Azerbaijan threatens nuclear ‘catastrophe’
Azerbaijan warned the Armenians that it could attack their nuclear power station if provoked as fighting continued for a fifth day on the border.
At least one Azerbaijani soldier was killed in clashes yesterday, bringing the number of people who have died since violence began on Sunday to 17. There have been many border clashes and wars since the former Soviet republics became independent in the 1990s.
Each side claims the other started the present fighting.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that its forces had the means to hit Armenia’s sole nuclear reactor, close to the capital, Yerevan, should the fighting spread.
‘‘This will lead to a great catastrophe,’’ a spokesman said.
There has been no response from the Armenian side.
The threat appeared to have been provoked by concerns that Armenian forces could attack the huge Mingachevir reservoir dam and hydro-power plant in Azerbaijan.
The republics have been locked for decades in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s southwestern region, Nagorno-Karabakh, which was seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in the 1990s.
However, this week’s fighting has been in the northern border region.
President Aliyev of Azerbaijan sacked his longserving foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, yesterday after denouncing his performance during the crisis.
The United States, EU and Russia, the regional powerbroker, have all called for a ceasefire, but Turkey backs Azerbaijan, its ally. ‘‘[Armenians] will be crushed and drown in this plot they have created ...They will pay for what they did,’’ Hulusi Akar, the Turkish defence minister, said.