Armenian Soldier Killed On Azeri Border

ARMENIAN SOLDIER KILLED ON AZERI BORDER
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 19 2006

An Armenian army soldier was shot dead late on Monday in what the
Defense Ministry in Yerevan called an Azerbaijani cease-fire violation
registered in a tense section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

A ministry spokesman said Junior Sergeant Ruben Tamrazian, 39, was
killed by an Azerbaijani sniper near the northern Armenian town of
Ijevan. "An investigation is underway," Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian
said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

The area close to eastern Georgia has seen regular skirmishes this
year between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops deployed on either side
of the heavily militarized frontier. Each side has reported casualties
and accused the other of breaching the truce.

Another Armenian soldier was fatally shot in the chest in the same
area and under similar circumstances in late September.

There was no immediate reaction to the latest reported incident from
Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani military said instead that its forces
positioned northeast of Nagorno-Karabakh came under Armenian fire
but suffered no casualties on Monday.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS