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ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN BLOODLETTING THREATENS KARABAKH CEASEFIRE
Yahoo News
March 4 2015
By Mariam Harutunyan with Emil Guliyev in Alibeyli
Movses (AFP) - Locals sigh with relief as their Armenian village of
Movses, close to the border with Azerbaijan, disappears in the lilac
mist rolling down from the Kardash mountain, where Azeri snipers have
fortified positions.
"The mist is our salvation. When visibility is zero, we know the
Azeris won't be shooting," said Khanum, an elderly Armenian woman who,
like other Movses residents, lives in constant fear of Azeri snipers.
But just across the frontline, on the Azeri side, the fear is no
less intense.
"The streets are deserted during the daytime," said Ismail Nabiyev,
who lives in Alibeyli, an Azeri village. "We can't hold wedding parties
or funerals. The Armenians shoot at us when they see people gathering."
The bloody Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict over the Nagorny Karabakh
region formally became a frozen one over two decades ago. In reality
the war has never stopped for Azeri and Armenian villagers living
along their countries' border.
The villages of Movses and Alibeyli lie around 200 kilometres from
Nagorny Karabakh itself.
View gallery An elderly woman is pictured on February 16, 2015 next
to a wall damaged by a shell in the Armenian ...
But violence has spread far beyond the epicenter of the conflict,
with Azeri and Armenian sharpshooters along their border threatening
the shaky peace as tit-for-tat bloodletting annually claims dozens
of lives.
Sparking fears of a new all-out war between the countries, last year
saw an unprecedented spiral of violence with more than 70 people from
both sides killed.
At least for those living in these rural border areas, war has
already returned.
"Our houses are under constant fire from Armenia," said Khatira
Aliyeva, a young mother of two who was wounded in the arm in February
when her house in Alibeyli came under sniper gunfire from across
the border.
"I'm afraid of letting my children go to school. In the mornings,
we run to the school fearing the Armenians might notice us and start
shooting," she said.
View gallery Levon Andreasyan, 85, wounded by Azerbaijani sniper fire
in Movses, in Armenia, lies on his hospital ...
"After classes, children are forced to stay at home. It's too dangerous
for them to play in the courtyard."
That nightmare is echoed from the other side by Sudarik Aperian, an
82-year-old resident of Movses, who says: "Azeri snipers shoot day
and night -- at our houses, at peaceful civilians, at people working
in their orchards."
"At night, I am afraid of switching the lights on. When Azeris see
lights in our windows, they immediately start shooting," she said
standing by her bullet-riddled gates.
- 'Unprecedented escalation' -
The decades-long dispute over Nagorny Karabakh has its immediate roots
in a 1990s war that left some 30,000 people dead after ethnic-Armenian
separatists backed by Yerevan seized the territory from Azerbaijan.
View gallery Khatira Aliyeva pictured in her house in the Azeri
village of Alibeyli on February 17, 2015 (AFP Pho ...
Despite years of internationally-mediated negotiations since the 1994
ceasefire, the two sides have not yet signed a final peace deal.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but
the ethnic-Azeri community -- which before the war made up around
25 percent of the population -- was entirely driven out. Almost all
of the current 145,000 population of the enclave is Armenian and the
region has declared itself the Nagorny Karabakh Republic.
The uneasy standoff is not only fraying along the frontlines, but
suffering from increasingly heated rhetoric from politicians on
both sides.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan has repeatedly vowed to retake the region.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, said in February that the peace will be
under threat as long as Armenia continues its occupation of Karabakh
and seven adjacent Azeri districts, territory that adds up to some
20 percent of Azerbaijan.
But in January, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian threatened
Azerbaijan with an "asymmetrical" response to any military assault
by the cash-rich Azeri army.
View gallery A picture taken on February 17, 2015 shows a panoramic
view of the Azeri village of Alibeyli (AFP Ph ...
"In the event of a major and menacing (military) concentration on
our border or along the (Karabakh) frontline, we reserve the right
of a preventive strike," he said.
The sabre-rattling rhetoric in Baku and Yerevan highlighted the
unprecedented level of escalation on the ground. In the most serious
single incident on the Karabakh frontline since the ceasefire, Azeri
forces shot down an Armenian military helicopter in November.
Then January turned out to be especially bloody.
At least 12 people from both sides were reported killed and 18 wounded
in border clashes -- "the highest confirmed number of victims in the
first month of a year since the 1994 ceasefire," according to the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Analysts warn that the current skirmishing could now tip over into
something far more serious.
"Starting from the summer of 2014, we have witnessed an unprecedented
escalation," Mubariz Ahmedoglu, the director of Azeri Centre of
Political Innovations, told AFP.
"Armenia and Azerbaijan have deployed large-calibre artillery and
rocket weapons along the Karabakh frontline," he said.
In Yerevan, Armenian analyst Sergey Minasyan, with the Caucasus
Institute think tank, was similarly pessimistic.
"For the last 20 years, the situation on the ground has never been
as tense and dangerous as it is today," he said.
One resident of Movses, near the frontline, put the situation this way:
"Our future is just as hazy as this mist over the Kardash mountain."
http://news.yahoo.com/armenia-azerbaijan-bloodletting-threatens-karabakh-ceasefire-164131759.html
From: Baghdasarian
Yahoo News
March 4 2015
By Mariam Harutunyan with Emil Guliyev in Alibeyli
Movses (AFP) - Locals sigh with relief as their Armenian village of
Movses, close to the border with Azerbaijan, disappears in the lilac
mist rolling down from the Kardash mountain, where Azeri snipers have
fortified positions.
"The mist is our salvation. When visibility is zero, we know the
Azeris won't be shooting," said Khanum, an elderly Armenian woman who,
like other Movses residents, lives in constant fear of Azeri snipers.
But just across the frontline, on the Azeri side, the fear is no
less intense.
"The streets are deserted during the daytime," said Ismail Nabiyev,
who lives in Alibeyli, an Azeri village. "We can't hold wedding parties
or funerals. The Armenians shoot at us when they see people gathering."
The bloody Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict over the Nagorny Karabakh
region formally became a frozen one over two decades ago. In reality
the war has never stopped for Azeri and Armenian villagers living
along their countries' border.
The villages of Movses and Alibeyli lie around 200 kilometres from
Nagorny Karabakh itself.
View gallery An elderly woman is pictured on February 16, 2015 next
to a wall damaged by a shell in the Armenian ...
But violence has spread far beyond the epicenter of the conflict,
with Azeri and Armenian sharpshooters along their border threatening
the shaky peace as tit-for-tat bloodletting annually claims dozens
of lives.
Sparking fears of a new all-out war between the countries, last year
saw an unprecedented spiral of violence with more than 70 people from
both sides killed.
At least for those living in these rural border areas, war has
already returned.
"Our houses are under constant fire from Armenia," said Khatira
Aliyeva, a young mother of two who was wounded in the arm in February
when her house in Alibeyli came under sniper gunfire from across
the border.
"I'm afraid of letting my children go to school. In the mornings,
we run to the school fearing the Armenians might notice us and start
shooting," she said.
View gallery Levon Andreasyan, 85, wounded by Azerbaijani sniper fire
in Movses, in Armenia, lies on his hospital ...
"After classes, children are forced to stay at home. It's too dangerous
for them to play in the courtyard."
That nightmare is echoed from the other side by Sudarik Aperian, an
82-year-old resident of Movses, who says: "Azeri snipers shoot day
and night -- at our houses, at peaceful civilians, at people working
in their orchards."
"At night, I am afraid of switching the lights on. When Azeris see
lights in our windows, they immediately start shooting," she said
standing by her bullet-riddled gates.
- 'Unprecedented escalation' -
The decades-long dispute over Nagorny Karabakh has its immediate roots
in a 1990s war that left some 30,000 people dead after ethnic-Armenian
separatists backed by Yerevan seized the territory from Azerbaijan.
View gallery Khatira Aliyeva pictured in her house in the Azeri
village of Alibeyli on February 17, 2015 (AFP Pho ...
Despite years of internationally-mediated negotiations since the 1994
ceasefire, the two sides have not yet signed a final peace deal.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but
the ethnic-Azeri community -- which before the war made up around
25 percent of the population -- was entirely driven out. Almost all
of the current 145,000 population of the enclave is Armenian and the
region has declared itself the Nagorny Karabakh Republic.
The uneasy standoff is not only fraying along the frontlines, but
suffering from increasingly heated rhetoric from politicians on
both sides.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan has repeatedly vowed to retake the region.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, said in February that the peace will be
under threat as long as Armenia continues its occupation of Karabakh
and seven adjacent Azeri districts, territory that adds up to some
20 percent of Azerbaijan.
But in January, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian threatened
Azerbaijan with an "asymmetrical" response to any military assault
by the cash-rich Azeri army.
View gallery A picture taken on February 17, 2015 shows a panoramic
view of the Azeri village of Alibeyli (AFP Ph ...
"In the event of a major and menacing (military) concentration on
our border or along the (Karabakh) frontline, we reserve the right
of a preventive strike," he said.
The sabre-rattling rhetoric in Baku and Yerevan highlighted the
unprecedented level of escalation on the ground. In the most serious
single incident on the Karabakh frontline since the ceasefire, Azeri
forces shot down an Armenian military helicopter in November.
Then January turned out to be especially bloody.
At least 12 people from both sides were reported killed and 18 wounded
in border clashes -- "the highest confirmed number of victims in the
first month of a year since the 1994 ceasefire," according to the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Analysts warn that the current skirmishing could now tip over into
something far more serious.
"Starting from the summer of 2014, we have witnessed an unprecedented
escalation," Mubariz Ahmedoglu, the director of Azeri Centre of
Political Innovations, told AFP.
"Armenia and Azerbaijan have deployed large-calibre artillery and
rocket weapons along the Karabakh frontline," he said.
In Yerevan, Armenian analyst Sergey Minasyan, with the Caucasus
Institute think tank, was similarly pessimistic.
"For the last 20 years, the situation on the ground has never been
as tense and dangerous as it is today," he said.
One resident of Movses, near the frontline, put the situation this way:
"Our future is just as hazy as this mist over the Kardash mountain."
http://news.yahoo.com/armenia-azerbaijan-bloodletting-threatens-karabakh-ceasefire-164131759.html
From: Baghdasarian