CEASEFIRE BROKEN ON DISENGAGEMENT LINE BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND N KARABAKH

ITAR-TASS
March 24 2009
Russia

YEREVAN, March 23 (Itar-Tass) –The ceasefire was broken repeatedly
last night and on Monday on several sections of the disengagement line
separating the armies of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the press
service of the Defence Ministry of the unrecognised republic said.

"The foe used small calibre weapons and sniper rifles to attack the
positions of the Karabakh troops," conducting fire in the direction
of several populated localities, the press service said.

"The foe stopped the fire after retaliatory actions undertaken by
forward-deployed units of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic," the report said.

On February 22, 1988, the first direct confrontation occurred
in the enclave when a big group of Azeris marched towards the
Armenian-populated town of Askeran, "wreaking destruction en
route." A large number of refugees fled Armenia and Azerbaijan
as violence erupted against the minority populations in the two
countries. In the autumn of 1989, intensified inter-ethnic conflict
in and around Nagorno-Karabakh prodded the Soviet government into
granting Azerbaijani authorities greater leeway in controlling the
region. On November 29, 1989 direct rule in Nagorno-Karabakh was
ended and Azerbaijan regained control of the region. However later a
joint session of the Armenian parliament and the top legislative body
of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia.

On December 10, 1991, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum,
boycotted by local Azeris, that approved the creation of an independent
state. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh
within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side, and a full-scale war
subsequently started | between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh,
the latter receiving support from Armenia.

The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and
Azerbaijan obtained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In
the post-Soviet power vacuum, hostilities between Azerbaijan and
Armenia were heavily influenced by the Russian military, and both the
Armenian and Azerbajani military used a large number of mercenaries
from Ukraine and Russia.

By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and
created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. By May 1994,
the Armenians controlled 14 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan. At
that point, the Azerbaijani government for the first time during the
conflict recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as a third party in the war and
began direct negotiations with the Karabakh authorities. As a result,
an unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994.

Despite the ceasefire, fatalities due to armed conflicts between
Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers continued. As of August, 2008, the
United States, France, and Russia (the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group) were attempting to negotiate a full settlement of the conflict,
proposing a referendum on the status of the area, which culminated
in Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan travelling to Moscow for talks with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev on 2 November 2008. As a result, the three presidents signed
an agreement that calls for talks on a political settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.