2008 Mardakert skirmishes
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2008 Mardakert skirmishes
NKR, Mardakert, and the line of contact
Date March 4, 2008 Location Mardakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. Result Both sides claim victory
Belligerents
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic	Azerbaijan
Commanders
Movses Hakobyan	Najmaddin Sadygov
Strength
?	?, Armored vehicles
Casualties and losses
Dead:1 None (Armenian claim) 12 (Azerbaijani claim) Wounded: 2 1	Dead:123 4 (Azerbaijani claim) 8 (Armenian claim) Wounded: 2 civilians (Azerbaijani claim)4 7 (Armenian claim)5

The 2008 Mardakert skirmishes began on March 4, 2008 after the 2008 Armenian election protests. It involved the heaviest fighting between ethnic Armenian¹ and Azerbaijani forces⁶ over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh⁶⁷ since the 1994 ceasefire after the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Armenian sources accused Azerbaijan of trying to take advantage of ongoing unrest in Armenia. Azerbaijani sources blamed Armenia, claiming that the Armenian government was trying to divert attention from internal tensions in Armenia. At the same time, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev had insisted on numerous occasions that his country was ready to re-take the region by force, and had been buying the military hardware and ammunition to do so.⁸⁷⁶.

Background

Nagorno-Karabakh War

During and shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenians in the then autonomous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeris were involved in an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, became enveloped in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb a secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum was held with the vast majority of the Karabakh population voting in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, in the following months, as the Soviet Union's disintegration neared, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between the two ethnic groups, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by all sides.⁹¹⁰

The war was the most destructive ethnic conflict in both terms of lives and property that emerged after the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991.¹¹ Inter ethnic fighting between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous oblast in Azerbaijan, voted to unify the region with Armenia on February 20, 1988. The declaration of seceding from Azerbaijan was the final result of a "long-standing resentment in the Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh against serious limitations of its cultural and religious freedom by central Soviet and Azerbaijani authorities,"¹² but more importantly, as a territorial conflict regarding the land.¹³

As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave's government, the Armenian majority voted to secede from Azerbaijan, and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.¹⁴

Full-scale fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including Europe's OSCE failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, threatening the involvement of other countries in the region. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of not only the enclave but also held and currently control approximately 9% of Azerbaijan's territory outside the enclave.¹⁵ As many as 230,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and 800,000 Azeris from Armenia and Karabakh have been displaced as a result of the conflict¹⁶. A Russian-brokered cease fire was signed in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan. The ceasefire is self-monitored by the armed forces of the now defacto independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and by Azerbaijan. Violations of the ceasefire (in the form of sporadic shooting incidence) have been an occurrence but the ceasefire has largely held. ¹⁷

2008 Armenian Presidential Election Protests

Following the Armenian Presidential Election of 2008, there were a series of mass protests in Yerevan, Armenia alleging electoral fraud. Initially these protests were peaceful though unauthorized by government. They began on February 20 and lasted for 10-days. Despite the urging of the government to stop the unauthorized demonstrations, the protests continued till March 1st. On the morning of March 1, police and army troops dispersed the 700-1,000 persons who remained overnight. At noon on March 1, over ten thousand demonstrators held a protest at the French embassy in Yerevan and over the evening, clashes broke out between protestors and law enforcement. A 20-day state of emergency, including a censure on free press, was declared by the incumbent President Robert Kocharyan. On March 2, the Armenian Army was arrived to with armoured personnel carriers.

Up to 9 people died in clashes between police and protesters: one police officer and eight civilians. Sixteen officers were hospitalized with bullet wounds¹⁸. On March 4, 2008, the OSCE issued a press release citing the ban on independent news coverage and censorship temporarily imposed by Armenian authorities as contrary to OSCE commitments¹⁹.

