TWO AZERBAIJANIS KILLED IN FIGHTING NEAR KARABAKH: OFFICIAL
Agence France Presse
March 4, 2008 Tuesday
Two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting with Armenian
forces near the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, the Azerbaijani
defence ministry said.
Both sides accused the other of taking advantage of the volatile
political situation in Armenia to violate a ceasefire.
Azerbaijani defense ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said two
soldiers, Nemat Gusayev and Yusif Gasimov, were killed when Armenian
forces opened fire on Azerbaijani positions in the Terter region,
northeast of Karabakh.
The fighting began overnight Tuesday and continued long into the day,
officials on both sides said.
"Armenia is trying to distract the international community from
what is happening inside the country — this is the latest Armenian
provocation," Sabiroglu said.
The Armenian capital Yerevan is under a state of emergency after eight
people were killed Saturday in street battles between riot police and
opposition supporters protesting the result of a presidential election.
In Yerevan, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian accused Azerbaijan of
exploiting Armenia’s political crisis to launch an attack.
He said Azerbaijan had used artillery in the attack and that Armenian
forces had lost and then reclaimed a number of positions in the
fighting.
"There was a serious breach of the ceasefire," he said. "This is
a scandalous exploitation of the internal political situation in
Armenia."
He confirmed that two Azerbaijani soldiers had been killed and said
some Armenian soldiers had been wounded, but provided no details.
Armenian forces seized control of Nagorny Karabakh and seven
surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, in a war that
claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and forced about a million people
on both sides to flee their homes.
The two sides signed a ceasefire in 1994 but the two countries have
cut direct economic and transport links and failed to negotiate a
settlement on the region’s status.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in
and around Nagorny Karabakh, often facing each other at close range,
and shootings are common.