YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Three Armenian soldiers and one Azerbaijani army officer have been shot dead in separate incidents reported by the military authorities in Yerevan and Baku on Friday.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the soldiers were fatally wounded when a car carrying them came under fire near a western section of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan in the early hours of Friday. It said the car belonging to one of them was found riddled with bullets on a road connecting two border villages in the northeastern Tavush region.
Andranik Aydinian, the mayor of one of those villages, Aygepar, said he heard gunfire coming from Azerbaijani army positions in the area shortly after midnight. “The Azerbaijani positions are close to the road,” he said by phone.
Aydinian cut short the phone interview, alleging renewed Azerbaijani gunfire and saying that he needs to tell villagers to take cover.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry did not say whether it thinks the three servicemen were shot and killed by Azerbaijani troops. It said only that military investigators have launched an inquiry.
But President Serzh Sarkisian did implicitly blame Azerbaijan for the deaths and pledge retaliation later in the day. “Our territory continues to be shot at from Azerbaijani positions these days,” Sarkisian said during an election campaign trip to another northern province, Lori.
“You are aware of the latest incidents,” he told local residents. “First a kindergarten [in Tavush] came under fire, then an ambulance, and last night we lost three contracted soldiers in Tavush.”
“I don’t think anyone in our country doubts the inevitability of our appropriate reaction,” he said. “I don’t think anyone doubts the power of our defense forces.”
Sarkisian seemed to accuse Azerbaijan of trying to capitalize on the parliamentary election campaign going on in Armenia. “Let nobody think that they can take advantage of processes taking place in our country and that it’s election time here and we are distracted by it.”
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported that an Azerbaijani army lieutenant was killed by Armenian forces deployed east of Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday. Azerbaijani news agencies cited the ministry as saying that the 24-year-old Vagif Abdullayev died as a result of an Armenian ceasefire violation.
There was no immediate reaction to the report from the military authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert.
Karabakh’s army on Thursday accused the Azerbaijani armed forces of intensifying truce violations in recent days. It said two Karabakh Armenian soldiers were wounded on Tuesday.
The U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group expressed serious concern over the latest shootings. “Such senseless acts violate the commitment of the parties to refrain from the use of force and to seek a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and contradict the spirit of the January 23, 2012, joint statement of Presidents [Ilham] Aliyev, Sarkisian, and [Dmitry] Medvedev,” they said in a joint statement.
“The Co-Chairs strongly condemn any loss of life, and reiterate that there is no alternative to a peacefully negotiated settlement of the conflict. The Co-Chairs urge all sides to respect the 1994 ceasefire and to abstain from retaliatory measures that would lead to further escalation,” added the mediators.
VREJ, VREJ, VREJJJJ!
Mark the Azeri positions and fire a few grad rockets onto their heads, then at the next UN meet, confront the Azeri rep on the spot instead of brushing over these very serious incidents like a mute mule.
Who is the UN rep for Armenia and why are these instances not brought up and addressed at these international meets?
I wonder how Armenian army leadership, underestimate their defensive tactics, and let those worthless Turks to ambush and murder 3 young Armenian soldiers!!
Since Azerbaijani bands did enter Armenian territories and have terrorizes Armenian villagers and did kill Armenian solders, this act of Azerbaijan is more a terrorist act than violation of borders… We have to deal with Talibanization of Armenian northern borders by the fascist regime authorities in Baku… As if authorities in Baku after hiring Afghan Talibans in 90´s they have hired Pakistani Talibans now!!
To be honest we – Armenia and Armenia’s have to deal with a fascist regime in Baku and a racist regime in Ankara- Still I would say such a thing would have hardly happened if Robert Kocharjan were the head of state, even though I’m in no way happy with the domestic politic pursued by R. Kocharjan. R.K was regarded the “bad guy” but he was able to secure Armenian borders, to show the regime in Baku the red line and to save the lives of Armenian solders!
