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ANKARA: Azerbaijan, Armenia Dispute Casualty Figures After Clashes

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  • ANKARA: Azerbaijan, Armenia Dispute Casualty Figures After Clashes

    AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA DISPUTE CASUALTY FIGURES AFTER CLASHES

    Turkish Press
    March 5 2008

    BAKU - Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday claimed conflicting casualty
    figures a day after fighting between forces from the two ex-Soviet
    neighbours near the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.

    Azerbaijan's defence ministry said that four of its soldiers and 12
    Armenian soldiers were killed in Tuesday's clashes.

    Armenia's armed forces said it lost no soldiers, but eight Azerbaijanis
    died.

    Each side claimed the other started the fighting.

    Tuesday's clashes began when Armenian forces opened fire on Azerbaijani
    positions along the Nagorny Karabakh ceasefire line, Azerbaijani
    defence ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said.

    "It is disinformation," said Armenia's Senor Hasratian, a spokesman
    for the country's forces in Nagorny Karabakh, saying Azerbaijani
    forces had attacked first.

    He said four of the Azerbaijani dead remain on the Armenian side and
    negotiations were ongoing for their return.

    Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday warned about the threat of
    pitched battles erupting after the skirmishes.

    "The main thing is not to allow the situation to develop into
    large-scale combat and to expand to other points along the front line,"
    the ministry said in a statement.

    The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe presidency
    called on both sides to "exercise maximum restraint".

    "I urge the parties to avoid actions that could lead to further
    unnecessary loss of life," Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva
    said in a statement. Finland currently holds the OSCE presidency.

    The two sides fought a war over the ethnic-Armenian dominated enclave
    in the early 1990s.

    Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in
    and around Nagorny Karabakh, often facing each other at close range,
    and shootings are common.

    Baku on Wednesday described the latest clashes as an attempt by
    Yerevan to distract attention from internal civil strife in Armenia
    in recent days.

    "The enemy is trying to distract the international community from the
    bloody events and the civil uprising in Armenia," defence ministry
    spokesman Sabiroglu said.

    The Armenian capital is under a state of emergency after eight
    people were killed Saturday in street battles between riot police and
    opposition supporters protesting the result of a presidential election.

    Armenian forces seized control of Nagorny Karabakh and seven
    surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s that
    claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and forced about a million people
    on both sides to flee their homes.
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