Prelude

In a sign of disapproval after the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, Azerbaijan's parliament voted to withdraw a 33-strong Azeri peacekeeping team that has been serving there under NATO command since 1999, as a part of Turkish peacekeeping mission. Speaking on March 4th, Azerbaijan's president Ilham Aliyev said that Kosovo's independence is "emboldening Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh", and that his country was ready to take it back by force. He further added: "We have been buying military machinery, airplanes and ammunition to be ready to liberate the occupied territories, and we are ready to do this." Aliyev nevertheless expressed hope that Azerbaijan's growing military could nudge talks towards a diplomatic breakthrough: "A time will come when the Armenians will agree to that (settlement)," he said.²⁰

Active Stage

According to the Armenian side, Azerbaijani forces attacked Armenian positions near the village of Levonarkh in the Mardakert Region of north-eastern Nagorno-Karabakh early March 4, 2008. They then briefly seized positions held by Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian forces, which were later taken back. The Armenian side also claimed that 8 Azeri servicemen were killed and 2 Armenian ones were wounded,²⁰ and that the Azeris fled leaving armament on the battlefield.²¹ Armenian president Robert Kocharian also claimed that Azeri troops used heavy artillery in fighting.²²

According to the Azerbaijani side, Armenian forces attacked the positions of Azerbaijani army in the Tartar district of Azerbaijan. In a resulting military confrontation, 4 Azeri servicemen and 12 Armenian servicemen were killed²³, leaving heavy armour and wounded soldiers on the battlefield.²³

The Armenian head of national military investigation institute of the Defense Ministry²⁴ rejected the Azerbaijani claim about 12 Armenian casualties²⁵ Meanwhile, the press service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense insisted that the claim by Armenian president about 8 casualties on Azeri side was false because it would be impossible to hide the deaths of four more servicemen in the presence of the media and the public in Azerbaijan.²⁶

International reaction

 Finland - Finnish foreign minister and OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ilkka Kanerva, urged everyone concerned to “exercise maximum restraint, and observe the terms of the ceasefire".

 US - State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that the US was concerned about the incident, which only served to underline the need for a negotiated settlement.²⁷

 Russia - A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia is seriously concerned about the military clashes in the northwest Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan. It said the clashes would by no means be allowed to escalate into large-scale combat and spill over into neighboring regions. ²⁸

OSCE Minsk Group - French, Russian and U.S. co-chairs said the conflicting parties should “restore confidence along the Line of Contact and desist from any further confrontations, escalation of violence or warmongering rhetoric.” They also called on Baku and Yerevan to “redouble their efforts to endorse the Basic Principles for the peaceful resolution of the conflict presented to the sides on the margins of the Madrid OSCE Ministerial in November 2007, and to begin as soon as possible the process of drafting a peace agreement on this basis.”²⁹

Aftermath

Azerbaijani side announced the names of 4 killed servicemen²³

• Tusayev, Nemat Habibulla oglu, born in 1988, recruited by Zagatala region enlistment office in 2007
• Gasimov Yusif Oruj oglu, born in 1988, recruited by Sheki region enlistment office in 2007
• Ismayilov, Bahruz Arzu oglu, born in 1988, recruited by Sheki enlistment office in 2006
• Safarov, Jeyhun Bahaddin oglu, born in 1978, recruited by Khatai enlistment office in 1996RE

March 7, 2008 - Nagorno-Karabakh's Defacto news agency reports a concentration Azerbaijani troops at the contact line where the prior ceasefire violation occurred. ³⁰

March 8-9, 2008 - There was an exchange of gunfire at the contact line near Agdam. Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said two Azerbaijani civilians were killed and two wounded in the shooting overnight on March 8, in the Agdam region. Sabiroglu claimed that additional small arms gunfire on March 9 claimed killing one Azerbaijani soldier and injuring another. He also claimed that an Armenian soldier was also killed which Nagorno-Karabakh's defense minister, Lt. Col. Senor Asratian, denied.³¹

References

External links

• Violence breaks out in Nagorno-Karabakh Russia Today TV via Google Video