Armenian soldiers killed in clashes with Azeri troops near Karabakh

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

At least three Armenian soldiers were killed and four wounded in clashes with troops from Azerbaijan on Thursday near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, but the two sides gave conflicting death tolls and disputed who was to blame.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by its majority ethnic Armenians and is a regular point of friction between the two neighbours, who fought a war over it in the early 1990s.

Renewed violence this year along the border area has underlined the risk of a wider conflict breaking out in the South Caucasus, which is crossed by oil and gas pipelines.

The separatist region's defence ministry said in a statement that three Armenian soldiers had died after Azeri commandos attacked their position. "The Armenian side forced the enemy to escape after a two hour clash," the statement said.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/03/19/armenia-azerbaijan-conflict-idINL6N0WL3GH20150319

[Renew Deal]

1. Armenia and Azerbaijan are going to war?

Why not. I guess everyone wants to settle old scores.

[Igel]

4. Simmering conflict.

One of the many "frozen conflicts" in the area. This was one organized by Stalin, taking advantage of the ethnic quilt that exists in the area to divide the populations and make sure that both sides knew they had to be part of one nation, indivisible, under god. Otherwise they'd be vying for dominance.

It gives Putin a chance to be peacemaker, since it's also one of the "Russian world" hot-spots (Azeris, not into the Russian world; but Putin would like them to be; Armenians are orthodox, lots speak Russian, and they get help. It's sort of a backstop to Georgia which is also orthodox but not so into Russia. Note that Abkhazia, one of the "breakaway" regions on slow-absorption into Russia, also echoed the Orthodox/Muslim conflict. And was punishment for Georgia's temerity in resisting union with the Russian world.)

[bigworld]

2. The 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide is next month.

Just FYI.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. "The Armenian side forced the enemy to escape after a two hour clash."

Sounds like it was written by the Ministry of Truth.