AZERBAIJAN SAYS 3 SOLDIERS DEAD IN KARABAKH CLASH
Reuters
OB87302720100218?sp=true
Feb 18 2010
UK
BAKU, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said on Thursday three
of its soldiers were killed in skirmishes near the breakaway
Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where tensions are
high over a thaw between Armenia and Azeri ally Turkey.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Azerbaijan
with the backing of Armenia in the early 1990s, denied anyone had
died on the frontline, where clashes are common.
A shaky ceasefire has been in place 1994 after a war that killed some
30,000 people, but the spectre of fresh conflict constantly hangs
over a region vital for oil and gas transit to the West.
Tensions have been rising since Christian Armenia and close Azeri
ally Turkey agreed a deal last year to establish diplomatic ties and
reopen their border, which Ankara closed in 1993 in solidarity with
fellow Muslim Azerbaijan during the war.
The Azeri defence ministry said three Azeri soldiers had died in
clashes, which it said were initiated by Armenian forces.
"There were skirmishes today on the line and as a result three Azeri
soldiers died and one was injured. Losses on the Armenian side were
not less than ours," spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry denied the claim. Authorities
in Armenia rarely comment on such reports.
Azerbaijan, which supplies oil and gas to the West, has been angered
by Armenia’s rapprochement with Turkey. In recent months, Ankara has
backed away from ratifying the deal in an apparent attempt to sooth
Azeri concerns.
Azeri media in September last year reported the deaths of four
Armenian soldiers, but the reports were dismissed at the time by
Nagorno-Karabakh as false. In January last year, Azerbaijan said it
had killed three Armenian soldiers.
The conflict has resisted more than 15 years of mediation by envoys
from the United States, France and Russia trying to forge a peace deal.
(Reporting by Lada Yevgrashina in Baku and Hasmik Lazarian and
Yerevan; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Michael Roddy)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
