Five soldiers killed in Azeri-Armenian clashes

Three Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed during fighting in disputed territory, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported Wednesday.

The border of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory under Armenian occupation, has again become the site of disputes between the regional neighbors, with Baku accusing Armenian forces of attacking its positions near the village of Chaily in the Terter region of Azerbaijan at around 4.30 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to a statement from Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Azerbaijani servicemen repelled the attack. Three Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed as a result,” the statement said.

Armenian authorities accused Azerbaijan of launching the attack, but insisted that only one Karabakh soldier was wounded in the clash.

“Azerbaijan launched a fresh attack against Karabakh armed forces… One soldier was wounded on our side, while seven soldiers were either wounded or killed on Azerbaijan’s side,” spokesman for the Karabakh Defense Ministry, Seyran Hasratian, told AFP.

Tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh have risen in recent months amid stalled negotiations over the status of the region. According to recent statements from Baku, Azerbaijan’s military spending has increased more than 13-fold over the past seven years, totaling nearly $2.15 billion.

Armenia is attempting to keep pace with its rival in the fight for dominance over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh by developing military cooperation with Russia, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review reported last week.

A flashpoint of the Caucasus, the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh is a constituent part of Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenia since the end of 1994. While internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, the enclave has declared itself an independent republic and is administered as a de facto part of Armenia.

The Nagorno-Karabakh War, which lasted from 1988 to 1994 and enabled Armenia’s subsequent occupation of the region, led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people and created nearly 1 million refugees, who mostly still remain in temporary settlement camps and facilities in Azerbaijan.

Years of talks negotiated by Russia, the United States and Europe, as well as talks instigated by Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders themselves, have failed to resolve the enclave’s status and not enabled the return of refugees. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=five-soldiers-killed-in-azeri-armenian-clashes-2010-09-01

Posted by admin September 2010

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