Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has said that an airport near the southeastern border with Azerbaijan was fired upon from Azerbaijani territory hours after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visited the facility.
The NSS said the incident took place in the early morning of August 18 at the Syunik airport in the town of Kapan. Pashinian had flown to the airport on August 17 from Yerevan.
According to the NSS, an unidentified individual fired three shots at the airport from across the border, striking windows and the roof of a building at the airport.
“We call on the authorities of Azerbaijan to conduct a proper investigation of the incident and to take measures to exclude the repetition of such incidents,” the NSS said in a statement.
“The Border Guard troops of the Republic of Armenia NSS are ready for a joint investigation and/or a transfer of relevant videos to the Azerbaijani side,” it added.
Azerbaijan did not immediately comment on the incident.
Syunik airport was recently renovated and is expected to begin regular passenger flights to and from Yerevan next week.
Pashinian was accompanied by Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Minister Gnel Sanosian during his tour of the facility, which last had regular routes to and from Yerevan in the 1990s. The airport's runway is situated less than 100 meters from the border with Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian-populated mountainous enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The most recent war lasted six weeks in late 2020 and left 7,000 soldiers dead on both sides.
As a result of the war, Azerbaijan regained control over a part of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. The war ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire under which Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to serve as peacekeepers.