AZERBAIJAN SAYS DOZENS DEAD AS ICG WARNS OVER KARABAKH TENSIONS

Bloomberg / Business Weekly
Feb 3 2014

By Zulfugar Agayev Feb 3, 2014 9:06 PM GMT+0200

Azerbaijan said its troops killed dozens of Armenians in clashes near
the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the past two weeks as the
International Crisis Group warned of an “unprecedented” escalation
of tensions.

“Armenian losses ran into dozens,” Vaqif Dargahli, a spokesman for the
Ministry of Defense, said by phone today from Baku, the capital. Two
Azeris were also killed, he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Ministry denied the claim, saying two
Armenians and eight Azeris were killed.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said “the nature of
reported clashes and ominous statements by some officials mark an
escalation unprecedented in recent years.”

Armenians took over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave about the
size of Rhode Island, and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan
in a war after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. More than 30,000
people were killed and a million displaced before Russia brokered a
cease-fire in 1994.

Azerbaijan, which in December signed $45 billion of contracts with
a BP Plc-led group to pipe natural gas to Europe, has repeatedly
threatened to use force to regain control of the territory should
peace efforts fail.

A further escalation will adversely affect peace talks, the Russian
Foreign Ministry said last week, calling for restraint.