A resurgence of deadly violence in Nagorno Karabakh
Şerban F. CIOCULESCU
June 23, 2010
In spite of the cease-fire existing since 1994 between Azerbaijan and Armenia regarding the fate of the Nagorno Karabakh territory, and the periodical negotiations rounds, recently military violence resurged on the fronline and it will probably derail for a long time the peace-negotiations supervised by the Minsk Group within the OSCE.
On June 18, violent military clashed occurred on the border between the so-called "independent" republic of Nagorno Karabakh (an entity with no international recognition) and Azerbaidjan, when Azeris forces made an incursion in this territory. The stories that the two sides relate are quite different: while Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh republic accuse the Azeri aggression and point to the dead body of a Azeri soldier discovered in the area, the Azeris state that they has the right to do what is necessary for recovering their lost territories under Armenian de facto occupation but they deny having begin to open fire the first.
The Azeri officials said that an Azerbaijani soldier was shot dead during the "Armenian attack on Azerbaijani Army positions" in the Fizuli district located in the Southeast of Nagorno-Karabakh. The N.K. military officials acknowledged the death of four Armenian soldiers and one Azeri and stated that their soldiers repelled an unprovoked Azeri attack on June 18 in the evening. On the other side, the Azeri-Press Agency commented that "the Armenians retreated, suffering losses", while the Karabakh Armenian military officials insisted their forces suffered no new casualties on June 21.
By corroborating the existing information soures, it seems that four Karabakh Armenian conscripts and one Azerbaijani soldier died in this bloody incident occuring near the village called Chaylu, located in the district of Mardakert (northeastern Upper Karabakh). Four more Armenian servicemen were injured. Anyway, intense automatic and sniper gunfire continuued between 19 and 21 June along the main Armenian-Azerbaijani Line of Contact, and it seems that it is the main armed incident in the last two years.
The mutual accusations of resorting to force are current in this area. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)'s Defense Army spokeperson stated on June 21 that Azerbaijani troops breached the cease-fire regime no less than 284 times since June 20! But the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied the accusations and insisted that the Armenians wear the main responsibility since they attacked with automatic rifles and machine guns in various sections of the fortified frontline. The spokeperson for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, Eldar Sabiroglu, stated that skirmishes are occuring frequenlty in this border district.
The Armenian Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandian, accused Baku for commiting aggression agains Nagorno-Karabakh's Martakert region, and labelled this incident as a "pre-planned action" intended to alter peace negotiations.
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict has a multiple nature: ethnic, religious and politic. According to UN reports, about 30,000 people have been killed and 1 million people displaced between 1991-1994, when a cease-fire interevened, but there is still no peace agreement between the contending parts. Since then, periodically there are border incidents with dead and injuries.
More embarassing, this incident occurred occurred only a day after the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in St. Petersburg for peace talks hosted by Russian chief of state, Dmitry Medvedev. They have agreed to continue internationally mediated efforts to resolve the conflict.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (France, Russia, and U.S.A.) in a statement from June 21 condemned the military violence perpetrated across the Line of Contact separating Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces, but without implicitely recognizing the "guilt" of Azerbaidjan. Anyway, the phrasing "the use of military force, particularly at this moment, can only be seen as an attempt to damage the peace process" seems to share the guilt between the two sides.
In their statement, Ambassador Igor Popov of Russia, Bernard Fassier of France, and Robert Bradtke of the United States "strongly condemn the use of force and regret the senseless loss of life. Such an incident is an unacceptable violation of the 1994 Ceasefire Agreement and is contrary to the stated commitment of the sides to refrain from the use of force or the threat of the use of force". They also called upon the contending sides to "exercise restraint on the terrain as well as in their public communications and prepare their population for peace and not for war". They reiterated that fact there is only one solution to solve this conflict, through a peaceful negotiation.
Also EU special representative for the Caucasus, Peter Semneby, on a visit in Yeravan considered the existing situation "deplorable" and said that it's necessary to defuse tensions in order for all sides to come to a negotiated solution on the issue.
An Armenian political analyst, Arman Melikian, a former Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister, asked for official inquiry of this deadly clashed and asked himself about the reasons of the Azeri attack. Like other experts he hesitates between the scenario of a moke-attack to test the resistence of the Armenian military defense mechanism in the area or the scenario of intimidating the Armenians and preparing the field for more demands of Armenian concessions during the peace-talks. Another expert, Richard Giragosian, director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) in Yerevan, prefered the first scenario and show woriness for the fact that this incident will seriously reduce the likelihood of a constructive negoctiation process for solving this conflict.
