Nagorno Karabakh

A flurry of international activity to end senseless killing in Nagorno-Karabakh has created a promise of momentum. On Sunday, the deputy foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a draft peace accord in the Iranian capital. And even though sporadic fighting continues, the presidents of those two former Soviet republics are to meet Thursday in an effort to stop the four-year-old confrontation that has so far claimed 1,500 fatalities.Tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which translates as "black mountain vineyards," have existed for decades.

WASHINGTON - While crisis swirls in the Middle East and the Balkans, the Bush administration's first intensive diplomatic negotiations will be devoted to bringing peace to a troubled land in the Caucasus, countering Russian influence in a critical part of Asia - and helping the administration's friends in the oil industry. Tomorrow, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will be in Key West, Fla., to begin five days of talks aimed at settling a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Sponsored by the United States, France and Russia, the Key West conference will seek to resolve the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny mountain enclave that is historically part of Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenian rebels.

MOSCOW -- Village-to-village fighting and heavy shelling of the capital racked the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday in a radical new escalation of warfare that has already cost more than 1,000 lives in the Caucasus Mountains enclave.Armenian and Azerbaijani militants grappled for control of several villages seen as key tactical positions on Nagorno-Karabakh's border with Azerbaijan, and scores of rockets rained down on the capital of Stepanakert, according to reports from the region.

SAATLI, Azerbaijan - They are ghostly figures, long forgotten by the world, more than 570,000 refugees living in railroad boxcars, snake-infested holes in the ground, mud huts and abandoned buildings. Once, the world cared deeply for them. That was nearly 10 years ago when the Soviet Union was freshly dissolved and embers from a war between the newly independent states of Azerbaijan and Armenia threatened to raise uncontrollable flames from the ashes of the Cold War. But the fight for a mountainous sliver of land called Nagorno-Karabakh ended with an Armenian victory and a cease-fire in 1994.

There is so much bloodshed and misery in places like Bosnia and Somalia that the world pays scant attention to the convulsive hemorrhaging that has continued between Armenia and Azerbaijan for more than five years.This full-scale war between two neighbors bordering Turkey and Iran has killed thousands. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes either through destruction or fear and are now classified as refugees. The economies of the two former Soviet republics are in a shambles.Although repeated mediation efforts have been unsuccessful, both sides finally are beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

YEREVAN, U.S.S.R. -- Armenia has agreed to renounce any claim to a territory at the heart of its dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan and to enter formal negotiations on the issue today in an attempt to end the Soviet Union's bloodiest and longest-running civil conflict, officials said here yesterday.The apparent breakthrough came as Armenia prepared to declare its independence formally from the Soviet Union. Officials announced last night that more than 94 percent of the voters supported independence in a referendum Saturday, which was certain to be ratified by the Parliament today.

MOSCOW -- Azerbaijani militias, reportedly backed by attack aircraft and scores of tanks, pushed into the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday in a strong offensive that prompted Armenia to threaten direct intervention in the 4-year-old war.The Azerbaijanis, who had lost their last foothold in Nagorno-Karabakh last month, took at least five villages in tough fighting believed to have left dozens dead, reports from the region said. But Azerbaijani officials played down the offensive, saying that the captured villages had been taken and retaken several times before, and that it was hard to tell anymore who were attackers and who defenders.

THE FORCED resignation of controversial President Levon Ter-Petrosian threatens to derail complicated efforts to ease hostilities between largely Christian Armenia and its nominally Islamic neighbor, Azerbaijan.Theirs is not a dispute that arises from religious differences, but a quarrel that involves contested territory and centuries of historical animosities. It now has all the potential of rekindling a regional crisis.Mr. Ter-Petrosian was an arbitrary leader who most probably cheated his way into re-election in 1996.

MOSCOW -- An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Azerbaijanis, forced to flee their homes by a massive Armenian offensive in southwestern Azerbaijan, are heading toward the Iranian border as the ethnic war in Nagorno-Karabakh widens into a full-scale international conflict.Up to 2,000 Azerbaijani refugees already have crossed into Iran, and thousands of other people are streaming toward the border, reported Mahmoud Said, the U.N. representative in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.So far, Iran has avoided interfering in the 5-year-old Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

WASHINGTON - While crisis swirls in the Middle East and the Balkans, the Bush administration's first intensive diplomatic negotiations will be devoted to bringing peace to a troubled land in the Caucasus, countering Russian influence in a critical part of Asia - and helping the administration's friends in the oil industry. Tomorrow, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will be in Key West, Fla., to begin five days of talks aimed at settling a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Sponsored by the United States, France and Russia, the Key West conference will seek to resolve the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny mountain enclave that is historically part of Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenian rebels.

