ARMENIAN PEACEMAKERS IN KOSOVO IN NO DANGER

The news about clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peacemakers as if taken place in Yugoslavia spread by a Bulgarian news agency does not represent the facts.

An Armenian military subdivision keeps on its peacemaking mission in Kosovo where the situation has worsened recently. A subdivision of Armenian soldiers operating within the Greek battalion is has already participated in several important operations. After the well-known events the subdivision was in the situation of alert. But taking into account the lack of experience of the Armenian peacemakers, it was decided not to send them to the most difficult sectors. The Armenian battalion was dislocated in a region which was far enough from the places of direct clashes between the Serbs and the Albanians of Kosovo.

March 26, 2004

PanARMENIAN.Net - The battalion is dislocated in a locality populated by Serbs, which is very important taking into account the fact that the Armenians take part in the peacemaking operations under the Greek flag. It is known that the Kosovo Muslims do not trust the Greeks accusing them of good feelings towards the Serbs. Unlike the Albanians, Serbs have rather friendly attitude towards the Greeks which, like them, practice the orthodox religion. So, our soldiers are out of danger in such an environment.

So, the news spread by the ''Novinar'' news agency, Sofia, reading that the Armenian peacemakers were involved in clashes as a result of which there were injured soldiers, seemed rather strange. The clashes, as if, had happened with the representatives of an Azerbaijani peacemaking corps serving in Kosovo. The agency informed that a person had died as a result of the clashes, but his nationality was not mentioned. We shall inform that the news was not true.

This information was aimed to state that the peacemaking mission had failed. The sense was that a mission, where peacemakers representing different countries were in conflict, could not succeed.
Besides, the information read that the first clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peacemakers had happened in Hungary via the territory of which they had arrived in Kosovo. This also is not true as our peacemakers have arrived in Kosovo via Greece, while the Azeris - via Turkey.

The information of the ''Novinar'' agency was denied also in Baku but they did it in some other way: head of the press-service of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Ramiz Melikov said that nothing could happen because there was no Armenian peacemaker in Kosovo. The fact that a political figure responsible for information has a lack of news testifies the low level of professionalism of the employees of the Azerbaijani defense Ministry.