Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused one another of all the mortal sins since they launched into battle over the separatist region of Nagorno Karabakh, but the list of assumed misdeeds at times seems endless.



Now Baku says Armenia is a compulsive arsonist, who apparently runs through Azerbaijani wheat fields, throwing lit matches left and right. The blaze has destroyed wheat crops in the occupied region of Tartar and, with temperatures rising, the fire threatens to destroy some 1,300 hectares of farm land.



A representative of the army of Armenia-backed, separatist Nagorno Karabakh has angrily denied the accusations that Armenia is to blame.



The Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict may have stemmed from deep-seeded differences, but the chronic bickering between the two countries has long become reminiscent of iconic writer Nikolai Gogol’s The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich. The two Ivans are good neighbors, but one unfortunate incident sparks a never-ending, excruciating squabble that no arduous mediation by their well-meaning community can resolve. The two country gentlemen reach the point of no return after one has the indiscretion to call the other a silly “goose.”



By comparison, such a mild insult, if delivered by one side or the other in the 22-year Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict, would most likely rank as an improvement in dialogue.