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American military analyst: Deadly fighting in Karabakh underscores the risk of a broader war
News reports yesterday that two Azerbaijani civilians, one of which a toddler, lost their lives in deadly attack by Armenian forces, underscore the risk of a broader war, whether through miscalculation or accidental incidents, a senior American diplomat and military analyst, who recently returned back from the conflict region, told TURAN's Washington correspondent.
Baku accuses Yerevan of targeting civilians. Officials in Armenia say, however, they had returned fire, accusing the Azerbaijani side of deploying weapons near civilians.
Making the developments more troubling and dramatic still, no long-term strategic policy seems to be guiding operational decisions both in Baku and Yerevan, the analyst, who met with Azeri and Armenian military officials following last year's escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh, said, on condition of anonymity.
Armenia, he said, inherited a much higher level of military culture from its Soviet period, had have long believed that the Azerbaijan's military capability was "nothing to be proud of" while Azeris had been trying to demonstrate that they'd become much better effective modern military instrument and that they deserved more respect in the region.
After last year's escalations, however, Yerevan responded by reforming the nature of its own defense of structure by adding different reactive mechanisms, "because they found out that they were targeted by Israeli provided drones, followed with artillery and air strikes from Azerbaijani side."
Now, he added, learning from last year's experience, military officials both in Yerevan and Baku have been focusing on war preparations, highlighting potential targets on the other side, including civilian targets.
"This is horrifying," he added. "Especially, given the fact that in both countries decision-making process relies in the hands of a very small number of men and it's really hard to penetrate what their real thinking is beside their actual rhetoric."
A.Raufoglu
Washington, D.C.
Politics
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Voting in the early elections to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan began at 8:00. Voting is taking place at 6,478 polling stations throughout Azerbaijan, including the lands liberated from occupation. 990 candidates are competing for 125 seats in the unicameral parliament.
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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