WITHER AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE CONTRADICTS TO ITSELF?

Yerevan, April 17. ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry
press-service in the person of its employee Ilgar Verdiyev accuses
Armenia “of violating the cease-fire and killing Azerbaijani soldiers”
again. “Since the establishment of the cease-fire regime majority
of soldiers have died from the bullets of Armenians and not from
harassment among servicemen,” I. Berdiyev told Interfax- Azerbaijan.

Commenting on PACE report on the situation with human rights at
armies of CE member-states which indicates that about 5 thousand
of soldiers died due to harassment among servicemen at Azerbaijani
armies since 1994, I. Verdiyev said: “70% of Azerbaijani armies are
located on the front line, so the greatest part of deaths are recorded
there. A few soldiers die for other reasons i.e. from careless use of
weapons, different types of accidents. Such cases result in a criminal
investigation. There is no harassment among servicemen in Azerbaijan.”

Probably, Mr. Verdiyev is unaware of the information of Day.az dated
April 4 2006. Thus, the monitoring held by the Azerbaijani agency
APA and approved by the Azerbaijan Defense Ministry (DM) says 18
servicemen were killed and 6 were injured for different reasons at
the Azerbaijani army within the first three months of 2006. Four
servicemen were killed in fire, 5 in an accident, 2 in a snow-slide.

One committed a suicide, whereas “6 were killed by the enemy bullets.”

Five officers, 2 warrant officers, 1 sergeant and 10 conscripts died,
including outside the military action zone.