Armenia Promises Retailation For Azeri Killings

Published November 21, 2011 2:36PM (EST)

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia says it will retaliate for the weekend killings of two ethnic Armenian soldiers by Azeri snipers who fired into a disputed breakaway enclave.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous enclave within the Caspian Sea nation of Azerbaijan, but since the end of a six-year separatist war in 1994 it has been under the control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces.

Violations of the 1994 cease-fire have been frequent, and Armenian authorities said two servicemen from Nagorno-Karabakh were killed Sunday and Saturday.

Armenia's Defense Ministry spokesman David Karapetian said Monday the retaliation for the soldiers' deaths will be "disproportionate."

His Azeri counterpart, Teymur Abdullayev, said a shootout at the border was provoked by Armenians.


By Salon Staff

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