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Armenian PM Accuses Azeri Forces of Breaching Border, Sacks Defense Minister

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan September 16, 2021. (Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan September 16, 2021. (Reuters)
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Armenian PM Accuses Azeri Forces of Breaching Border, Sacks Defense Minister

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan September 16, 2021. (Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan September 16, 2021. (Reuters)

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan's troops on Monday of violating the border between the two countries and sacked his defense minister, the Interfax news agency reported.

Another Russian news agency, RIA, quoted Armenia's Security Council as saying the incident took place on Sunday but the Azeri troops had since left.

Interfax quoted an Azeri foreign ministry spokesperson as saying Azeri forces were operating on the country's own sovereign territory and accusing Armenia of "provocations."

The incident marked an escalation of tensions between the two former Soviet republics, which fought a 44-day war last year that killed at least 6,500 people and ended in a decisive victory for Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan did not say on what scale the alleged incursion had taken place but told a security council meeting that he had dismissed minister Arshak Karapetyan over the incident.

TASS news agency said Armenia had reported the episode to Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance of post-Soviet states.

Last year's war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh was ended by a Russian-brokered deal under which Moscow deployed 1,960 peacekeepers to the region for an initial five-year period.

But the accord left many questions unresolved, including the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenians who live there, who numbered up to 150,000 before the war

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Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Rule Out Returning to the ECOWAS Regional Bloc

Head of the military junta in Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani (L) and Interim leader of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traore (R) salute at the first ever Alliance of Sahel States summit in Niamey, Niger, 06 July 2024. EPA/ISSIFOU DJIBO
Head of the military junta in Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani (L) and Interim leader of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traore (R) salute at the first ever Alliance of Sahel States summit in Niamey, Niger, 06 July 2024. EPA/ISSIFOU DJIBO
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Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Rule Out Returning to the ECOWAS Regional Bloc

Head of the military junta in Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani (L) and Interim leader of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traore (R) salute at the first ever Alliance of Sahel States summit in Niamey, Niger, 06 July 2024. EPA/ISSIFOU DJIBO
Head of the military junta in Niger Abdourahamane Tchiani (L) and Interim leader of Burkina Faso Captain Ibrahim Traore (R) salute at the first ever Alliance of Sahel States summit in Niamey, Niger, 06 July 2024. EPA/ISSIFOU DJIBO

Military junta leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso on Saturday ruled out returning their nations to the West Africa regional bloc whose division could further jeopardize efforts to undo coups and curb violence spreading across the region.
The leaders of the three countries announced that position during their first summit in Niamey, the capital of Niger, after their withdrawal from the West Africa bloc known as ECOWAS in January, The Associated Press said.
They also accused the bloc of failing its mandate and pledged to consolidate their own union — the Alliance of Sahel States — created last year amid fractured relations with neighbors.
The nearly 50-year-old ECOWAS has become “a threat to our states,” said Niger’s military leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani.
"We are going to create an AES of the peoples, instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa,” he said.
The meeting of the three countries that border one another came a day before an ECOWAS summit being held in Nigeria by other heads of state in the region.
Analysts said the two meetings show the deep division in ECOWAS, which had emerged as the top political authority for its 15 member states before the unprecedented decision of the three countries to withdraw their membership.
Despite efforts by ECOWAS to keep its house united, the alliance between the three military junta-led countries will most likely remain outside the regional bloc as tensions continue to grow, said Karim Manuel, an analyst for the Middle East and Africa with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“Attempts at mediation will likely continue nonetheless, notably led by Senegal’s new administration, but it will not be fruitful anytime soon,” said Manuel.
Formed last September, the Alliance of Sahel States has been touted by the three junta-led countries as a tool to seek new partnerships with countries like Russia and cement their independence from former colonial ruler France , which they accuse of interfering with ECOWAS.
At the meeting in Niamey, Burkina Faso's leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, reaffirmed those concerns and accused foreign countries of exploiting Africa.
“Westerners consider that we belong to them and our wealth also belongs to them. They think that they are the ones who must continue to tell us what is good for our states. This era is gone forever; our resources will remain for us and our populations,” Traoré said.
“The attack on one of us will be an attack on all the other members,” said Mali’s leader, Col. Assimi Goïta.
With Goïta elected as the new alliance's leader, the three leaders signed a pact in committing their countries to creating a regional parliament and a bank similar to those operated by ECOWAS. They also committed to pooling their military resources to fight insecurity in their countries.
At a meeting of regional ministers on Thursday, Omar Alieu Touray, the president of the ECOWAS Commission, said it had not received "the right signals” about any possible return of the three states despite ECOWAS lifting coup-related sanctions that the three nations blamed for their decision to quit the bloc.
It is not only the three countries that are angry at ECOWAS, observers say. The bloc has lost goodwill and support from West African citizens so much that some celebrated the recent spate of coups in the region where citizens have complained of not benefitting from rich natural resources in their countries.
For the most part, ECOWAS is seen as representing only the interests of its members' leaders and not that of the masses, said Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank.