Tweet
RUSSIAN SOLDIER KILLS TURKISH SHEPHERD ON ARMENIAN BORDER
EurasiaNet.org
Aug 2 2013
August 2, 2013 - 3:18pm, by Joshua Kucera
The shooting of a Turkish shepherd on the Armenia-Turkey border
has sparked international tensions, though there appears to be some
confusion in Turkey as to precisely with whom they should be angry.
The episode began July 31, when a 35-year-old shepherd in Turkey's
Kars province accidentally wandered over the border with Armenia to
retrieve one of his sheep that had strayed. (Though some reports
say the wayward animal was a cow.) Kars Governor Eyup Tepe blamed
Armenian soldiers for the incident, and Turkey's Foreign Ministry
issued a strong statement blaming Armenia:
We strongly condemn the shooting and killing of an innocent Turkish
citizen for a simple border violation which we understand to have
had an innocent purpose. There is no explanation for the Armenian
party's use of disproportionate force in such an incident which may
typically occur at the border.
But it's no secret that Armenia doesn't actually control that border
-- Armenia's borders with Turkey and Iran are in fact patrolled by
Russian soldiers (though there are some Armenian guards under Russian
command). It soon became clear that it was a Russian unit responsible
for the shooting. From Hurriyet Daily News:
A Turkish shepherd who crossed the border into Armenia opened fire at
Russian frontier guards, who responded by returning the fire, Sergey
Grechin, from the Russian Border Department of the Federal Security
Service, has said, according to the Russian Itar Tass news agency.
"It was a Russian border guard unit that was involved in the incident,"
a senior official in the Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed, along
with a second source in the Armenian Defense Ministry.
Armenia issued a statement expressing regret, but not taking
responsibility.
The incident took place in an atmosphere already made tense by an
Armenian official's claim that his country should take back land lost
to Turkey in the wake of the 1915 genocide, which prompted an angry
response from Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davotoglu, who called
such thinking "delirium."
For Cold War nostalgists, the Russian role may carry with it a faint
recall of the Cold War, when the border with Turkey was one of the very
small stretches where the Soviet Union directly butted up against NATO,
But now, news of the Russian involvement should tamp down tension, as
it's much harder and less rewarding for Turkey to whip up nationalist
sentiment against Russia than it is against Armenia.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67340
From: Baghdasarian
EurasiaNet.org
Aug 2 2013
August 2, 2013 - 3:18pm, by Joshua Kucera
The shooting of a Turkish shepherd on the Armenia-Turkey border
has sparked international tensions, though there appears to be some
confusion in Turkey as to precisely with whom they should be angry.
The episode began July 31, when a 35-year-old shepherd in Turkey's
Kars province accidentally wandered over the border with Armenia to
retrieve one of his sheep that had strayed. (Though some reports
say the wayward animal was a cow.) Kars Governor Eyup Tepe blamed
Armenian soldiers for the incident, and Turkey's Foreign Ministry
issued a strong statement blaming Armenia:
We strongly condemn the shooting and killing of an innocent Turkish
citizen for a simple border violation which we understand to have
had an innocent purpose. There is no explanation for the Armenian
party's use of disproportionate force in such an incident which may
typically occur at the border.
But it's no secret that Armenia doesn't actually control that border
-- Armenia's borders with Turkey and Iran are in fact patrolled by
Russian soldiers (though there are some Armenian guards under Russian
command). It soon became clear that it was a Russian unit responsible
for the shooting. From Hurriyet Daily News:
A Turkish shepherd who crossed the border into Armenia opened fire at
Russian frontier guards, who responded by returning the fire, Sergey
Grechin, from the Russian Border Department of the Federal Security
Service, has said, according to the Russian Itar Tass news agency.
"It was a Russian border guard unit that was involved in the incident,"
a senior official in the Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed, along
with a second source in the Armenian Defense Ministry.
Armenia issued a statement expressing regret, but not taking
responsibility.
The incident took place in an atmosphere already made tense by an
Armenian official's claim that his country should take back land lost
to Turkey in the wake of the 1915 genocide, which prompted an angry
response from Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davotoglu, who called
such thinking "delirium."
For Cold War nostalgists, the Russian role may carry with it a faint
recall of the Cold War, when the border with Turkey was one of the very
small stretches where the Soviet Union directly butted up against NATO,
But now, news of the Russian involvement should tamp down tension, as
it's much harder and less rewarding for Turkey to whip up nationalist
sentiment against Russia than it is against Armenia.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67340
From: Baghdasarian