Armenian President, Defense Minister on ‘Urgent’ Visit to Karabagh

STEPANAKERT (Combined Sources)–President Serge Sarkisian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian paid urgent visits to the Nagorno Karabagh Republic on June 24, almost a week after deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Line of Contact, Armenian news agencies reported.

The presidents of Armenia and Karabagh

Meanwhile, in a move that could fuel more talk of renewed war, Azerbaijan said that it has conducted one of its biggest ever military exercises monitored by President Ilham Aliyev.

Official sources in Yerevan said Sarkisian and Ohanian held separate meetings with Karabagh’s political and military leaders in Stepanakert. They gave no details of the talks, RFE/RL reported.

A short statement by the Armenian presidential press office said Sarkisian also inaugurated a new military base in Karabagh and visited soldiers who were wounded in the June 18-19 clash with Azerbaijani forces and are now recuperating in a local military hospital.

Four Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in what the Armenian side says was an overnight Azerbaijani attack on Karabagh defense positions in the republic’s northeast. The fighting occurred the day after Sarkisian and Aliyev met in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg for fresh peace talks.

According to News.am, which cited unnamed “reliable sources,” the Armenian leader traveled to Stepanakert to relay the details of an apparent Russian proposal made during the trilateral talks in Saint Petersburg. The Armenian news website attributed the Azeri attack last week to that proposal, which it said was accepted by Armenia and refused by Azerbaijan.

Sarkisian condemned the incident as an Azerbaijani “provocation” and linked it with the talks hosted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He also called for an international condemnation of Baku.

The Azerbaijani military only implicitly denied attacking the Karabagh outpost. Officials in Baku also confirmed that the Azerbaijani serviceman was shot dead in Armenian-controlled territory.

Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitored on Thursday the volatile situation near the site of the worst Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire violation in two years from both sides of the frontline. Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the OSCE’s longtime top field representative in the conflict zone, reportedly led the monitoring from Azerbaijani army positions, RFE/RL reported.

The Foreign Ministry of the NKR said Karabagh officers at the scene briefed OSCE monitors on “details of the insidious attack by an Azerbaijani sabotage unit.”

In a separate statement, the Karabagh Defense Army reported continuing skirmishes with Azerbaijani soldiers along various sections of the heavily fortified Line of Contact. There was no word on casualties.

In what looked like a related development, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said it has completed large-scale military exercises involving thousands of troops, 100 tanks, 125 artillery pieces, and about 2 dozen warplanes. A ministry statement cited by Azerbaijani news agencies said they simulated a response to a “military aggression against Azerbaijan” resulting in the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity.

The statement added that Aliyev watched the “main phase” of the hitherto unpublicized exercises that started on June 21 in an undisclosed location.

2 Comments

  1. I have a bad feeling about this incident. There have been others before with 2 or 3 times the casualties but I get the feeling the Azeris are feeling confident about success now.

  2. It is more likely that the Tatars, (Azerys) , dragged their dead and wounded back with them. Hiding true losses is a common military practice. Also, most common defense strategies are to have a thin line of border wachers with large quick reaction forces in the rear, to react where they are needed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*