AZERIS, ARMENIANS SPAR AFTER MAJOR KARABAKH CLASH
By Lada Yevgrashina and Hasmik Lazarian
Reuters
March 5 2008
BAKU/YEREVAN (Reuters) – Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each
other on Wednesday of triggering an exchange of gunfire in disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh that killed up to 16 people, one of the biggest such
clashes in several years.
Both sides gave different accounts of the incident in the enclave,
seized by pro-Armenian forces from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s
in which an estimated 35,000 people were killed.
Muslim Azerbaijan said 12 Armenian fighters and 4 Azeri soldiers were
killed. Christian Armenia said 8 Azeri soldiers died and 2 Armenian
soldiers were injured.
A death toll of 16 would mark the worst clash in recent years between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, a big oil producer and home to pipelines
taking Caspian Sea energy to world markets.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said Azerbaijan had launched the
attack to take advantage of Armenia’s tense political standoff after
protests against last month’s election.
"It is possible in Azerbaijan they thought the situation in Armenia
had distracted the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh," said Kocharyan,
who was born in the rebel region.
The West and Russia urged both parties to show restraint.
"We do not want a war in the region," a U.S. diplomat said in Baku.
"We are following the situation very closely and we urge both sides
to exercise restraint and avoid any violence."
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza, who was in Baku
on Tuesday, was due in Yerevan later this week to facilitate talks
between the government and opposition.
Russia also expressed concern. "The most important thing at the moment
is to avoid letting this grow into massive military action in the
(region)," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
EXTERNAL ENEMY
Azerbaijan said Armenia was trying to distract attention from protests
in Yerevan by focusing on an external enemy.
"The Armenian side resorted to provocations on the frontline in a
bid to switch the attention of the international community and its
own citizens from internal tensions to an external enemy," said an
Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The breakaway region’s foreign ministry appealed to the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe to intervene and conduct
crisis-monitoring in the conflict zone.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said this week his country was ready
to take back Nagorno-Karabakh by force if need be, and was buying
military equipment and arms in preparation.
He said Kosovo’s newly declared independence had emboldened Armenian
separatists in the mountainous enclave.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh
who was elected president last month in a disputed election, confirmed
there had been an incident between Azeri and Armenian soldiers but
did not give a casualty figure.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a richly fertile area of great beauty high in the
Caucasus mountains, broke away from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s,
sparking a 1992-94 war. A ceasefire was agreed in 1994 but the search
for a lasting peace is stalled.
The rebel territory is mainly populated by ethnic Armenians and
controlled by Armenia, though there are sporadic clashes along the
front line.
A Western diplomat in Armenia said the latest reports of shooting
had to be treated seriously.
"This does sound in the terms it’s been reported as slightly more
than the usual skirmish, but in the current climate it certainly
could have been exaggerated," he said. "This is a situation we have
to watch carefully."