Aljazeera.net, Qatar
Aug 5 2006
Forgotten war threatens to reignite
By Scott Taylor
Saturday 05 August 2006, 2:28 Makka Time, 23:28 GMT
Azerbaijan and Armenia both claim Nagorno-Karabakh
Hardening positions on the future status of the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan threaten to
reignite an ancient conflict.
Gurhan Iliyev was just a 23-year-old sergeant in the Azerbaijan civil
defence force when war erupted with Armenia in 1992.
“We were engaged in heavy fighting with Armenian troops near my home
village of Lachin when a mortar shell hit my friend~Rs trench. When I
got to him I saw that his belly had been ripped open by the shrapnel
and he was screaming in mortal pain. He died in my arms as I tried
to stuff his intestines back inside him.”
With the international media focused at that time on the break-up of
the former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda, this border dispute
in the Caucasus region garnered very little press coverage.
Nevertheless it was a brutal clash spanning two years that left 30,000
killed – mostly civilians – 100,000 wounded and nearly one million
people ethnically cleansed.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were both former republics of the Soviet Union
and formally granted – along with Georgia – their independence with
the signing of the Tashkent Agreement in May 1992.
Under the terms of the agreement all three republics were allocated
the same amount of Soviet military material from which they could
constitute their own independent armies.
Disputed territory
But the transition from Soviet control to full independence was marked
by bloody warfare over Nagorno-Karabakh – a stretch of mountains
within Azerbaijan~Rs recognised border where a sizeable Armenian
minority lived.
Taking advantage of Azerbaijan’s post-independence internal political
disorder and using the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians as a pretext,
the Armenian army entered the territory in 1992.
“We fought back, but our local defence battalion was short of heavy
weaponry ~V we had only two tanks and 650 men,” explained Iliyev. “The
Armenians were well-equipped and they were assisted by the Russian 366
Motorized Rifle Regiment. As a result, we took enormous casualties.”
After completely securing the region, the Armenians continued to push
into Azerbaijani territory ~V securing not only a land corridor with
Armenia proper, but also extending into central Azerbaijan to create
a buffer zone.
In the wake of the military operations, ethnic Azeri citizens were
forcibly removed from the newly occupied territories.
Crisis situation
Having successfully ousted his political rivals, the then president,
Heydar Aliyev, was able to solidify his leadership over Azerbaijan in
1993 and gave orders to create a formal army to deal with the crisis
situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We sent letters of invitation to 3,800 ethnic Azeris still serving
in the Russian Soviet army and 2,600 accepted our offer. They became
the nucleus of our new military”
Ramiz Najafov, one of the founders of the Azeri army
“This was a difficult task to perform as we were already supporting
the civil defence forces (paramilitaries) who were in the process
of fighting a war,” said Major-General Ramiz Najafov, one of the key
architects of the fledgling Azerbaijani army.
“We sent letters of invitation to 3,800 ethnic Azeris still serving
in the Russian Soviet army and 2,600 accepted our offer. They became
the nucleus of our new military.”
Within a year the Azeris had managed to train and field six full
infantry brigades and their deployment to the front reversed the
Armenian advances.
The establishment of a balance between the combat forces turned the
campaign into a stalemate and eventually a ceasefire agreement was
signed in 1994.
After the ceasefire, the Armenian forces continued to fortify their
positions in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and the Azeris
constructed trenches around the disputed region and the root causes
for the conflict remained unresolved.
What had been a little-regarded war would soon become an almost
completely forgotten, but still simmering, flashpoint.
Displaced peoples
In the company of two other Canadian journalists and escorted by
officials from the foreign ministry, we had been brought to the city
to observe first-hand the ongoing plight of the nearly 800,000 Azeris
who were forcibly displaced during the 1992-1994 war.
“Every IDP is entitled to a monthly ration which includes flour,
rice, sugar and oil”
Senan Huseynov, the Azerbaijani director for refugees
At the Saatly train station in southern Azerbaijan sits a 4-km long
stretch of old railway boxcars, which still serve as temporary homes
for some 2,000 Azeri internally displaced persons (IDPs).
There is minimal privacy afforded by the fact that, on average,
two families share a single boxcar. Despite 14 years of continuous
residence, there are still few creature comforts beyond the basic
necessities available.
“Every IDP is entitled to a monthly ration which includes flour, rice,
sugar and oil,” explained Senan Huseynov, the Azerbaijani director for
refugees. “On top of that they receive an allowance of 30,000 Manats
($6.50) per month to purchase meat and other foodstuffs.”
In addition to the Saatly boxcar compound we visited a camp of crudely
constructed mud brick houses, in which approximately 10,000 residents
lived. The standard layout for those small shelters is three tiny rooms
totalling 240 square feet of space and housing up to seven people.
The luckiest of the IDPs are now being relocated into custom-built
compounds complete with community centres and medical centres.
Virtual limbo
But with no real means of employment or proposed developments, the
displaced Azeris remain in limbo – political pawns in a political
process that has been bogged down for the past 12 years.
When the 1994 ceasefire was first brokered, the Organisation of
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) established the Minsk Group
to oversee and monitor the agreements.
To date the United Nations has passed a total of four resolutions
calling upon the Armenians to withdraw their military forces from the
occupied territories as a first step to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
situation.
The second phase of the resolutions is the immediate resettlement
of the IDPs into their former homes. But with no threat of any
international military force being deployed to enforce these
resolutions, the Armenians have refused to pull back their forces.
Fact-finding missions and OSCE reports continually cite the fact
that the Armenians continue to destroy existing Azeri infrastructures
while building their own facilities inside the occupied territories
in flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Roadblocks
One of the key roadblocks to achieving a diplomatic settlement to
the crisis is the fact that Azerbaijan and Armenia refuse to budge
on their positions concerning a referendum on the future state of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenians want any decision on self-determination to be limited
to the residents of the region. If the Azeris are returned to the area
prior to such a vote, the Armenians would still represent approximately
a three to one majority in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani position is that any such referendum must be decided
by all 8.5 million residents of the country, who would certainly
reject any separation of the territory.
Elmar Mammadyarov, the foreign minister, recently conceded that
Azerbaijan would grant Karabakh the “highest level of autonomy in
exchange for an immediate withdrawal”. However, the Minsk Group has
grown frustrated with the lack of any real progress.
“They are not out purchasing attack helicopters right now, but if they
start to do that we’ll know they~Rre serious about settling this by
forceful means”
A Baku-based diplomat
In a statement released last month, US co-chairman Matthew Bryza
chided both the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents for their failure
to make any key concessions.
In response to the OSCE report, Aliyev resorted to sabre-rattling
with the statement that he remains “committed to peace, but he cannot
accept the current situation [of Armenian occupation]”.
Upping the ante
To up the political ante, Azerbaijan has recently embarked on a
massive military build up.
“By next year we will have doubled our defence budget up to a total
of $1.2 billion,” said Major-General Najafov. “We will be spending
the equivalent of the entire Armenian federal budget just on defence.”
While such a build-up will certainly change the regional strategic
balance, international observers say that this posturing is a long
way from fruition.
“Most of the money being spent is to increase their own salaries,
not to add to their tactical capability,” said one Baku-based diplomat.
“They are not out purchasing attack helicopters right now, but if they
start to do that we~Rll know they’re serious about settling this by
forceful means.”
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