Wednesday, September 12, 2012

How The Armenian - Azerbaijan Conflict Can Erupt Into All-Out War


Insight: If Caucasus Erupts, War Could Spread -- New York Times/Reuters

LINE OF CONTACT, Azerbaijan (Reuters) - A dusty trench, interrupted every few meters by lookout posts and gun positions, winds its way as far as the eye can see.

"Put your head above the trench and they'll shoot you," says a young ethnic Armenian soldier, peering through a narrow slit in a concrete watchtower at Azeri lines 400 meters away where he says snipers lie in wait.

The bullets fly both ways. On the other side of the minefields, Khosrov Shukurov's daughter was recently shot in the arm. The 70-year-old Azeri farmer keeps his cows on leashes to stop them straying beyond the wall built to protect his village.

Read more ....

My Comment: These two sides have been in a state of conflict for centuries. And while I do not expect a full fledged war to break out .... Russia has a huge military presence in the Caucasus that would not permit such a conflict to spread .... the destruction and mayhem that it would cause would only harden feelings and bitterness on both sides that would forever finish any hope of coming to some peaceful resolution in the next decade or two.

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