SHAMIL BASAYEV STATES THE ARMENIANS WERE PREPARED BETTER IN THE KARABAKH WAR

PanARMENIAN.Net - 24.07.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. "We came to fight for Karabakh not for the trophies but for the idea of "Jihad", about this declared the Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, commenting upon his participation in the Karabakh war in the interview to Azeri ANS TV company.

But, declared Basayev, "when we saw the situation, there was no sign of Jihad". The Chechen commander stated that there were rare officers in the Azeri army, especially among the top leadership "whom you could trust". Besides, Basayev declared that "the Armenians were prepared better for the war".

Shamil Basayev also declared that the fall of Shushi was stipulated by the absence of necessary organization and ineffective control of the Azeri troops. According to him, a hundred of armed people could keep Shushi during a year. The Chechen field commander declared that due to the above-mentioned reasons he decided to withdraw from Karabakh the Chechen detachments subordinate to him.

Several hundreds of Chechens are living nowadays in Shahumian district of RNK, occupied by Azerbaijan, and they have already had conflicts with Azeris from the neighboring regions, declared on July 22 in the interview to Yerevan "Hayots Ashkhar" paper Igor Muradian, who was one of the leaders of the movement for Karabakh's joining to Armenia in 1988.

According to Muradian, the Chechens, living now in Shahumian, are not fighters but refugees. "But it doesn't mean that fighter bases may not be set up on this ground in the future", said Muradian. He also declared that the Karabakh army "must fire at them consistently, before the Chechens have formed military-engineering equipment in Shahumian".

In July 1999 in the exclusive interview to MEDIAMAX the chief ideological leader of the Chechen fighters Movladi Udugov said : "The Islamic military subdivisions are not likely to wait for the resumption of war in Nagorno Karabakh. According to some information, they are planning to start a campaign on restoration of Muslim territories in Transcaucasus in 2000". He also didn't exclude that in case of the resumption of war in Nagorno Karabakh, the Chechen fighters will take part in the war actions. "I know that Karabakh is the second urgent question after the liberation of Daghestan in the plans of most of the Islamic military groups," said Movladi Udugov. -0-