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CIVILIAN DEATHS UNDERLINE ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN TENSIONS
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #704
Oct 3 2013
Latest incident attributed to lack of emergency channels through
which opposing militaries could communicate.
By Lilit Arakelyan - Caucasus CRS Issue 704, 3 Oct 13
The latest landmine fatality on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
highlights the need for some kind of communication system between
the two sides to prevent more civilian deaths.
Eduard Dallakyan, a 26-year-old farmer from the village of Aygedzor
in Armenia's northeastern Tavush region, died on September 24 after
stepping on a mine on the border with Azerbaijan.
He suffered serious leg and arm injuries in the blast, and rescuers
were unable to reach him in time to save his life because Azerbaijani
soldiers were firing shots at him.
Dallakyan ventured into no-man's land to chase back some pigs that
had wandered out of Armenian-controlled pasture land.
Sasun Safaryan, the head of the village, described what happened next.
"After the explosion, the Azerbaijanis kept the area under fire
for more than 40 minutes. The injured man managed to drag himself
30 metres from the site of the blast and hide so that the bullets
didn't hit him," he said. "Rescuers did finally get to him, but he
died before reaching hospital.
Like other frontier villages, Aygedzor with its 2,500 people is
constantly at risk from sporadic outbreaks of gunfire across the line.
Villagers find it hard to go about their normal business, and those
like Dallakyan who need to go out and work on the land are in danger
of getting hurt or killed. (See Gunfire as Extension of Politics on
Azeri-Armenian Border.)
"Because of the hardship facing his family, Dallakyan went the whole
way [to save] his livestock. He just didn't have anything else to
live off," Safaryan said. "He's been married less than a year, and
his wife is expecting their first child."
When incidents occur, there are no channels of communication between
the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops stationed along the frontier. The
same is true of the "line of control" separating Azerbaijani units
from the armed forces of Armenian-run Nagorny Karabakh
"Sadly there is no such thing [communications channel], as the
Azerbaijanis have never taken the required steps," Armenian defence
ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said. "We have often suggested
it, as have the [OSCE] Minsk Group mediators, but the Azerbaijanis
have always rejected the idea."
The Karabakh war ended in 1994 with a truce but no peace agreement.
Two decades on, negotiations led by the OSCE's Minsk Group have
failed to bring the sides any closer than they are now on the key
issue - whether Karabakh should return to being part of Azerbaijan,
or become a recognised separate state.
According to Tevan Poghosyan, a member of Armenia's parliament from
the opposition Heritage party, the Minsk Group was supposed to have
set up a five-member team to investigate allegations of ceasefire
violations and record any loss of life that resulted from them.
"In theory, these mechanisms exist, but in reality they don't since
the Azerbaijanis won't agree to investigations on their territory," he
added. "They should come and investigate incidents, and then show the
international community the real reason why the life of this civilian
[Dallakyan] couldn't be saved."
Experts in Armenia says further civilian casualties are inevitable.
"The Minsk Group must act clearly to make the Azerbaijanis take
responsibility for action to reduce tensions on the front line to a
minimum," Sergei Minasyan, deputy head of the Caucasus Institute in
Yerevan, told IWPR.
Ambassadors from the Minsk Group's three co-chair states - the United
States, Russia and France -met the foreign ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan at the United Nations on September 27, but made no progress.
In a statement, the co-chairs said they had "stressed the commitment
of their three countries to support the peaceful settlement of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict based on the non-use of force or
the threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and
self-determination of peoples".
Poghosyan said the Minsk Group was failing to do its job properly.
"The problem is that they try to operate honestly, impartially and
without bias, but when they do act, they avoid taking responsibility.
After every incident, they limit themselves to spineless statements,
with appeals and requests addressed to both sides," he said.
LilitArakelyan is a reporter for www.medialab.am in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/civilian-deaths-underline-armenia-azerbaijan-tensions
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #704
Oct 3 2013
Latest incident attributed to lack of emergency channels through
which opposing militaries could communicate.
By Lilit Arakelyan - Caucasus CRS Issue 704, 3 Oct 13
The latest landmine fatality on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
highlights the need for some kind of communication system between
the two sides to prevent more civilian deaths.
Eduard Dallakyan, a 26-year-old farmer from the village of Aygedzor
in Armenia's northeastern Tavush region, died on September 24 after
stepping on a mine on the border with Azerbaijan.
He suffered serious leg and arm injuries in the blast, and rescuers
were unable to reach him in time to save his life because Azerbaijani
soldiers were firing shots at him.
Dallakyan ventured into no-man's land to chase back some pigs that
had wandered out of Armenian-controlled pasture land.
Sasun Safaryan, the head of the village, described what happened next.
"After the explosion, the Azerbaijanis kept the area under fire
for more than 40 minutes. The injured man managed to drag himself
30 metres from the site of the blast and hide so that the bullets
didn't hit him," he said. "Rescuers did finally get to him, but he
died before reaching hospital.
Like other frontier villages, Aygedzor with its 2,500 people is
constantly at risk from sporadic outbreaks of gunfire across the line.
Villagers find it hard to go about their normal business, and those
like Dallakyan who need to go out and work on the land are in danger
of getting hurt or killed. (See Gunfire as Extension of Politics on
Azeri-Armenian Border.)
"Because of the hardship facing his family, Dallakyan went the whole
way [to save] his livestock. He just didn't have anything else to
live off," Safaryan said. "He's been married less than a year, and
his wife is expecting their first child."
When incidents occur, there are no channels of communication between
the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops stationed along the frontier. The
same is true of the "line of control" separating Azerbaijani units
from the armed forces of Armenian-run Nagorny Karabakh
"Sadly there is no such thing [communications channel], as the
Azerbaijanis have never taken the required steps," Armenian defence
ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said. "We have often suggested
it, as have the [OSCE] Minsk Group mediators, but the Azerbaijanis
have always rejected the idea."
The Karabakh war ended in 1994 with a truce but no peace agreement.
Two decades on, negotiations led by the OSCE's Minsk Group have
failed to bring the sides any closer than they are now on the key
issue - whether Karabakh should return to being part of Azerbaijan,
or become a recognised separate state.
According to Tevan Poghosyan, a member of Armenia's parliament from
the opposition Heritage party, the Minsk Group was supposed to have
set up a five-member team to investigate allegations of ceasefire
violations and record any loss of life that resulted from them.
"In theory, these mechanisms exist, but in reality they don't since
the Azerbaijanis won't agree to investigations on their territory," he
added. "They should come and investigate incidents, and then show the
international community the real reason why the life of this civilian
[Dallakyan] couldn't be saved."
Experts in Armenia says further civilian casualties are inevitable.
"The Minsk Group must act clearly to make the Azerbaijanis take
responsibility for action to reduce tensions on the front line to a
minimum," Sergei Minasyan, deputy head of the Caucasus Institute in
Yerevan, told IWPR.
Ambassadors from the Minsk Group's three co-chair states - the United
States, Russia and France -met the foreign ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan at the United Nations on September 27, but made no progress.
In a statement, the co-chairs said they had "stressed the commitment
of their three countries to support the peaceful settlement of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict based on the non-use of force or
the threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and
self-determination of peoples".
Poghosyan said the Minsk Group was failing to do its job properly.
"The problem is that they try to operate honestly, impartially and
without bias, but when they do act, they avoid taking responsibility.
After every incident, they limit themselves to spineless statements,
with appeals and requests addressed to both sides," he said.
LilitArakelyan is a reporter for www.medialab.am in Armenia.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/civilian-deaths-underline-armenia-azerbaijan-tensions