Azerbaijan, Armenia spar over Karabakh shootout

Wed Mar 5, 2008 2:07pm GMT

(Releads, adds Armenian president)

By Lada Yevgrashina and Hasmik Mkrtchyan

BAKU/YEREVAN, March 5 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other on Wednesday of triggering a shootout in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that killed up to 16 people, one of the biggest such clashes in recent years.

Both countries gave different accounts of the shootouts in the disputed enclave, seized by pro-Armenian forces from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s in which an estimated 35,000 people died.

Muslim Azerbaijan said 12 Armenian fighters and four Azeri soldiers were killed during clashes. Christian Armenia said eight Azeri soldiers died and two Armenian soldiers were injured.

A death toll of 16 would mark the worst skirmish in recent years between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a big oil producer and home to pipelines taking oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to world markets.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said Azerbaijan had launched the attack to take advantage of Armenia's tense political standoff after protests against last month's election.

"It is possible that in Azerbaijan they thought the situation in Armenia had distracted the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh," Kocharyan, who was born in the breakaway republic, said.

Azerbaijan said Armenia was trying to distract attention from protests in Yerevan by focusing on an external enemy.

"The Armenian side resorted to provocations on the frontline in a bid to switch the attention of the international community and its own citizens from internal tensions to an external enemy," said an Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman.

"Azerbaijan will never resort to provocations, but will give a proper response to them," Khazar Ibrahim added.

The West and Russia are closely watching the situation after Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said this week his country was ready to take back Nagorno-Karabakh by force if need be, and was buying military equipment and arms in preparation.

"We do not want a war in the region," said a U.S. diplomat in Baku. "We are following the situation very closely and we urge both sides to exercise restraint and avoid any violence."

Robert Simmons, NATO's envoy for the region, said the alliance was ready to help facilitate the peace process.

"I think there is a chance for settlement and we will work for it," he was quoted as saying on a visit to Moscow by Russian news agencies. "We are closely watching the peace process."



SPORADIC CLASHES

Azeri President Aliyev said Kosovo's newly declared independence had emboldened Armenian separatists in the mountainous enclave.

Armenia's Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh who was elected president last month in a disputed election, confirmed there had been an incident between Azeri and Armenian soldiers but did not give a casualty figure.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a richly fertile area of great beauty high in the Caucasus mountains, broke away from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, sparking a 1992-94 war. A ceasefire was agreed in 1994 but the search for a lasting peace is stalled.

The territory is mainly populated by ethnic Armenians and controlled by Armenia, though there are sporadic clashes along the front line.

A Western diplomat in Armenia said the latest reports of a gun fight had to be treated seriously.

"This does sound in the terms it's been reported as slightly more than the usual skirmish, but in the current climate it certainly could have been exaggerated," he said. "This is a situation we have to watch carefully."

Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said the clashes had lasted 13 hours on Tuesday, killing three Azeri soldiers. The fourth serviceman died in a new shootout on Wednesday. (Additional reporting by James Kilner in Yerevan) (Writing by Maria Golovnina and Michael Stott; Editing by Richard Williams)



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