ARMENIAN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SPIES ATTEMPTED TO CROSS STATE BORDER OF AZERBAIJAN
Axis Information & Analysis
July 21 2008
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review:
Armenia’s Defense Minister has refuted information of the Defense
Ministry of Azerbaijan about an attempt of a group of Armenian military
intelligence spies to cross the state border of the neighboring
country, online paper Day.Az reports.
"This announcement is another propagandist action of Baku, which
does not fall within any reasonable frames", Russian news agency
Interfax cites spokesman for Armenian Defense Minister, Seyran
Shahsuvaryan. "Moreover, such disinformation threatens the negotiation
process on the peaceful resolution of Upper Karabakh conflict",
added Shahsuvaryan.
Spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, Eldar Sabiroghlu, told the
press that a group of Armenian military spies attempted to cross the
Azerbaijan’s border in the direction of the Aghdam village of Tovuz on
July 19. He said their attempt was averted by the Azerbaijan servicemen
and one of the Armenians was killed while the rest retreated. The
body and the gun of the killed Armenian military spy, Gor Mikhailovich
Manasyan, remained on the Azerbaijani side of the border, Day.Az adds.
News agencies have been pointing out that Armenia and Azerbaijan
remain locked in a tense stand-off over the enclave of Upper Karabakh,
where ethnic Armenian forces took control during a war in the early
1990s that killed thousands and forced nearly a million people on both
sides to flee their homes. Agence France Presse notes that a ceasefire
was signed between the two former Soviet republics in 1994 but the
dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade of negotiations,
and shootings are common; up to 16 soldiers were killed in a clash
last month.