

But we can only guess as to exactly when the aforesaid “attack” took place. In addition, Azerbaijan also accuses the Armenian armed forces of breaking the ceasefire.    

In all likelihood, Azerbaijan’s abovementioned operations were a “preemptive strike” to the Armenian and the Azerbaijani FM’s meeting slated for Friday in Paris.