Unfortunately, Serzh Sargsyan and his FM use to travel to Russia by agreeing posing with criminal Alivey and agreeing to sign non sense papers and trying to please Russia, EU and US. Papers which Alivey´s regime (being armed by Israel to the tooth ) upon returning to Baku made them invalid by killing Armenian solders next day …
Of course the clowns of OSCE speak to both Armenia and Azeris as if Armenia was the one that does not read and understand the ceasefire agreement. Azerbaboons need to have their ugly butts kicked by so called loser OSCE members who clearly not doing their job. So tired of the politics.
The U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group expressed serious concern over the latest shootings.and ask to respect the 1994 ceasefire and to abstain from retaliatory mesures, ………. for politicians is easy to make declarations from the comfort of their offices, what about the families of these soldiers, they have father, mother, sister, brother, what are the politicians waiting for o find a final solution, ALIYEV IS IGNORANT and RICH, serious action should be taken against him.
Mr. President Sarkisyan and Mr. Defence minister Mr. Ohanyan and all Opposition Leaders
They continue to killing Armenian Sons like a chicken.
Your Statements and blaming the enemy is not enough
Forget about election, Armenian people need an action.
USA
Give them azaeri’s a cocktail they will never forget- dirt bags- maybe our eye in baku needs to deliver them a good one
Rest in Peace
This will continue to get worse if Yerevan does nothind as usual……Azeris are and have been entering Armenia’s territory killing Armenians, how long will they allow this to continue? this enemy only understands one language. Payback ratio must be at least 5 to 1.
The only way to stop Azeris from their Crimes, Is to Retaliate, very strongly, There is no other way to stop this crimes.
Do you mean MODERATION With the Killing Of Armenian soldiers ?????????
i dont understand my people they should have taking revenge of those killings a long time agao in the past 2 months were also 2-3 armenians killed by their agression.
they think they can play with us we need to use heavy artillery or bazookas as back fire everytime they kill one of us those stupid mediators wil do no shit becouse they need Azerbaijani oil
if we where the ones who did this we would be dearly punished becouse we dont have oil
they are trying to find a way to strat a war with us
and than try to deny their acts
I’ve heard that these soldiers were unarmed. How come? They are serving at a border post. Shouldn’t they carry guns wherever they go? Azerbaijanese with their Turk cousins are modern day savages and Barbarians. They shouldn’t be trusted even if they promise to have a good behavior.
This is like a déjà vu. Azeris soldiers kill armenian soldiers. And I don’t get the point of blaming Azerbeijan for it?! They are doing their JOB!! Armenian soldiers are not.
This happened during night time. And who paid for Azeri army night vision equipment and training? That’s right – we did – American taxpayers. The info is on the DoD website under contracts..
As for revenge.. Sultan Aliyev sends non-Turks to fight on the border killing two birds at once – getting rid of non-Turkic native minorities and killing Armenians. Killing 5-10-1000 Tolysh, Lezgi, Tsahur, Udin soldiers for each Armenian soldier works for the Azeri-Turk Sultan just fine. To deliver him a message he would understand one needs to find his two daughters who live in Moscow, his sister who lives in London and his son, Heydar Aliyev, Jr who’s studying where?
next war we would erase the bastard turkish hords. Armenia Iran and Russia would finish off these fake “azerbaijan” once and for all.
New information became available on this terrorist attack. There were four unarmed soldiers who were off duty, traveling inside Armenian territory in a civilian car wearing civilian clothes. Three of them were killed by a group of terrorists who illegally entered Armenian territory from Azerbaijan. The forth soldier survived.
This is an act of terrorism committed by Azeri special forces against Armenia. They were apparently targeting civilians not knowing in the middle of the night that the car was carrying off duty Armenian soldiers. Before that, Azeri artillery targeted a school and hospital in a bordering village in Armenia. This is a clear case of state sponsored terrorism.
How many Armenian soldiers have died since the cease fire? The meager compensation should be a hectar for every sacrifice.