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Agence France Presse
April 27, 2012 Friday 3:44 PM GMT
Armenia vows retribution after soldiers' deaths
YEREVAN, April 27 2012
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian vowed retribution against enemy
Azerbaijan on Friday after the deaths of three soldiers near the
border between the ex-Soviet states.
"I do not think that anyone in our country doubts that an appropriate
reaction is inevitable," Sarkisian said in comments released by his
press service.
"I do not think that anyone has doubts about the strengths of our
defence forces."
The servicemen died of their wounds after their car came under fire in
the early hours of Friday morning in the Tavush region of Armenia
close to the border with Azerbaijan where two other soldiers were
reportedly killed last month, the defence ministry in Yerevan said in
a statement.
Sarkisian also accused Azerbaijani forces of firing on an Armenian
kindergarten and an ambulance in recent days.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry rejected the claims, accusing Armenia of
being the "aggressor."
"The Yerevan authorities are trying to mislead the international
community," ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told news agency
Interfax-Azerbaijan.
Yerevan and Baku are locked in a bitter dispute over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh, which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized
from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 people
dead.
Despite years of negotiations since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides
have not yet signed a final peace deal, and there are still frequent
exchanges of gunfire between the opposing armies.
In a separate incident, Azerbaijan on Friday accused Armenian forces
of killing one of its army officers on the front line near Karabakh.
"On the evening of April 26, 24-year-old Azerbaijani army officer
Vagif Abdullayev was fatally wounded as a result of a violation of the
ceasefire regime in (the town of) Aghdam," defence ministry spokesman
Teymur Abdullayev told AFP.
It was the third reported death so far this year on the Karabakh front line.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which
mediates in negotiations over the Karabakh conflict, said it was
"deeply concerned" by the reported violence.
"Such senseless acts violate the commitment of the parties to refrain
from the use of force and to seek a peaceful settlement," the OSCE's
Minsk Group said in a statement.
Baku has threatened to use force to win back Karabakh if peace talks
fail to yield satisfactory results, but Yerevan has warned of
large-scale retaliation against any military action.
mkh-eg-emc/gd
April 27, 2012 Friday 3:44 PM GMT
Armenia vows retribution after soldiers' deaths
YEREVAN, April 27 2012
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian vowed retribution against enemy
Azerbaijan on Friday after the deaths of three soldiers near the
border between the ex-Soviet states.
"I do not think that anyone in our country doubts that an appropriate
reaction is inevitable," Sarkisian said in comments released by his
press service.
"I do not think that anyone has doubts about the strengths of our
defence forces."
The servicemen died of their wounds after their car came under fire in
the early hours of Friday morning in the Tavush region of Armenia
close to the border with Azerbaijan where two other soldiers were
reportedly killed last month, the defence ministry in Yerevan said in
a statement.
Sarkisian also accused Azerbaijani forces of firing on an Armenian
kindergarten and an ambulance in recent days.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry rejected the claims, accusing Armenia of
being the "aggressor."
"The Yerevan authorities are trying to mislead the international
community," ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told news agency
Interfax-Azerbaijan.
Yerevan and Baku are locked in a bitter dispute over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh, which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized
from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 people
dead.
Despite years of negotiations since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides
have not yet signed a final peace deal, and there are still frequent
exchanges of gunfire between the opposing armies.
In a separate incident, Azerbaijan on Friday accused Armenian forces
of killing one of its army officers on the front line near Karabakh.
"On the evening of April 26, 24-year-old Azerbaijani army officer
Vagif Abdullayev was fatally wounded as a result of a violation of the
ceasefire regime in (the town of) Aghdam," defence ministry spokesman
Teymur Abdullayev told AFP.
It was the third reported death so far this year on the Karabakh front line.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which
mediates in negotiations over the Karabakh conflict, said it was
"deeply concerned" by the reported violence.
"Such senseless acts violate the commitment of the parties to refrain
from the use of force and to seek a peaceful settlement," the OSCE's
Minsk Group said in a statement.
Baku has threatened to use force to win back Karabakh if peace talks
fail to yield satisfactory results, but Yerevan has warned of
large-scale retaliation against any military action.
mkh-eg-emc/gd