WASHINGTON, DC - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), this morning, dispatched a letter urging U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to forcefully condemn a fatal Azerbaijani attack into the Tavush region of Armenia, a brazen assault launched by Baku to coincide with her arrival for a three day visit to the Caucasus.
 
The attack, which occurred near the Berdavan and Chinari villages of Tavush, represents the most recent in an escalating series of Azerbaijani assaults on both Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.  The Armenian Ministry of Defense has reported that three Armenian soldiers were killed and another six wounded in the attack.
 
“Azerbaijan’s aggression, on the very day of your arrival in the Caucasus, represents, in addition, of course, to a painful human tragedy for those young men who were killed and injured, a brazen attack upon the prospects for a fair and lasting peace in this region,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian in his letter to Secretary Clinton.  “It is long past time that the Obama Administration abandon its practice of artificial equivalence - a failed policy whose only response to Azerbaijani aggression and threats of renewed war has been to issue generically-formulated and transparently toothless calls on all parties to refrain from violence.”
 
The full text of the ANCA letter is provided below and can be viewed at: http://www.anca.org/assets/pdf/misc/060412_ANCA_Clinton_letter.pdf

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, an Azerbaijani diversion operation claimed the lives of three Armenian soldiers and wounded six others in the early morning hours on Monday.

The killed soldiers are: Hrach Sargsyan, Zohrab Balabekyan, and Karen Davtyan.

The wounded military servicemen are: Senior Lieutenant Mushegh Nurbekyan, and conscripts Igit Hovhannisyan, Maxim Melkonyan, Sedrak Shahbazyan, Artak Mnatsakanyan and Koryun Iritsyan.

The MOD issued a statement that on Monday the Azerbaijani side yet again violated the ceasefire at the line of contact between the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, in the northeastern sector. It attempted to infiltrate to the Armenian military bases stationed in the direction of Berdavan and Chinari villages of the Tavush Region. Three of the wounded are taken to Yerevan.