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HILLARY PLAYS THE CAUCASUS: OF CONFLICT AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65487
June 4 2012
NY
Three Armenian soldiers were killed by gunfire from neighboring
Azerbaijani just as US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton was
about to go country-hopping in the South Caucasus.
Clinton arrived in Yerevan today and, after a stop in Georgia, is
due in Baku on June 6.
To hear the Azerbaijani news service APA tell it, the "preventive
measures," which wounded three Armenian soldiers as well, were directed
at stopping the Armenian military from infiltrating Azerbaijan from
Armenia's northern Tavush region.
But, as is the standard case in Caucasus countries hosting Clinton,
you need to tune into the news on the other side of the conflict line
for the second side of the story.
Armenian news reported that the Armenians died in a shootout as
they tried to halt an infiltration from Azerbaijan. "Thanks to [the]
courage[ous] actions of the soldiers... [the] enemy was drawn back,"
ArmenPress cited Armenia's Ministry of Defense as saying.
The not-so-frozen Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh region is most definitely going to be discussed with
Madam Secretary in both places.
Civil rights as well. An area where there's a lot to chat about with
both sides; Georgia, too.
With Clinton already in Yerevan, visiting an awards ceremony for
defense of human rights, Azerbaijan on June 4 opted to free youth
activist and former parliamentary candidate Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a
Harvard University alumni, who was sentenced to two years in prison
in 2011 for allegedly dodging military service.
The Washington, DC-based civil-rights watchdog Freedom House earlier
called on Clinton to put "a particular emphasis on the ongoing
concerns about human rights and democracy throughout the region,
especially in Azerbaijan and Armenia."
Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet.org
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65487
June 4 2012
NY
Three Armenian soldiers were killed by gunfire from neighboring
Azerbaijani just as US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton was
about to go country-hopping in the South Caucasus.
Clinton arrived in Yerevan today and, after a stop in Georgia, is
due in Baku on June 6.
To hear the Azerbaijani news service APA tell it, the "preventive
measures," which wounded three Armenian soldiers as well, were directed
at stopping the Armenian military from infiltrating Azerbaijan from
Armenia's northern Tavush region.
But, as is the standard case in Caucasus countries hosting Clinton,
you need to tune into the news on the other side of the conflict line
for the second side of the story.
Armenian news reported that the Armenians died in a shootout as
they tried to halt an infiltration from Azerbaijan. "Thanks to [the]
courage[ous] actions of the soldiers... [the] enemy was drawn back,"
ArmenPress cited Armenia's Ministry of Defense as saying.
The not-so-frozen Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the breakaway
Nagorno-Karabakh region is most definitely going to be discussed with
Madam Secretary in both places.
Civil rights as well. An area where there's a lot to chat about with
both sides; Georgia, too.
With Clinton already in Yerevan, visiting an awards ceremony for
defense of human rights, Azerbaijan on June 4 opted to free youth
activist and former parliamentary candidate Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a
Harvard University alumni, who was sentenced to two years in prison
in 2011 for allegedly dodging military service.
The Washington, DC-based civil-rights watchdog Freedom House earlier
called on Clinton to put "a particular emphasis on the ongoing
concerns about human rights and democracy throughout the region,
especially in Azerbaijan and Armenia."