Bryza deeply “saddened” by Baku’s tales about “killing of Azerbaijani child by Armenians”

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza voiced his opinion with respect to Baku’s tales on “the killing of an Azerbaijani child by Armenians.”

“Death of any person, especially of a child, is a tragedy. I am deeply saddened by this incident,” Bryza told journalists in Baku on March 14.

The incident once again shows that a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict has no alternative, he said.

“I, my colleagues from Washington and our friends are looking for ways to lessen hatred between the parties to the conflict. In our opinion, the elimination of hatred may serve as a basis for the conflict peaceful resolution,” said Bryza.

On March 9, Azerbaijani media reported that allegedly “the Armenian armed forces killed an Azerbaijani child on March 8.” Meanwhile, the reports were controversial – some of them stated that the boy was eight, while others spoke about resident of Orta Karvend settlement Farid Badalov, a ten-year-old boy.

Later, the press services of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of NKR issued a joint statement condemning false accusations of Azerbaijani side.

“The Azerbaijani official propaganda continues aggravating the situation on the occasion of the Azerbaijani boy’s death in the frontier village of Orta Karvend, intensively spreading false accusations against the Karabakh party,” the statement said.

“Careful investigation of the case can discover some facts testifying to the fabricated accusations of official Baku. During the March 10 monitoring conducted by the OSCE Mission in the noted place, the Karabakh party drew the attention of the monitoring group to the following facts: The distance between the front positions of the NKR Defense Army and the village of Orta Karvend makes 1400-1500 meters, i.e. to hit a man with adjusted fire from a SVD sniper rifle is impossible in this case; the relief of the noted section doesn’t allow adjusted firing from the positions of the NKR Defense Army towards the opponent, as the latter has height privileges; according to reliable sources, for more accurate firing at the NKR Defense Army’s positions from Orta Karvend, the Azerbaijani soldiers climb the houses’ roofs. The very houses, in the yards of which ‘boys play’; in the frontier villages, people usually settle in the middle or back, i.e. the safer area of the settlement and not in its front section. According to the Azerbaijani mass media information, everything is just the contrary in Orta Karvend, and the yards, where 'children play', are, for some reason, situated as close to the front line as possible; even if the child was killed by firing, still it should be established who and from what side fired. It isn't excluded that Fariz Badalov could be a victim of firing by the Azerbaijani pointsmen between the villages of Orta Karvend and Shykhlar. It isn't excluded either that the boy could have perished as a result of careless handling of unexploded ammunition, which often happens in the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict zone, on both sides of the contact-line. If the shot was not fired straightly at the target, but up on-the-mitre, so the bullet, shot from a simple gun, could not fly so far. High calibre machineguns can fire at such a distance. But, according to the Azerbaijani mass media information, the child died on the way to the hospital. If the shot had been fired from a high calibre gun, so it would have merely smashed the child’s head.”

“Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani official propaganda doesn’t disdain any methods, even cashing in on children's life and death. The Armenian parties are strangers to fascist methods used by Azerbaijan – killing children, asleep men, and hostages, making subversives and terrorists national heroes, and others.

Every time, after the Presidents’ meetings or before a visit of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen to the region, the Azerbaijani propaganda machine increases the tension on the contact-line. Another example was the March 10 death of 19-year-old soldier of the NKR Defense Army Arthur Aghababian as a result of the firing from the Azerbaijani side. The incident took place almost immediately after the OSCE monitoring of the NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces' contact-line. This is rough violation of the agreements on confidence building measures achieved on March 5 in Sochi as a result of the Armenian, Russian, and Azerbaijani Presidents’ meeting. While, on the initiative of the Armenian parties, the mediators once again offer drawing off snipers from the front line, official Baku doesn’t only block this initiative, but also intensifies the sniper war and with its provocative actions reduces to zero the efforts of the international community on peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.”

“The international community must strictly condemn similar actions of the Azerbaijani leadership and apply corresponding sanctions against it,” the statement concluded.