YEREVAN, BAKU EXCHANGE ACCUSATIONS OF CEASEFIRE VIOLATION
RIA Novosti, Russia
March 9 2006
YEREVAN/BAKU, March 9 (RIA Novosti) – Azerbaijan and Armenia Thursday
continued to fling allegations at each other of numerous ceasefire
violations on the border near the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict zone.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Seiran Shakhsuvaryan said
Azerbaijani troops continued shooting at Armenian positions in the
Indevan, Baik and Noyemberyan regions through March 7-8.
Azerbaijan Defense Ministry spokesman Ilgar Verdiyev said Armenian
troops were shooting at Azerbaijani positions 500 kilometers from the
capital, Baku, and 250 kilometers from the zone of the Nagorny-Karabakh
conflict.
The conflict between the two former Soviet republics over Nagorny
Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region with a largely Armenian population,
first erupted in 1988, when the region claimed independence from
Azerbaijan to join Armenia.
Over 30,000 people were reported dead on both sides between 1988
and 1994, and over 100 others died after a ceasefire was concluded
in 1994, leaving Nagorny Karabakh in Armenian hands, but tensions
between Azerbaijan and Armenia have persisted.
Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
announced that its officials would monitor ceasefire observance on
the stretch of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border near the village of
Borsunlu in western Azerbaijan March 10.