On the morning of December 29, the armed forces of Azerbaijan tried to infiltrate the Armenian state border and enter the south-east of the village of Chinari in Tavush region, announced Artsrun Hovhannisyan, press secretary of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan, press secretary of the Armenian Defense Ministry, wrote on his Facebook page earlier on Thursday that gunfire had been exchanged on the border with Azerbaijan. He noted that it had occurred "on the part of the border southeast of the village Chinari in Armenia’s Tavush province." According to Oganesyan, Azerbaijani troops tried to infiltrate the area, and the Armenian military units engaged the infiltrators.

Officials say that at least four soldiers have been killed in a border skirmish between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has no information on the armed clashes that have reportedly occurred on the border with Armenia, Defense Ministry Spokesman, Vagif Dargyakhly, told TASS on Thursday.

"There is no official information on the shootout by the border. If it surfaces, the Defense Ministry will circulate a statement through official channels," he said.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry mentioned that Armenian armed forces have 39 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the last 24 hours.

Armenia and Azerbaijan blamed each other for the fighting. The two ex-Soviet nations have been locked in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.