DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 7, 2008 Friday

EXTERNAL ENEMY IN ARMENIAN POLITICS;

Firing in Nagorno-Karabakh reported following disturbances in Yerevan

by Sergei Strokan, Rafael Mustafayev

FIRING REPORTED IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH; The first fighting in years is
reported in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A major run-in involving the Armenian and Azerbaijani military in the
self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh took place yesterday.
The Armenians pinned the blame on the Azerbaijanis. The latter deny
all innuendo. Baku suspects that Yerevan makes an emphasis on the
existence of the external enemy to distract attention from
deterioration of the domestic political situation in Armenia.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanjan called a press conference
yesterday to talk of the fighting in the Mardakert district
(northeast of Nagorno-Karabakh). Oskanjan accused Baku of cease-fire
regime violation in effect since 1994 and said the Azerbaijanis had
used heavy armored vehicles. The Azerbaijanis seized one of the
commanding heights but the Armenian army took it back again, he said.

"That’s a serious encroachment. Several Armenians were wounded.
Condemning this encroachment, we insist on a termination of the
hostilities and a restoration of the truce," Oskanjan said.
Azerbaijani media outlets confirmed the fact of the hostilities and
reported to Azerbaijani servicemen killed in action Yusif Gasymov and
Neimat Musayev).

The official explanation of what had happened offered by Baku greatly
differed from the version promoted by Oskanjan. Haziz Ibragim, the
head of the Press Center of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, pinned
the blame on the Armenians. "Armenian leadership is trying to
distract society and the international community from its political
problems and focus them on the so called external factor," Ibragim
said. "Azerbaijan is this external enemy."

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denounced the information on any
advance into the Armenian lines. Asked for comments on the battle
over one of the commanding heights Oskanjan had mentioned, a source
called it a plain invention.

Source: Kommersant, March 5, 2008, p. 11