ARMENIA, AZERBAIJANI FORCES EXCHANGE GUNFIRE, MORTARS NEAR DISPUTED ENCLAVE
Aida Sultanova

AP Worldstream
Mar 07, 2006

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars
along several border points, military officials said Tuesday, in the
most serious outbreak of violence to hit the region in months.

Azerbaijani officials said one of its soldiers was killed and one
seriously wounded in the firing that took place late Monday and early
Tuesday in at least three separate locations. Armenian forces said
several of their troops were wounded.

Tensions are high between the two countries, which remain at odds over
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within
Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994 after six
years of fighting, and the enclave is now under the control of ethnic
Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani forces across a kilometer-wide
(half-mile-wide) no man’s land.

Sporadic clashes, however, break out along the Nagorno-Karabakh
border and land mines continue to kill people every year. The lack of
resolution for the enclave has held up the development of the entire
Caucasus region.

Since the breakdown of talks last month aimed at resolving
Nagorno-Karabakh’s status, the two countries’ presidents have traded
increasingly bellicose statements, and the region has seen a spike
in gunfire and violence in the past week.

Both sides blamed the other for setting off the latest exchanges of
fire, which first broke out late last week.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian vowed in a television interview
last week to defend Nagorno-Karabakh and recognize its independence
if Azerbaijan resorts to force: “This is a scenario for which Armenia
must be ready.”

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev earlier visited troops near
Nagorno-Karabakh and called for liberating it from ethnic Armenian
forces “no matter what it takes.”