MOSCOW -- Robert Kocharian was formally declared Armenia's second president yesterday as the nation avoided both a return to the Communist past and the tanks in the streets that accompanied the previous presidential election.Despite the burnish of nostalgia and last-minute momentum, Armenia's former Communist Party ruler, Karen Demirchian, faltered in a run-off election Monday, taking 41 percent of the vote.Kocharian, 43, Armenia's prime minister and its acting president since February, had about 59 percent of the vote with 99.4 percent of polling stations counted, according to the nation's Central Elections Commission.

THE FORCED resignation of controversial President Levon Ter-Petrosian threatens to derail complicated efforts to ease hostilities between largely Christian Armenia and its nominally Islamic neighbor, Azerbaijan.Theirs is not a dispute that arises from religious differences, but a quarrel that involves contested territory and centuries of historical animosities. It now has all the potential of rekindling a regional crisis.Mr. Ter-Petrosian was an arbitrary leader who most probably cheated his way into re-election in 1996.

MOSCOW -- An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Azerbaijanis, forced to flee their homes by a massive Armenian offensive in southwestern Azerbaijan, are heading toward the Iranian border as the ethnic war in Nagorno-Karabakh widens into a full-scale international conflict.Up to 2,000 Azerbaijani refugees already have crossed into Iran, and thousands of other people are streaming toward the border, reported Mahmoud Said, the U.N. representative in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.So far, Iran has avoided interfering in the 5-year-old Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Welfare ImagesUsually I read Ben Wattenberg's column with the expectation of encountering a fresh, informed and reasoned view of issues. Sadly, in the Aug. 12 column dealing with the Clinton budget he did not disappoint me until the end when he dealt with "counterproductive entitlements."We have created a growing dependency class. It is destroying families, blighting communities and souring the county, he said.The fact is that during 50 years of getting to know and serve people receiving public welfare, I have never heard one admit to satisfaction with their status.

There is so much bloodshed and misery in places like Bosnia and Somalia that the world pays scant attention to the convulsive hemorrhaging that has continued between Armenia and Azerbaijan for more than five years.This full-scale war between two neighbors bordering Turkey and Iran has killed thousands. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes either through destruction or fear and are now classified as refugees. The economies of the two former Soviet republics are in a shambles.Although repeated mediation efforts have been unsuccessful, both sides finally are beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

MOSCOW -- Azerbaijani militias, reportedly backed by attack aircraft and scores of tanks, pushed into the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday in a strong offensive that prompted Armenia to threaten direct intervention in the 4-year-old war.The Azerbaijanis, who had lost their last foothold in Nagorno-Karabakh last month, took at least five villages in tough fighting believed to have left dozens dead, reports from the region said. But Azerbaijani officials played down the offensive, saying that the captured villages had been taken and retaken several times before, and that it was hard to tell anymore who were attackers and who defenders.

MOSCOW -- Robert Kocharian was formally declared Armenia's second president yesterday as the nation avoided both a return to the Communist past and the tanks in the streets that accompanied the previous presidential election.Despite the burnish of nostalgia and last-minute momentum, Armenia's former Communist Party ruler, Karen Demirchian, faltered in a run-off election Monday, taking 41 percent of the vote.Kocharian, 43, Armenia's prime minister and its acting president since February, had about 59 percent of the vote with 99.4 percent of polling stations counted, according to the nation's Central Elections Commission.

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Armenian guerrillas attacked Azerbaijani settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday, with no signs of an end to the bloodletting after the reported slaughter of about 1,000 Azerbaijanis in the town of Hodjali on Wednesday.For the first time since Hodjali was captured, Azerbaijan television had a broadcast from Agdam, on the border of the enclave, showing truckloads of corpses and hundreds of refugees and wounded in scenes that are likely to spark violent public reaction in the capital.

A flurry of international activity to end senseless killing in Nagorno-Karabakh has created a promise of momentum. On Sunday, the deputy foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan initialed a draft peace accord in the Iranian capital. And even though sporadic fighting continues, the presidents of those two former Soviet republics are to meet Thursday in an effort to stop the four-year-old confrontation that has so far claimed 1,500 fatalities.Tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh, which translates as "black mountain vineyards," have existed for decades.

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Armenian guerrillas attacked Azerbaijani settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday, with no signs of an end to the bloodletting after the reported slaughter of about 1,000 Azerbaijanis in the town of Hodjali on Wednesday.For the first time since Hodjali was captured, Azerbaijan television had a broadcast from Agdam, on the border of the enclave, showing truckloads of corpses and hundreds of refugees and wounded in scenes that are likely to spark violent public reaction in the capital.