From the front line in Karabakh DESPITE efforts at international mediation, the conflict continues in the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus, claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. International Viewpoint has received the following account of a visit to the disputed area in early April.
armoured vehicles from the Stepanakert garrison. The Azeris may have inherited more than this from the Aghdam and Kirovabad bases.
The uncertainty and rapid movement of the war in its first months have created a cruel tradition; villages taken by either side are put to the torch so that the "enemy" population cannot return. Captured young men are usually killed.
However, the delegate of the ICRC (Red Cross), Mary Perkins, told me she had seen prisoners of different ages held by the two sides.
After the failed coup last year Moscow seems to have completely lost its influence in the South Caucasus, playing only a passive role.
The Azeris and Armenians both regard Russia with suspicion, fuelled cucnicion fuelled by the experience of the Gorbachev era when the conflict was manipulated by the centre to force the two republics to stay in the union.
Furthermore, it seems that Russia is opposed to Karabakh's independence, fearing that a similar wave may plague its southern borders, composed of Autonomous Republics.
On the other hand, Red Army officers have found a new role in the Karabakh war, selling the army's equipment and fighting as mercenaries. In various villages in Karabakh I met Russians, Ukrainians and one Uzbek involved on the Armenian side.
Fighting preferred to unemployment
Some had deserted from the CIS units while others had joined after finishing their military service, preferring to fight in Karabakh than to return home to face unemployment.
"Avo" , the commander of the Mardouni region, told me that the Armenians had bought twelve armoured vehicles in January for the equivalent of $1,500. An Iranian diplomat told me that the Russian helicopter pilots are paid 10 thousand roubles (around $100) for every twenty minutes of operation.
Since a diplomatic solution is not at hand, military scenarios are being tried out. In early April, Azeri forces tried to attack from Shushi towards Stepanakert and on April 10, they attacked over Maragha from Mir Bashir, causing the death of 45 civilians and five fighters from the Armenian side.
Because of their superior firepower, the Azeri forces keep the villages of Karabakh under artillery fire. The less well armed but better organized Armenians try to launch ground attacks to neutralize Azeri posts.
The Azeri media is accusing the
VICKEN CHETERIAN T HE plane that took us from
Yerevan flew at a high altitude over the Azeri territories before it went down in spiral turns in a mountainous region and could land in Karabakh. Since the Armenian fighters took control of Khojalu where the airport is situated, Yak-40 civilian airplanes make four or five flights a day when weather conditions permit to link Karabakh with Yerevan, the Armenian capital, and thus the outside world. In the plane we were three journalists with some civilians and fighters, sitting over flour bags.
The airport is seven kms to the north of Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh. There were no cars on the highway, but we saw groups of civilians walking and carrying foodstuffs from nearby villages. Trees provide only source of fuel
All the trees on both sides had been cut; during the cold winter, their wood had been the only source of fuel. Stepanakert had been heavily shelled; only a few buildings had escaped destruction.
Most of its 60,000 inhabitants had sought shelter in safer villages outside the region. The rest spent their nights in underground cellars, going out during the day to look for food and water.
When I arrived in Stepanakert on Monday April 6 the city was calm. The reason was the presence of the Iranian delegation, headed by the personal representative of the foreign minister, Mahmoud Vayazi.
He told me he was discussing terms for a new ceasefire, the placement of Iranian observers on the front and the 8 lifting of the blockade. Afterwards, he sa, poitcal alalogue could start. said, political dialogue could start. International Viewpoint # 228 •
The time was not yet ripe for political discussion. The Karabakh Supreme Soviet declared an independent republic on September 2, 1991, three days after Azerbaijan declared independence.
This step was confirmed in a referendum on December 10 by over 90% of those taking part. On the other hand, according to the minister of Karabakh's Foreign Affairs' Commission, Levon Melik-Shahnazarian, the Azeri government is only ready to accept the cultural rights of the Armenians and rejects any form of political independence.
The other problem, he said, was the unstable political situation in Azerbaijan itself. The authorities in Baku are only partly in control of the fighters on the ground, while the most active are the brigades of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, itself loosely coordinated.
Karabakh campaign bears on elections
Any defeat or victory in the Karabakh campaign will bear heavily on the Azerbaijani presidential elections scheduled for June. Already this February the loss of Khojalu by the Azeris and the killings that followed forced the Azeri president Moutalibov to resign.
As soon as Vayazi left Stepanakert the city came under fire from Shushi and five people were wounded. Shelling is part of daily life in Stepanakert.
When the Red Army started to withdraw last November, the guerilla skirmishes between Azeris and Armenians turned into open war. The two sides took over most of the material left by the Soviet army.
Serge Sarkissian, Karabakh's defence minister, claimed that the Armenian forces had ten T-72 tanks and over 80
May 11, 1992
Armenians of preparing an attack to take Shushi, where the artillery that daily shells Stepanakert is situated.
Moreover the road that links Karabakh with Armenia passes through Shushi. Melik-Shahnazarian told me that if the Armenians took Shushi, the Kurdish population in Lachin would change their stand and let supplies pass from Armenia to Karabakh.
But it is not easy to take Shushi, which is protected on three sides by mountains and gorges, and whose defenders are better equipped than the Armenians.
Such an attack would also embarrass the Pan-Armenian Movement in power the Pan-Armenian Movement in nower in Yerevan. After President LevonPetrossian came to power, he changed his policy of demanding immediate unification between Armenia and Karabakh into a more pragmatic stance.
Azerbaijan tries to portray the conflict as being about Armenian claims on Azerbaijani territory, rather than about the right of self-determination for the people of Karabakh, according to Alexander Tadeosian, in charge of Armenia's relations with the CIS.
Armenian support for self- determination
Until now, Armenia had not officially recognized the independence of Karabakh in order not to complicate the situation, but now Armenia supports the right of the Karabakh people to self-determination, he said.
If Shushi were to be taken by the Armenians, a direct link between Yerevan and Stepanakert would be established, bringing the danger of direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The present ruling party in Armenia is trying to avoid this, unlike the opposition Dashnak party, which has great influence in Karabakh.
At Khojalu airport one can see families with their luggage awaiting the chance to get onto one of the planes. But only people with special permission can leave.
Factories have either been destroyed by bombing or closed because of lack of raw material. There are no electricity or telephone services and the threat of epidemics looms over Stepanakert.
The people of Karabakh appreciate the presence of foreign journalists. A family invited us for dinner; Krikor the grandfather explained to us that it was the Bolsheviks had placed Karabakh under Azeri rule, and that the Armenians were now fighting for independence and were ready to die for it. *