Transitions Online, Czech Republic
Dec 15 2006

Old Wounds, Daily Gunfire

by Zoe Powell
15 December 2006

Journalists get a guided look at the Nagorno-Karabakh frontline. From
EurasiaNet.

Recent announcements by Azerbaijan and Armenia have spurred hopes
that a Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement is within reach. But on a
windswept Karabakh military post northwest of the disputed
territory’s capital, Stepanakert, the struggle over this
self-declared state seems far from over.

At this position, roughly 300 to 400 meters from the Azerbaijani
lines, exchanges of gunfire are a daily occurrence, soldiers said. A
seven-person unit that is refreshed every seven days staffs the post.
An Azerbaijani sniper recently killed a Karabakhi soldier not far
from here.

In a recent tour of the frontline organized for international
journalists by Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, officers were reluctant to discuss their views on the
ongoing Karabakh negotiations and on the potential impact of a
settlement on the separatist government and military they serve.

"That’s for the politicians," said one army representative, a veteran
of the 1988-1994 conflict with Azerbaijan who gave his name as Artur,
when asked to comment about recent announcements of a breakthrough in
the negotiations. "The military doesn’t mix with politics. Nor should
we, right? We’ll do what we’re told."

The size of the Karabakh army is "a state secret," officials say, and
information about the defense budget is not readily available. A 2005
report by the International Crisis Group, however, cites an unnamed
official in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Yerevan mission who stated that the
army has 20,000 soldiers. Another source cited in the report, a U.S.
military expert, put the number at 18,500 soldiers.

Along with military hardware, Armenia is thought to provide some of
the troops in the Karabakh defense force. Former Armenian conscripts
interviewed by Crisis Group representatives in Yerevan reported that
they had been sent to serve in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Conscripts serving at the frontline post, a bleak collection of
trenches, observation hut, one-room office and one-room living
quarters, asserted that they came from Nagorno-Karabakh, adding that
they were there "to serve the homeland." A clock with a large image
of Jesus dominates the office visually, standing across from a
Russian-language wall poster describing how to fight tuberculosis.

"This isn’t the American army," one Defense Ministry representative
on hand for the tour commented with a laugh about the stark scene.
"This is the Karabakh army. They have to be tough."

Young men in Karabakh are required to serve two years in the
military. The government says conscripts are paid 3,000 Armenian
drams per month (about $6.83) for "extras." Army representatives
detailed a long list of food items, including first and second
courses, salad, and soup for dinner, reportedly brought in to feed
frontline soldiers daily, and – indicating one particularly bulky
conscript – claimed that they’re fed meat each day.

An academy "with a military inclination" exists in Stepanakert, but
students who wish to serve as officers in the Nagorno-Karabakh army
do their training in Yerevan, an army representative said. Plans
exist, however, to open a more formal military academy in Karabakh,
where students would be taught, "as in Tsarist Russia," foreign
languages and ballroom dancing along with their regular course of
study, he said.

SLOW RECOVERY

Twelve years after the cease-fire agreement that ended the 1988-1994
war over the territory, ruined houses and other buildings still dot
the landscape outside of Stepanakert. The military did not allow
photos to be taken, but the images seen suggest a conflict indelibly
engraved in residents’ minds.

The economy appears to be recovering slowly, but independently
verifiable economic data is unavailable. At a 6 December
parliamentary session, de facto Minister of Economy and Finance
Spartak Tevosian reported that Karabakh’s gross domestic product
expanded by 20.8 percent for the first nine months of 2006, as
compared with the same period in 2005, reaching $97.4 million, the
Armenian news bulletin service De Facto reported. Monthly salaries
average around 36,605 Armenian drams, or about $83.38, the minister
claimed.

Primarily an agrarian society, Karabakhis are returning to
cultivating vineyards and wheat fields. A gold mine opened in 2002,
and construction projects, including a new parliament building and
adjoining hotel, can be seen throughout Stepanakert, often financed
by diaspora Armenians. The separatist leadership is also putting
increased emphasis on tourism: the government claims that in 2006
some 3,750 foreign tourists visited this rugged region, prized among
Armenians for its monasteries and churches, and that the number of
such visits is steadily increasing.

Security concerns remain foremost in Karabakhis’ minds. Interviewed
residents routinely cited maintaining an adequate defense against
Azerbaijan, which formerly controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, as their
territory’s largest problem. Many cast a doubtful eye on the return
of the seven territories surrounding their region to Azerbaijani
control.

"If Armenia frees those territories, without a doubt, then,
Azerbaijan should take reciprocal steps and recognize our
independence or, in the worst case, recognize our right to a free
choice," commented Vahram Atanesian, chairman of the Nagorno-Karabakh
parliament’s foreign affairs committee. "We went toward independence
because it was the best way to guarantee our security."

While war veterans, refugees from Azerbaijan and long-term residents
interviewed by EurasiaNet all spoke out strongly against any
resumption of armed hostilities with Azerbaijan, feelings were mixed
about the return of Azerbaijani refugees to this predominantly ethnic
Armenian land. The government of Azerbaijan has insisted on such a
right of return as one of the conditions for a lasting peace
resolution with Armenia.

"There’s no chance we can live together now," said octogenarian Areg
Oganisian, an Azeri-speaking ethnic Armenian refugee from the
Azerbaijani town of Sumgait who returned to his family village
outside of the Karabakhi town of Shushi after the 1988 pogrom against
Armenians in Sumgait. "But I also can’t say that all Azerbaijanis are
bad. They are civilized, too . . . . If it hadn’t been for Sumgait,
we could have worked things out, but Sumgait was a detonator."

"We took Karabakh by blood," said a Karabakh war veteran, who gave
his name as Artur. "How will there not be a war if Azerbaijan tries
to take it back?"

Zoe Powell is a pseudonym for a journalist based in Tbilisi. This is
a partner post from EurasiaNet.