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Azerbaijan lashes out at Armenian enclave over military exercises

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  • Azerbaijan lashes out at Armenian enclave over military exercises

    Associated Press Worldstream
    August 4, 2004 Wednesday 4:47 PM Eastern Time

    Azerbaijan lashes out at Armenian enclave over military exercises

    BAKU, Azerbaijan


    Azerbaijan sharply criticized authorities in the ethnic Armenian
    enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday for holding military
    exercises, calling the maneuvers a provocation that would hurt
    efforts to reach a settlement over the disputed region.

    The Foreign Ministry expressed "deep concern" about the exercises and
    said the international community would not be fooled by the portrayal
    of "these actions by illegal armed formations of the separatist
    regime" as "exercises of the so-called armed forces of
    Nagorno-Karabakh."

    It said the exercises would hamper preparations for the next meeting
    between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which backs
    the internationally unrecognized ethnic Armenian government of
    Nagorno-Karabakh.

    A spokesman for the military in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been de
    facto independent since Azerbaijan's forces were driven out in 1994,
    said Tuesday that it had begun a 10-day exercise meant to test
    combat-readiness and improve coordination in "defensive battles and
    counterattacks."

    With no settlement in sight a decade after a cease-fire ended a war
    that killed some 30,000 people and drove about a million from their
    homes, there are fears a new armed conflict could erupt.

    Forces of Nagorno-Karabakh's government also hold several sectors of
    Azerbaijan outside of the enclave itself, and sporadic firing takes
    place across the demilitarized zone that separates the forces.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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