Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 7 2008
Nagorno Karabakh conflict: Who lost and who won in the recent battle?
– Analysis
[ 07 Mar 2008 17:51 ]
Baku. Vugar Masimoghlu, Teymur Guliyev – APA. Armenians, who did not
expect to make so many mistakes in the information war in connection
with the developments in the frontline of Azerbaijani and Armenian
troops on March 4, use various means to find a way out.
The leadership of the neighboring state that tries to distort the
losses of Armenian Armed Forces also attempts not to lose the
psychological war started simultaneously with the armed conflict.
Violation of ceasefire in the frontline was a step serving the
interests of Armenian authorities. Violent dispersion of peaceful
demonstration in Yerevan after the presidential elections and death
of eight disappointed the international community. Official Yerevan,
which could not justify the bloodshed, also failed to disguise the
fact. Though the state of emergency was declared in the country and
activity of media outlets were limited, it was impossible to hide
killing of eight men from the international community. Under these
conditions, Armenian government had to make a choice – either to
justify itself, or divert attention from the ongoing events. In this
respect, launching even short-term military operations in Nagorno
Karabakh served Armenia’s interests. In other words, under these
circumstances in order to divert attention from the ongoing processes
in the country, Armenia could do nothing but launch military
operations in Nagorno Karabakh. That’s why, violation of ceasefire
served the interests of Armenia. The main goals of official Yerevan
in launching large-scale operations are as follows:
a) Divert the attention of the international community and the people
from the civil confrontation;
b) Form internal public opinion that nominal stability in the country
depends on Kocharian’s regime, the country will face threat of war
and have great losses if the opposition comes to power;
c) Release foreign political forces supporting Armenia from
commenting on the post-election developments resulted in mass death;
Thus, analyzing the long-lasting violation of ceasefire in the
frontline of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in the context of the
countries’ interests, it is proved that the incident was committed by
Armenia. There are other points proving it, too.
Armenian officials began to hold regular conferences and blamed
Azerbaijan for violation of cease-fire and this shows that they
planned the diversion before. Armenian propaganda tries to form
public opinion in two directions:
a) Azerbaijani side violated cease-fire and tried to occupy a small
hill in Nagorno Karabakh;
b) Azerbaijan had many losses;
First argument is not right and everybody knows that occupation of
any small hill does not solve the fortune of Nagorno Karabakh. It is
foolish claim that Azerbaijan violated cease-fire, because it wants
to move the frontline ahead. There are concrete coordinates of the
frontline and it is regularly monitored by leadership Andrzej
Kasprzyk, Personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office. If
Azerbaijan moves the frontline ahead, it will be noted by OSCE. It is
absurd that Azerbaijan wanted to move the frontline ahead.
Number of losses in the clashes continued for 36 hours show that
diversion was planned by Armenian side. Azerbaijan immediately spread
information after incident that 4 militants were killed and one was
wounded during the violation of cease-fire and publicized their
names. APA’s independent investigation proved the correctness of
numbers. APA spread information about our martyred militants more
quickly than Defense Ministry, if there are those, who doubt it, they
can investigate our archives. APA local bureaus are operating and our
bureaus spread information whether martyrs were brought to the
regions from Terter and Goranboy zones. Azerbaijani had no other
losses during the violation of cease-fire in Terter direction, except
soldiers publicized by Defense Ministry. Discrepancy on the number of
losses reported by Armenian media shows that official Yerevan wants
to cover up real number of losses. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan held a press conference immediately after begging of clashes
and noted that there were a lot of wounded men. Armenian spokesman
for Defense Ministry said that one Armenian lieutenant injured on
head. President Robert Kocharian said that 2 soldiers were wounded.
President of so-called Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Saakyan, saying
he visited the major officer wounded in the battles, revealed
official Iravan lie. Later it was informed that they had clashed with
Armenian police, when they have chanted anti-government slogans in
the funeral of two Armenian soldiers. These different statements
confirmed more casualties on the Armenian side. Indeed this fact
responds the question `Who attacked first?’ Law of war is stating
that attacking side suffers heavily and Armenians, as a side giving
more casualties, have indirectly approved they have violated
ceasefire. It is impossible to find out their losses basing on the
Armenian sources. Simply restriction of media and internet resources
in Armenia enable Iravan officials to conceal the scale of
casualties. In point of fact Azerbaijani Defense Ministry monitoring
the action area clarified that 12 Armenian soldiers had been killed
and 15 wounded. So far Armenia couldn’t introduce any argument
against this fact.
There is another point in this respect. Armenian foreign minister
Vardan Oskanyan said he had addressed Azerbaijan leadership and
international organizations to stop fire in the contact line.
Armenian Chief of general staff Seyran Ohanyan made a similar request
to his Azerbaijani counterpart Nejmeddin Sadikhov. Azerbaijani side
confirmed both requests. It is interesting, if Armenia has
superiority in the incident and doesn’t suffer then why they request
to stop fire?
Obviously Armenian political gamble started to defeat its own object
in the result of misleading information war. A game played around the
violation of ceasefire can be called it a day under this situation.
Azerbaijani army demonstrated its power to Armenia and international
community as well. Now, it is important to bring international
attention to the developments inside Armenia, because Armenian weak
point is the crackdown on the opposition meetings and home political
crisis. Iravan could gloss over the shooting of country’s leaders in
the parliament several years ago, but this time they shouldn’t avoid
responsibility for bloody events. Diplomacy has to target just this
point.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress