Author: Kajoyan Gevork

YOUNG DRIVER IS MURDERED IN ARMENIA

news.am
June 06, 2012 | 21:42

YEREVAN. – A young driver of Yerevan public transportation number 5
route was murdered near a Star Supermarket in Yerevan’s Avan District
on Wednesday at around 8.30-9.00 p.m., sources informed Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

The driver was a young man of about 22-23 years old named Hakob. The
corpse has been removed but the area is still crowded.

According to eyewitnesses, before the murder a fight had broken out.

According to preliminary facts, he was stabbed with a knife.

AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTRY DENIES INFORMATION OF ARMENIAN MEDIA ABOUT LARGE LOSS OF AZERBAIJANI SIDE

Trend
June 6 2012
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denies the information of Armenian
media that Azerbaijani side suffered heavy losses during the attack
of a group of Armenian saboteurs on June 5, head of press service of
Defense Ministry Eldar Sabiroglu told Trend.

He said the Armenian media, inventing fictitious names and titles
inform that the Azerbaijani side has allegedly lost more than ten
people.

A ministry spokesman said the information is false and far from the
truth, and notes that it isn’t the first time the Armenian side use
this method.

Sabiroglu said it is foolish and impossible to hide the number of dead
soldiers. The enemy is working on rather tricky and low principles.

“Given this, there is no need to spread false information based on
misinformation of the enemy,” he said.

Armenian media spread information that more than ten soldiers of the
Azerbaijani army have been killed in the result of ceasefire violations
on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani in recent days.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

TURKEY REBUFFS US CALL ON THAW WITH ARMENIA

Hurriyet
June 6 2012
Turkey

Turkey rejects on Hillary Clinton’s calls for Ankara to normalize
ties with Armenia, noting that a ruling by an Armenian court is main
obstacle to a thaw

Ankara has rebutted a statement by the United States calling on Turkey
to take steps to normalize its relations with Armenia, citing the
Armenian Constitutional Court’s previous rulings on the two countries’
diplomatic protocols.

“Turkey’s position on the issue is clear,” a Turkish diplomat told the
Hurriyet Daily News, adding that the Armenian court’s Jan. 12 decision
established that the protocols conformed to the country’s constitution.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Turkey to normalize
relations with Armenia, speaking to journalists in Yerevan on June 4,
saying “the ball is in Turkey’s court.”

“We are committed to seeing Armenia and Turkey normalize relations
because we think this is a better path forward for the citizens of
both countries and we strongly support ratification of the protocols
[of normalization] without preconditions,” she said. “We believe these
are countries that should have open borders, should work together,
should trade, and they should have people to people exchanges because
it would be mutually beneficial to all concerned.”

In the Armenian court’s decision about the constitutionality of
protocols that could pave the way for diplomatic relations with Turkey,
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s reference to the 1915 killings
of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire has drawn ire from
Ankara. The reference to the killings in the ruling was against the
spirit of the normalization process with Yerevan, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the Armenian court’s 2010 ruling. “We
have never taken the protocol to our Constitutional Court. We took it
directly to our Parliament, without making changes. We didn’t employ a
mediator on the text. We didn’t carry out any read-between-the-lines
operations. This is proof of our sincerity. Armenia has tried to
change the text,” Erdogan said.

The fifth article of the court’s ruling makes reference to Armenia’s
declaration of independence in a manner that angered Turkey, while
the document’s 11th paragraph says, “The Republic of Armenia stands
in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the
1915 genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.” The accords,
signed by the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia in October 2009,
need parliamentary approval in both countries for ratification.

Turkey and Armenia currently have no diplomatic relations, as Ankara
closed its border with the country in 1993 because of its war with
Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2009, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed protocols
to establish diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border. The
protocols also called for a joint commission to examine the two
countries’ shared history. Along with the Armenian court’s decision,
the normalization process stalled after Turkey faced a backlash from
its traditional ally, Azerbaijan, and opposition at home.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed
in the events of 1915 and 1916, while Turkey says 500,000 died and
ascribes the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I.

In the meantime, Clinton yesterday called on Georgia’s leaders to
strengthen their democracy by ensuring that upcoming parliamentary
and presidential elections are “free and fair,” speaking at the Black
Sea port city of Batumi ahead of a meeting with President Mikheil
Saakashvili. Clinton also reaffirmed U.S. support for the territorial
integrity of the former Soviet republic, which is a strong U.S. ally.

She called on Russia to pull its forces back from Georgia’s breakaway
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

CLINTON URGES AZERBAIJAN TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS

Voice of America
June 6 2012

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pressed Azerbaijan to
show greater respect for human rights.

During a visit Wednesday to the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, Clinton
urged the government to let citizens express their views peacefully
and to release those who have been detained for doing so. She also
called on Azerbaijani authorities to respect journalists’ rights.

Clinton met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and opposition
activists, including Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, who was released from prison
on Monday after being convicted more than a year ago of draft evasion.

Hajiyev was arrested after his name appeared on the Facebook social
media website as among those urging people to join anti-government
protests.

Opposition and human rights groups in Azerbaijan have long accused
President Aliyev of suppressing democracy and free speech.

In Baku, Clinton also voiced concern about the flare-up of deadly
violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying it could lead to a
broader conflict.

At least eight soldiers have been killed in border clashes between
the two countries since Monday.

Clinton stopped in Armenia on Monday at the start of her visit to
the South Caucasus. She is now in Turkey.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six year war over the mostly
Armenian-speaking enclave of Nargorno-Karabakh, which is located inside
Azerbaijan. Before the end of the war in 1994, some 30,000 people
were killed and more than a million others were displaced, mostly in
Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied the territory since the war ended.

NEXT PROVOCATION OF ARMENIAN ARMY PREVENTED, ONE ENEMY SOLDIERS KILLED, TWO WOUNDED

APA
June 6 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Armenian army attempted to provoke
the escalation of tensions in various directions of the contact line.

According to the Armenian mass media, Armenian army lost one more
soldier during the skirmish.

According to the report, junior sergeant of Armenian army Ohanyan
Vardan Robertovich was killed and Mavreyan Araik Gegamovich and Satryan
Volodya Yuriyevich were wounded in Horadiz village of Azerbaijan’s
Fuzuli region at 04.15 today.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that the units of the Armenian
army violated ceasefire from all directions of the contact line of
troops from 18.00 June 5 till 08.00 June 6. Though the skirmish had
an intensive character, the Azerbaijani side had no casualties. The
enemy was silenced by a retaliation fire.

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN PLAY WITH FIRE ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH BORDER
By Catherine Cheney

World Politics Review

June 6 2012

Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet republics in the South Caucasus,
have been at war for two decades over the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist ethnic-Armenian province internationally
recognized as part of Azerbaijan but occupied since 1994 by Armenia.

Over the past week, renewed fighting has left eight soldiers dead. The
outbreak of violence along the border, which comes as U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton visits the region, underscores the difficulty
in resolving this not quite frozen conflict.

Amanda Paul, a policy analyst and expert on the South Caucasus at the
European Policy Center, talked to Trend Lines about what life is like
on the skirmish-prone front lines.

“It consists of dug out, World War I-type trenches with tens of
thousands of Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers facing each other,” she
said. “In some places, [the trenches are] only a few meters apart. It
is a very stressful and tense environment, with the simple rustle of
a tree branch setting off a round of fire.”

Paul said rogue soldiers and commanders, many of them self-proclaimed
heroes “who will decide unilaterally to infiltrate the line of
contact,” are to blame for some of these incidents. Others may be
calculated provocations coming from higher up in the chain of command,
even if they are denied.

“However, being stuck in the trenches, day in, day out, becomes boring
and is also very psychologically damaging,” she said. “Every movement
from the opposite side of the line of contact is viewed as a possible
attack, which is why there are so many violations of the cease-fire.”

While Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of
Azerbaijan and lies within its borders, the majority ethnic-Armenian
enclave is under the control of the Armenian army. Armenia took over
the territory in 1994, after six years of war that displaced 1 million
people and took 30,000 lives.

“Nagorno-Karabakh is a very emotional issue for both countries,”
Paul said. “Therefore any opportunity to saber-rattle or enter into
the other’s ‘space’ is sometimes hard to pass up.”

But the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan extends beyond
Nagorno-Karabakh, she explained. “Seven other Azerbaijani territories
are under Armenian occupation, and almost 800,000 Azerbaijanis remain
displaced as a consequence,” she said. “This is something that is
recognized and condemned in four U.N. resolutions. Moreover, it is
a situation that has been going on for almost two decades.”

Meanwhile, the skirmishes continue, without any mechanisms in place
to prevent the outbreak of violence or the escalation of conflict.

Paul explained that the Minsk Group, which is chaired by France,
Russia, and the U.S. under the auspices of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), spearheads efforts to
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But the OSCE mission in the
province “consists of only a handful of people [who] can only visit
the line of contact at prearranged times.”

Paul said it is essential that the international community continue
to pressure the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to work toward
reaching a negotiated settlement.

“Clearly when there is little movement in the peace talks, the number
of violations increases, which is the case right now,” she said.

Neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia are interested in a new war, Paul
explained, not only because it would not serve their interests,
but also because the consequences could be catastrophic for their
neighbors as well as the region as a whole. Still, she said, there
is an increasing risk of renewed conflict.

“Until now, the two sides have managed to maintain ‘controlled’
violations,” she said. “However, this is a very risky policy, as there
is an increasingly high chance that eventually one of these violations
will spiral out of control and we will have an accidental war.”

FIVE AZERBAIJANI TROOPS KILLED IN BORDER CLASHES WITH ARMENIA

RTT News

June 6 2012

(RTTNews) – Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said Tuesday that five of
its soldiers have been killed in two separate clashes with Armenian
troops along the border separating the two nations.

The ministry said four Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in fighting
with an “Armenian sabotage group” attempting to enter Azerbaijani
military positions in the village of Asagi Askipara in the country’s
western Qazax district.

The ministry said the infiltrating Armenian group had retreated after
suffering causalities in the fighting with Azerbaijani troops. A fifth
Azerbaijani soldier was reported killed in a separate shooting incident
in Qazax district, but Azerbaijan did not provide further details.

Nevertheless, Armenia’s defense ministry rejected the Azerbaijani
claims and insisted that its troops were only responding to an
incursion attempt made by a group of “armed diversionists” trying to
“invade Armenian territory” in the Tovuz district. Armenia claimed
the Azerbaijani group was “neutralized,” adding that none of its
soldiers were killed or injured in the fighting.

The fighting marked the second day of border clashes along the
Azerbaijan-Armenia border. Armenia had said earlier that three of
its soldiers were killed in border clashes with Azerbaijani troops on
Monday. Soldiers from both sides were said to have suffered injuries
in the fighting.

In wake of two days of deadly border clashes, Azerbaijan’s foreign
minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters that he will discuss the
issue with his Armenian counterpart when the two meet in Paris on
June 18 for mediated talks aimed at finding a long-term solution to
their dispute.

The latest development comes amidst a visit by US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton to the South Caucasus as part of Washington’s efforts
to resolve territorial disputes in the region. She is currently In
Georgia after visiting Armenia on Monday, and is due to arrive in
Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

While in Armenia on Monday, Clinton said: “I am very concerned
by these incidents and have called on all parties, all actors, to
refrain from the use or threat of force. There is a danger that it
could escalate into a much broader conflict that would be very tragic
for everyone concerned.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan had fought a war over the disputed enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s. Armenian troops are currently occupying
the enclave after they helped Armenian separatists to seize control
from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. The war for the enclave resulted
in the death of nearly 30,000 people and forced two million others
to flee their homes.

Though the two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in May 1994,
the dispute remains unresolved despite continued international
efforts spearheaded by Russia, France and the US. While Azerbaijan
demands an immediate withdrawal of Armenian forces from the enclave,
Armenia insists on the territory’s independence.

ARMENIA AND KAZAKHSTAN SIGN DEAL ON MILITARY EQUIPMENT

Vestnik Kavkaza
June 6 2012
Russia

Kazakh Defense Minister Adilbek Jaksybekov and his delegation arrived
in Armenia on June 5, NEWS.am reports.

The Kazakh minister met his Armenian counterpart Seyran Oganyan and
high-ranking officials of the Defense Ministry and General Staff.

Oganyan awarded Jaksybekov with a medal for the 20th anniversary of
Armenian Armed Forces.

The ministers signed a deal on military-technical cooperation.

Oganyan said that the two ministries have good opportunities to
develop cooperation within the framework of the CSTO and bilateral
format. Exchange of experience and cooperation in military training
is part of the deal.

The Kazakh defense minister visited the Military Institute of Vazgen
Sargsyan of the Armenian Defense Ministry.

CLASHES DASH HOPES OF ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN PEACE AGREEMENT

Business New Europe

June 6 2012

Eight soldiers were shot dead in clashes on the border between Armenia
and Azerbaijan on June 4 and 5. The worst outbreak of violence between
the two countries for years has raised fears of another escalation
in the conflict between the pair.

Three Armenian soldiers were killed and several soldiers from both
countries injured in a shootout on June 4, which Armenia’s Defence
Ministry said was caused by an “invading” group from Azerbaijan. The
shootings, happened during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
visit to the volatile South Caucaus region.

The following day, five Azeri soldiers were killed in two separate
incidents. A statement from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence said that
a group of Armenian “saboteurs” tried to “infiltrate a position of the
Azeri armed forces” early on June 5, and four Azeri soldiers died in
the ensuing battle. A fifth soldier died in a nearby skirmish later
in the day. On the evening of June 5, Armenian news portal News.am
quoted the head of the village of Movses near the border as saying
that shooting had continued through the day.

Despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement in May 1994, Armenia and
Azerbaijan have never signed a peace settlement to end the war that
broke out in the early 1990s over Nagorno-Karabakh. The tiny republic,
which was part of the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan but had a mainly
ethnic Armenian population, declared its independence in 1991. When
Baku tried to regain control by force, Azeri forces were driven out
by Karabakhis supported by the Armenian army.

However, the shootings on June 4 and 5 took place on the border between
Armenia proper and Azerbaijan, rather than on the de facto border
dividing Azerbaijan from Nagorno-Karabakh, which has seen numerous
clashes in the last 15 years. A total of 63 people have been killed in
skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the beginning of 2011.

The latest incidents are, however, the deadliest for several years.

There are growing concerns that rather than being isolated incidents,
the clashes could escalate into a full-scale war between Armenia
and Azerbaijan.

Speaking in Yerevan on June 4, after the deaths of the three Armenian
soldiers, Clinton said that there was a risk that violence could lead
to a “broader conflict” in the region. “I am very concerned about the
danger of escalation of tensions and the senseless deaths of young
soldiers and innocent civilians. The use of force will not resolve
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and therefore force must not be used,”
Clinton told journalists at a joint briefing with Armenian Foreign
Minister Eduard Nalbandian.

The situation looks eerily familiar. Another frozen conflict in the
South Caucasus escalated into full-scale war in August 2008, following
a similar series of incidents on the border between Georgia and the
self-declared republic of South Ossetia in the first half of 2008. A
five-day war promptly erupted between Georgia and Russia, which has
consistently supported the breakaway republic.

The clashes appear to cap for now efforts by the international
community to bring about a peace settlement between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. The push had looked to be progressing in recent years
following the election of new presidents in both countries.

Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan in Armenia have both
been more amenable than their predecessors to negotiations, and a
series of meetings have taken place between the two heads of state –
for the first time since 1994 – under the aegis of Russia’s now-former
President Dmitry Medvedev.

However, the initial optimism that the regular meetings would lead
to a breakthrough has faded. Warlike rhetoric has continued in
both Baku and Yerevan, and military spending has continued to boost
year-by-year (although oil-rich Azerbaijan has considerably out-spent
its neighbour). While Nagorno-Karabakh is now de facto independent and
closely integrated with Armenia, under international law it remains
part of Azerbaijan, and Baku shows no sign of giving up its claim on
the territory.

EXPERT: ARMENIA CAN HANDLE AZERI PROVOCATIONS WITHOUT CSTO’S SUPPORT

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 6, 2012 – 20:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian armed forces are able to handle Azerbaijani
provocations without CSTO’s support, military expert said.

“CSTO headed by Nikolay Bordyuzha has reiterated readiness to extend
assistance to Armenia in case of large-scale hostilities,” David
Jamalyan said.

On June 4, gross Azeri ceasefire violation was recorded in the
north-eastern direction of Armenian-Azerbaijani border, with an
attempt made to enter Armenian positions in Tavush Province of Armenia.

The attack was halted by Armenian soldiers’ brave actions. As a result
of Azerbaijani sabotage, three Armenian soldiers (Mushegh Nurbekyan,
Zohrab Balabekyan and Karen Davtyan) were killed. The violation also
claimed wounded, according to RA Ministry of Defense press service.