Associated Press Worldstream
August 4, 2004 Wednesday 4:47 PM Eastern Time

Azerbaijan lashes out at Armenian enclave over military exercises

BAKU, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan sharply criticized authorities in the ethnic Armenian
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday for holding military
exercises, calling the maneuvers a provocation that would hurt
efforts to reach a settlement over the disputed region.

The Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern” about the exercises and
said the international community would not be fooled by the portrayal
of “these actions by illegal armed formations of the separatist
regime” as “exercises of the so-called armed forces of
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

It said the exercises would hamper preparations for the next meeting
between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which backs
the internationally unrecognized ethnic Armenian government of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

A spokesman for the military in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been de
facto independent since Azerbaijan’s forces were driven out in 1994,
said Tuesday that it had begun a 10-day exercise meant to test
combat-readiness and improve coordination in “defensive battles and
counterattacks.”

With no settlement in sight a decade after a cease-fire ended a war
that killed some 30,000 people and drove about a million from their
homes, there are fears a new armed conflict could erupt.

Forces of Nagorno-Karabakh’s government also hold several sectors of
Azerbaijan outside of the enclave itself, and sporadic firing takes
place across the demilitarized zone that separates the forces.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress