According to the Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR) Defense Army, on Oct. 26 at 4:45 p.m., 20-year-old Harout Krikoryan was killed by a bullet on the Armenia-Azerbaijan north-east contact line.
The Republic of Armenia (RA) Defense Ministry condemned the attack, adding that the incident—which took place only hours after the conclusion of the PACE Monitoring Committee forum held in Yerevan, and a day prior to a meeting scheduled to take place between Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev (and mediated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev)—aimed at destabilizing the situation.
The RA Ministry, in a press release, said the Azerbaijani side is fully responsible for the consequences of such incidents, and expressed its condolences to the Krikoryan family.
Earlier this month, on Oct. 14, an Azerbaijani sniper claimed the life of 22-year-old conscript Vitali Igityan.
The border between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been plagued with occasional skirmishes. The Armenian side supports sniper withdrawal from its border, while Azerbaijan rejects is.
Nanore Barsoumian
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It is interesting that the OSCE cochairs Russia, the US and France do not condemn these murderous Azeri sniping attacks. And it is also interesting that Armenia does not seem to react much at all, except for complaining.
Azerbaijan will continue to kill Armenians as long as there is no cost. Armenia seems to be convinced that reacting in a physical way to Azeri attacks is unwise.
So let us assume that a peace agreement is signed and the Artsakh issue is settled and there is peace for a while.
Then suppose that Azerbaijan starts, from within its own territory, to snipe at and kill Armenians within Artsakh.
It would seem that, just as Azerbaijan can get away with that today, it will be able to get away with it once a “peace” is achieved. I don’t see any difference between the two cases. And if the US and Russia won’t condemn Azerbaijan now, they obviously will not condemn them later either. The US and Russia will let Azerbaijan attack just as Russia allowed it and supported Azerbaijan in the war more than 20 years ago, going back to Gorbachev’s days.
If Armenians are afraid to fight back now, there is no reason to think they will fight back later.
This may mean that we have lost the war psychologically. We are afraid of Azeris. I hate to say that, but does it not seem to be the case? Armenians were not afraid of Azeris during the war, true.
But since that time Armenians have put up with these attacks. That must mean we have become afraid in the meantime perhaps because of the buildup of the Azeri military machine or because Russia has ordered Serge Sargsian to tolerate Armenian casualties and not fight back. Something bad is going on, that’s for certain.
Russia helped you in 1994. Then you think you won the war. Now, tide turned. In a war, Armenia will lose Karabakh back to its natural owner, Azerbaijan.
I think John is right. Armenia is not shooting back because it is afraid of Azeribaijan military and perhaps Russia won’t support us this time–must be some oil deal.
I am sorry to say, I agree with John. Perhaps the armenians are uneasy to respond to such a provacation. However it may seem cold blooded if the armenians respond by putting its own snipers at the line of contact. But only complaining dos not help, azeries only respond to force, so perhaps it is the only awnser at pressent.
Going on the offencive has its risks, like Georgia 2 years ago. Armenia may looese everything, but they could win everything, perhaps a final end, with a “peace” deal. If Armenia could somehow create a split between azerbajan and there “friends” (turkey and Iran, I dont know where the Russians are in all this), then azerbajan would probably not attack, but dealing with crazy people one never knows :)
Talat,
If you think Russia helped Armenia, then you should also know that Turkey was heavily involved in assisting Azerbaijan. Also, its not a hidden fact that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were also assisting Azerbaijan indirectly, not to mention Chechen fighters, Al Qaida and Afghan Arabs.