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    Categories: 2020

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 10/24/2020

                                        Saturday, 

U.S. Still Sees No ‘Military Solution’ To Karabakh Conflict


U.S. - U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien (L) meets with Azerbaijani 
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, Washington, .

U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien insisted that there can be no 
“military solution” to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after meeting with 
Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers in Washington late on Friday.
“In my meeting with Azerbaijani FM [Jeyhun Bayramov] I pressed for an immediate 
ceasefire, then a return to Minsk Group-facilitated negotiations with Armenia 
and rejection of outside actors further destabilizing the situation. There is no 
military solution,” the U.S. National Security Council quoted O’Brien as saying 
on its Twitter page.

O’Brien made a somewhat different comment on his separate talks with Armenian 
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian. He said they met to “discuss the need for 
an immediate ceasefire” and the resumption of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks 
mediated by the three Minsk Group co-chairs: the U.S., Russia and France.

“The U.S. will continue our strongest diplomatic efforts at all levels until the 
conflict is resolved,” added President Donald Trump’s key adviser.


U.S. - Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan meets with U.S. Secretary 
of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, at the State 
Department in Washington, U.S., 
The Trump administration invited Bayramov and Mnatsakanian to Washington as part 
of its efforts to stop the nearly month-long war in and around Karabakh. The two 
ministers also separately met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier 
on Friday.

Pompeo said he discussed with them “critical steps to halt violence in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” He did not report any fresh Armenian-Azerbaijani 
agreements that effect.

Trump spoke afterwards of “really good progress” made in U.S. mediation efforts. 
But he did not elaborate.

“We don’t yet know what progress they are talking about,” a spokesman for 
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the RIA Novosti news agency on Friday 
night.

Putin expressed hope on Thursday that Washington will contribute to Russian 
efforts to get the conflicting parties to respect a ceasefire agreement that was 
brokered by Moscow on October 10.

A similar “humanitarian” truce agreement brokered by France on October 17 has 
also not been observed. Both warring sides reported on Friday fresh fighting and 
shelling of civilian areas in the conflict zone.


NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Pople mourn during the funeral of a soldier who died in 
recent military clashes Karabakh, Stepanakert, 
At his meeting with O’Brien, Mnatsakanian again held Turkey responsible for the 
continuing bloodshed. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, he claimed 
that Ankara is keen to destabilize the region by recruiting Middle Eastern 
“terrorist fighters” for the Azerbaijani army and providing other military 
assistance to Baku.

The Turkish and Azerbaijani governments deny Turkey’s direct involvement in the 
ongoing war.

Pompeo criticized Ankara’s role in the Karabakh escalation last week. “We now 
have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, 
increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this 
historic fight,” he said.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS