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Armenian Alarm At Spate Of Border Shootings

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  • Armenian Alarm At Spate Of Border Shootings

    ARMENIAN ALARM AT SPATE OF BORDER SHOOTINGS
    By Gayane Lazarian, Sara Khojoyan

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting
    http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenian-alarm-spate-border-shootings
    May 18 2012
    UK

    Border villagers say life feels like the war never ended.

    A series of shooting incidents on Armenia's border with Azerbaijan and
    around Nagorny Karabakh has heightened fears among local civilians,
    even though they are well used to the sound of gunfire.

    The border village of Dovegh in Armenia's northeastern Tavush region
    came under sustained fire for 90 minutes on April 25. Two days later,
    three Armenian solders were killed when their car was hit by shots
    fired over the border as it was travelling between the villages of
    Aygepar and Movses.

    While sporadic gunfire is a constant danger to Tavush residents,
    they say it has been particularly intense in the last two months.

    Samvel Soghoyan, the mayor of Chinari, a village right on the border
    with Azerbaijan said the 1,200 or so residents were effectively living
    under wartime conditions.

    "The village is constantly being shot at. From 1992 until now, we have
    not had a ceasefire. They [Azerbaijanis] use heavy-calibre machine
    guns, which present a danger to any house. Most of the agricultural
    land is right on the border, so people don't farm it," he said.

    In nearby Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, villagers have similar complaints.

    "All the roofs of the house are full of [bullet-] holes," Hakob
    Israelyan. "The residents live in permanent fear. It's been quiet
    for several nights now, but ahead of the 20th anniversary of the
    liberation of Shushi [town in Karabakh], there was sustained fire
    from a heavy machine gun, and almost all the children had to be sent
    to neighbouring villages."

    Around Nagorny Karabakh, numerous shootings were reported. According
    to local Armenian forces, 650 separate violations of the ceasefire
    were committed by Azerbaijani forces between April 29 and May 12,
    amounting to 2,400 shooting incidents.

    War in the early 1990s left an Armenian administration in control of
    Nagorny Karabakh, which declared independence from Azerbaijan. It has
    not won international recognition, and Azerbaijan continues to claim
    sovereignty. Although the conflict ended in a ceasefire in 1994,
    no peace deal was signed, and negotiations on conflict settlement
    and on Karabakh's future status have made little progress.

    Armenian and Azerbaijani troops face each other along the border
    between the two states, as well as along the "line of control" that
    separates them around Karabakh.

    Exchanges of fire over the front lines are fairly frequent, and each
    side tends to accuse the other of provoking violence by shooting first.

    "The Armenians strictly adhere to the ceasefire arrangements, and only
    respond when the opposing side breach it," Armenia defence ministry
    Mushegh Aghekyan spokesman said with reference to recent events.

    Political and defence analysts in Armenia suggested the upsurge
    in incidents might be a deliberate attempt by Azerbaijan to disrupt
    campaigning for their country's May 6 parliamentary election, and also
    the May 9 celebrations for the anniversary of the Armenian capture
    of Shushi, a town in Karabakh, in 1992.

    On April 27, the day the three soldiers were killed in Tavush, Armenian
    president Serzh Sargsyan was out campaigning for his Republican Party
    ahead of the election.

    He assured voters that Armenia would retaliate for the killings.

    "Let no one think they can exploit the political process going on
    in our country and assume we are too busy with elections. We have a
    strong army and we will take the steps that are required," he said.

    Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan stressed, however, that Armenia
    favoured negotiations, not a resumption of conflict.

    "They [Azerbaijanis] have shown yet again that the principles under
    which we reached the [truce] agreement, specifically including the
    principle of non-use of force, have been violated many times. But
    these actions will not benefit them in any way, since our view is
    that relationships are [framed] only through the negotiating process,"
    he said.

    Armenian defence expert Artsrun Hovhannisyan focused on the human
    cost of the rising number of cross-border shooting incidents.

    "In recent years, the reporting of ceasefire violations regime has
    become more open and transparent, and this often upsets people. The
    Azerbaijani side is aware of this. People are scared when they hear
    about the increased frequency of shooting incidents," he said. "To
    reassure them, I should say that the shots fired from the Azerbaijani
    side are ineffective; they achieve nothing. We can react to ceasefire
    violations ten times more or less than we do now, but the key thing
    is that there shouldn't be casualties - and that an impulsive reaction
    could restart the war."

    In Tavush region, many villagers have become resigned to outbreaks
    of shooting, even though the risks are real enough.

    "They were shooting when my son was a year old, and now he's 21 and
    they're still shooting," Lena Andreasyan from the village of Movses
    said. "It makes no difference - we aren't leaving the village, as
    it's our home. There was some very heavy gunfire three days ago,
    but when our lads started firing in response, they soon quietened down.

    "The shots do damage house windows and doors. It's rare to see a
    house that doesn't have bullet holes."

    Gayane Lazarian and Sara Khojoyan are reporters for ArmeniaNow.com.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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