MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (M.F.A.) REPORTED

Azat Artsakh Daily,
2 July 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

This year, as it has been taking place for many years, the Azerbaijani
farmers burnt their harvest remains as a result of which the fire
spread over to the Karabakhi side. According to the data of the NKR
Ministry of Agriculture, the harvest on the Azerbaijani side ripens two
weeks earlier than in the NKR, which is conditioned by the climatic
zone. It is no coincidence that every year the fires start when the
harvest of the grain crops in Azerbaijan’s flat regions bordering
the NKR is over. In dry and hot weather the anabatic wind prevailing
in our zone quickly spreads the fire from the Azerbaijani territory
to the territory of the NKR eliminating the crops of the Karabakhi
farmers. The fires are also caused by tracer bullet fire from the
Azerbaijani side. At the same time, the Azerbaijani army zeros in
on peaceful workers on the Karabakhi side. Thus on June 29, in the
frontier zone near Levonarkh and Hakob Kamari villages a combiner and
his combine were being continuously fired at for several hours. By
pure accident there were no victims but the farm work was stopped
and the combine was transported into a secure zone. Such incidents
happened in other zones as well. The abovementioned actions of the
Azerbaijani side aimed at undermining the economy and agricultural
security of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic demonstrate Baku’s real
stance in the process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and
obviously don’t further finding contact points between the parties
to the conflict and establishing an atmosphere of mutual confidence.
The fact that the elimination of the frontier zone flora and fauna
carried out with the knowledge and not without the participation of
the Azerbaijani authorities is attended by unsubstantiated accusations
against the Karabakhi side and attempts to transfer the responsibility
on the NKR authorities causes bewilderment.

If Azerbaijan was really anxious about the fires, it wouldn’t have
rejected the recommendations worked out as a result of the visit
to the region of the OSCE-led Environmental Assessment Mission to
fire-affected territories in 2006 which refuted all the accusations of
the Azerbaijani side suggesting the parties a number of recommendations
on prevention of fires and joint struggle against them.