Border shootings amid campaign: Will Azeri bullets leave traces on
Armenian elections?
Vote 2012 | 28.04.12 | 11:47
Photolure
A view of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border from the Tavush province
By Gohar Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Most Armenian parties contesting seats in the National Assembly in the
May 6 elections say the recent escalation of tensions along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border won’t disrupt the normal course of the
country’s political process.
The situation in the northeastern borderline areas of Armenia as well
as along the line of contact in Karabakh has remained particularly
tense in the past few days, with the military authorities in both
Yerevan and Stepanakert reporting a troubling surge in the number of
ceasefire violations.
In one such ceasefire violation a kindergarten in the Armenian border
village of Dovegh had to be evacuated on Wednesday after being
reportedly hit by automatic gunfire from nearby Azerbaijani army
positions. No casualties were reported in that gunfire that lasted for
more than half an hour and was described by local villagers as the
most ferocious since the 1994 ceasefire.
Meanwhile, an Armenian ambulance was targeted near the Karabakh-Azeri
frontline positions, with two ethnic Armenian soldiers wounded in that
attack.
And on Friday morning three Armenian soldiers were killed in the
Tavush province of Armenia in an apparent Azeri sniper attack that
left their car riddled with bullets.
Addressing a campaign rally in the Tavush province hours after that
incident President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the leader of the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), stressed that such enemy
attacks could not disrupt the political process in the country.
`Let no one think that they can take advantage of the political
processes in our country or think that we are busy with elections. We
have a strong army and will resort to corresponding steps. I think
none of you doubts that the enemy will be duly rebuffed,’ said
Sargsyan, addressing people in the town of Stepanavan.
Residents of the Tavush villages situated close to the border with
Azerbaijan say Azeri sniper activity has been particularly high in the
past several weeks – a period coinciding with the springtime farming
and this year also with the start of the parliamentary election
campaign in Armenia.
`Shootings have been a common thing here, but in the past two weeks
they’ve become more intensive, so we don’t know what they mean by
that. The fire is so intense that people have stopped taking their
cattle to the pastures and engaging in spring sowing work in their
land. It can be said that the village is paralyzed,’ says Manvel
Kamendatyan, the mayor of the village of Nerkin Karmiraghbyur in the
Tavush province.
Some political analysts say it is a usual Azeri tactic of heightening
border tensions ahead of every election in Armenia. But some also say
by doing this they, willy-nilly, play into the hands of some political
forces in Armenia who try to capitalize on the `external threat’
factor in their struggle for votes.
Manvel Sargsyan, the head of the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies, cites the remarks of the president made in
Dilijan as evidence.
`Immediately, for some reason, the president linked the incident to
the election campaign, which is a little unclear. So, one can already
see the desire of the governing force to use the border incidents as
the external threat factor in its current campaign,’ says the analyst.
Former Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekyan, who is currently an
MP with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), also
addressed the recent border shootings at a meeting with a group of
intellectuals in Yerevan.
`If a war is declared on Armenia tomorrow, we are ready to defend
ourselves, but it won’t be easy with the budget and policies that we
have today. Dashnaktsutyun is the only force capable of ensuring the
real security of our country. For this it is necessary to raise the
prestige of our army and turn military service into an honorable
occupation,’ said Aghabekyan. `We have no right to be quiet when three
of our compatriots have been killed on the border.’
But member of the opposition Heritage party Armen Martirosyan warned
against speculating on `the enemy’s provocative actions and
aggression’ in the internal political process in Armenia.
`If it were our internal problem or the problem of hazing in the army,
in that case we could once again address this problem as an internal
political matter. But in this case we are dealing with the defense of
Armenia, and regardless of our positions, I think we all must give our
support to the army,’ said the candidate.
From: Baghdasarian