Late in the night on June 18, a major armed incident took place on the contact line between Azerbaijan and Armenian-controlled territories in Azerbaijan, which resulted in casualties. As usual, each party accused the opposite side for violating the cease-fire. However, all casualties were sustained in Armenian-held positions, near the village of Chaylu in Mardakert region. This led the Armenians side to conclude that it was the Azerbaijani side which initiated the clash by attacking the Armenian positions.

The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh authorities claim that its positions were attacked by a group of twenty Azerbaijani Special Forces at 11.30 PM on June 18, and the Karabakh soldiers forced them out after a night of fighting. The details of the incident cannot be checked against independent sources. Meanwhile, the incident itself had strong political repercussions.

The incident took place only 24 hours after the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg, brokered by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev left Saint Petersburg immediately after the tripartite meeting ended, although he was initially expected to attend the St. Petersburg Economic Forum starting the next day. This led to speculation that the June 18 incident was organized as a signal to Dmitry Medvedev, the host and broker of the June 17 summit. This impression was supported by official statements from Azerbaijan, which was seen as an attempt to use the incident as a tool for blackmailing Armenia at the negotiations, and also to pressure the mediators of the OSCE Minsk Group, whose positions Azerbaijan considers excessively pro-Armenian.

For example, according to one Azerbaijani official “this incident showed that the Karabakh conflict is not frozen”. Another statement from the Azerbaijani side stated that “these incidents would not occur if Armenia adopted the amended version of the Madrid Principles” (a recent version of the mediators’ settlement proposal, which Azerbaijan supports and which Armenia allegedly rejects). Hence, the incident seemed to have endangered the negotiation process and increased tensions in the region. The Armenian parties, both the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities declared their commitment to continue the peace talks “despite all provocations”.

The reaction of interested foreign players was aimed to force the sides to keep the negotiation process on track. They all called on the parties to preserve the peace, to prevent casualties, to continue negotiations, to refrain from using force or threaten to use force. Similar statements were made by the U.S., Russia, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and even by Iran.

Armenian authorities, including President Serzh Sargsyan, expressed their discontent with the fact that in no case was Azerbaijan mentioned as the initiator of this incident. This line of the external players continued in the June 26 statement of the Presidents of the U.S., France and Russia and finally, during the visit of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the region on July 4-5. Clinton stated in Yerevan on July 4 that “This was an unacceptable violation of the 1994 cease fire agreement as it is also contrary to expressed commitments of both sides ... So we call on everyone to refrain from the use of force or threat of force … We do not want to see the peace process hurt”.

These efforts have eventually proven successful, as the negotiations are reported to continue after the St. Petersburg summit, with a meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on 16 July in Astana as the next step.