ARMENIAN CIVILIAN SHOT DEAD IN KARABAKH, SAY SEPARATISTS
Hurriyet
May 13 2011
Turkey
Azerbaijani forces have killed an ethnic Armenian civilian who was
driving a tractor close to the front line in Nagorno-Karabakh, the
authorities that control the disputed region said on Thursday.
The man died in hospital after being shot in the head on Wednesday,
the separatist Karabakh defense ministry said in a statement.
The Armenian foreign ministry accused Azerbaijan of "using all means to
keep up tensions" on the frontline and to impede a peaceful resolution
of the Karabakh conflict.
The defense ministry in Azerbaijan denied that its troops had shot
the tractor driver.
The announcement came on the 17th anniversary of the ceasefire in
Karabakh, which has been controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists
backed by Yerevan since they seized the mountainous region from
Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead. While
internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, the enclave has
declared itself an independent republic but is administered as a de
facto part of Armenia.
Eleven soldiers have been reported killed so far this year amid
heightened tensions and regular exchanges of gunfire across the
frontline.
Years of negotiations involving Russia, the United States and Europe,
as well as Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders themselves, have failed to
resolve the enclave's status or enable the return of refugees. Turkey
closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of its close ally
Azerbaijan in the conflict.
Hurriyet
May 13 2011
Turkey
Azerbaijani forces have killed an ethnic Armenian civilian who was
driving a tractor close to the front line in Nagorno-Karabakh, the
authorities that control the disputed region said on Thursday.
The man died in hospital after being shot in the head on Wednesday,
the separatist Karabakh defense ministry said in a statement.
The Armenian foreign ministry accused Azerbaijan of "using all means to
keep up tensions" on the frontline and to impede a peaceful resolution
of the Karabakh conflict.
The defense ministry in Azerbaijan denied that its troops had shot
the tractor driver.
The announcement came on the 17th anniversary of the ceasefire in
Karabakh, which has been controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists
backed by Yerevan since they seized the mountainous region from
Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s that left 30,000 dead. While
internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, the enclave has
declared itself an independent republic but is administered as a de
facto part of Armenia.
Eleven soldiers have been reported killed so far this year amid
heightened tensions and regular exchanges of gunfire across the
frontline.
Years of negotiations involving Russia, the United States and Europe,
as well as Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders themselves, have failed to
resolve the enclave's status or enable the return of refugees. Turkey
closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of its close ally
Azerbaijan in the conflict.