SEPARATISTS CONDUCT WAR GAMES TO PRESSURE BAKU TO SIGN PEACE DEAL – AZERI PUNDIT

Yeni Musavat, Baku
16 Apr 06

Excerpt from Tamerlan’s report in Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat
on 16 April headlined “Armenians preparing for war” and subheaded
“The enemy has started large-scale military exercises in Karabakh”

The Armenian separatists have started conducting military exercises
in Nagornyy Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Military units and mobilized civilians are participating in the
drills, which are aimed at “improving the combat readiness of Armenian
forces and coordinating their work during defence and counterattack
operations,” Turan has reported.

The deputy Armenian defence Minister and chief of the Armenian General
Staff, Col-Gen Mikayel Arutunyan, is monitoring the exercises. In
fact, he commands the drills, which once again shows that the hostile
country is the main occupier of Azerbaijan’s territories.

[Passage omitted: the drills show that it is not “a handful of
Karabakh Armenians”, but the Armenian-Russian military alliance that
has occupied Azerbaijani territories,]

Political analyst Vafa Quluzada says that the Armenian military
exercises do not come by chance. This kind of demarche, which followed
the abortive Rambouillet talks and Azerbaijan’s refusal to sign a
capitulatory peace agreement desired by the West and Armenia, aims
to put pressure on Azerbaijan, he said.

“Or more precisely, this is another ring in the chain of pressure.

Apart from that, this is a way of demonstrating that Russia has a
final say on the issue,” Quluzada said.

Those who are trying to force Azerbaijan into signing a humiliating
peace agreement also take into account the sensitivity of our public
opinion to casualties in the army, he said.

“I mean, the Azerbaijani public is being blackmailed in this way as
well,” Quluzada added.

[Passage omitted: the war games in Karabakh are a response to President
Ilham Aliyev’s bellicose statements]