Azerbaijan’s Attack On Karabakh Forces Was Preplanned – Sargsyan

AZERBAIJAN’S ATTACK ON KARABAKH FORCES WAS PREPLANNED – SARGSYAN

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
March 12 2008
Russia

Armenian President-elect Serzh Sargsyan said that the attack of the
Azerbaijani military on the positions of Nagorno Karabakh forces
was preplanned.

"The attack by Azerbaijan was not accidental, it was prepared in
advance," he said at a Wednesday meeting with students.

"The violation of the ceasefire by Azerbaijan was not an accident,
but I find it hard to say now how it is connected with the political
situation in Armenia," he said.

Sargsyan expressed confidence that the Azerbaijani leadership had
known about the planned attack. The fact that the Azerbaijani defense
minister with whom talks were held through the personal representative
of the OSCE chairman in office refused to recall servicemen serves
to prove that, he said.

According to Armenia, on the night of March 3 a subversive unit of
the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, in violation of the ceasefire, attacked
an outpost of the army of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno
Karabakh near the village of Levonarkh and assumed temporary control
over it but was thrown back to its old potions by counter action.

The Foreign Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh insisted on monitoring by
an OSCE mission. The monitoring was scheduled for March 7 but was
conducted only on the Karabakh side, Yerevan indicates.