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FIFTEEN YEARS ON, REBEL ETHNIC-ARMENIAN ENCLAVE STILL FIGHTING FOR STATEHOOD
by Simon Ostrovsky
Agence France Presse -- English
December 8, 2006 Friday 2:05 AM GMT
Armenians in Nagorny Karabakh will celebrate Sunday the 15th
anniversary of their decision to break away from Azerbaijan with a
referendum on a constitution for their separatist region in a move
slammed by central authorities in Baku.
The Karabakh vote follows on the heels of similar polls in a number
of unrecognized mini-states in the former Soviet Union, including
Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Moldova's Transdniestr earlier
this year.
The vote is seen by outsiders as an attempt to draw attention to
the plight of Karabakh's separatist government, which has sought
recognition since it won de-facto independence from Azerbaijan in a
grueling early 1990s war.
Nagorny Karabakh, which has its own military, flag and government,
displays many of the characteristics of an independent state but is
internationally considered part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry criticized the upcoming vote last week,
saying it "interferes with an ongoing peace process" adding that a
poll in Karabakh could not be considered legitimate until the area's
exiled Azerbaijani population was allowed to return.
Only days earlier, at the end of November, both Azerbaijan and
Armenia's leaders were optimistic about reaching a settlement on the
status of the mountainous region over which they have been locked in
a stalemate since a shaky cease fire was signed in 1994.
Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev had said the two sides were
"nearing" an agreement after Aliyev met his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian in Moscow.
Despite years of talks little has changed on the ground in Karabakh,
a region of some 140,000 people which subsists on aid from neighboring
Armenia and generous donations from millions of Armenians living in
the West and Russia, since the war's end.
The territory's breathtaking landscapes are in sharp contrast to the
gutting standards of living of its population, the majority of which
has not had clean water and natural gas in homes since the break-up
of the Soviet Union.
Exchanges of gunfire over a tense cease fire line with Azerbaijan
are a common occurrence and dozens of soldiers die on both sides of
the fixed front line each year.
Many of Karabakh's towns, as well as empty cities in seven surrounding
Azerbaijani regions currently controlled by ethnic-Armenian forces,
still lie in ruins -- un-repaired since heavy fighting ended.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in the late 1980s
when a wave of independence movements swept across Soviet territory.
Some 25,000 people died in the conflict and up to a million people
were displaced, with some 250,000 Armenians fleeing Azerbaijani cities
and some 750,000 Azerbaijanis escaping from Karabakh and other areas
captured by Armenian forces.
The conflict has adversely affected development in both Azerbaijan,
where hundreds of thousands of refugees still live in camps, and
Armenia, which has been locked out of regional projects by Azerbaijan
and its ally Turkey.
Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan have been closed since
it gained independence and maintains its links to the outside world
through Georgia and Iran only.
The economy of Azerbaijan is however booming as its considerable
Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves are developed by a host of Western
oil companies.
by Simon Ostrovsky
Agence France Presse -- English
December 8, 2006 Friday 2:05 AM GMT
Armenians in Nagorny Karabakh will celebrate Sunday the 15th
anniversary of their decision to break away from Azerbaijan with a
referendum on a constitution for their separatist region in a move
slammed by central authorities in Baku.
The Karabakh vote follows on the heels of similar polls in a number
of unrecognized mini-states in the former Soviet Union, including
Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Moldova's Transdniestr earlier
this year.
The vote is seen by outsiders as an attempt to draw attention to
the plight of Karabakh's separatist government, which has sought
recognition since it won de-facto independence from Azerbaijan in a
grueling early 1990s war.
Nagorny Karabakh, which has its own military, flag and government,
displays many of the characteristics of an independent state but is
internationally considered part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry criticized the upcoming vote last week,
saying it "interferes with an ongoing peace process" adding that a
poll in Karabakh could not be considered legitimate until the area's
exiled Azerbaijani population was allowed to return.
Only days earlier, at the end of November, both Azerbaijan and
Armenia's leaders were optimistic about reaching a settlement on the
status of the mountainous region over which they have been locked in
a stalemate since a shaky cease fire was signed in 1994.
Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev had said the two sides were
"nearing" an agreement after Aliyev met his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian in Moscow.
Despite years of talks little has changed on the ground in Karabakh,
a region of some 140,000 people which subsists on aid from neighboring
Armenia and generous donations from millions of Armenians living in
the West and Russia, since the war's end.
The territory's breathtaking landscapes are in sharp contrast to the
gutting standards of living of its population, the majority of which
has not had clean water and natural gas in homes since the break-up
of the Soviet Union.
Exchanges of gunfire over a tense cease fire line with Azerbaijan
are a common occurrence and dozens of soldiers die on both sides of
the fixed front line each year.
Many of Karabakh's towns, as well as empty cities in seven surrounding
Azerbaijani regions currently controlled by ethnic-Armenian forces,
still lie in ruins -- un-repaired since heavy fighting ended.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in the late 1980s
when a wave of independence movements swept across Soviet territory.
Some 25,000 people died in the conflict and up to a million people
were displaced, with some 250,000 Armenians fleeing Azerbaijani cities
and some 750,000 Azerbaijanis escaping from Karabakh and other areas
captured by Armenian forces.
The conflict has adversely affected development in both Azerbaijan,
where hundreds of thousands of refugees still live in camps, and
Armenia, which has been locked out of regional projects by Azerbaijan
and its ally Turkey.
Armenia's borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan have been closed since
it gained independence and maintains its links to the outside world
through Georgia and Iran only.
The economy of Azerbaijan is however booming as its considerable
Caspian Sea oil and gas reserves are developed by a host of Western
oil companies.