Nagorno-Karabakh considering planting mines to shut itself off from Azerbaijan - minister
YEREVAN. July 17 (Interfax) - Nagorno-Karabakh is likely to plant mines on roads linking its northern district of Karvachar to Azerbaijan after the arrest in the enclave early this week of a group of Azeris on suspicion of sabotage, according to Armenian Defense Minister Seiran Ohanian.
On July 12, a major in the Armenian Army was killed in Nagorno-Karabakh in trying to detain one of the alleged saboteurs, and a woman was wounded in the head and taken to the hospital in Yerevan. On July 14, the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry said the alleged saboteurs had been arrested.
"The Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh is carrying out necessary measures to find out all possible ways of access to Karvachar from Azerbaijan, and one of the measures is the planting of mines on those paths," Ohanian told an Armenian government meeting on Thursday.
He confirmed that the alleged saboteurs but had been caught.
"The regime of service on the front line has been tightened. The leadership of the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh is carrying out all necessary measures. Necessary work is also being done with the population of the district," Ohanian said.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Office of the Prosecutor General launched criminal action against the alleged saboteurs. Earlier, the Armenian Defense Ministry told Interfax the detainees did not quality for war prisoner status and would be prosecuted under Armenian criminal law.
