Thursday,
Azerbaijan Threatens Missile Attack On Armenian Nuclear Plant
Armenia - A general view of the Metsamor nuclear plant, 20May2013.
Azerbaijan threatened on Thursday to launch missile attacks on Armenia’s
Metsamor nuclear plant amid continuing deadly clashes on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“The Armenian side must not forget that state-of-the-art missile systems of our
army allow us to strike the Metsamor nuclear plant with precision, which could
lead to a great catastrophe for Armenia,” said Vagif Dargahli, the Azerbaijani
Defense Ministry spokesman.
According to Azerbaijani news agencies, Dargahli responded to what he described
as Armenian threats to attack a large reservoir in central Azerbaijan.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Dargahli’s remarks as a “manifestation
of state terrorism” that "reflects Azerbaijan’s genocidal intentions.”
“With such statements, Azerbaijan’s leadership poses a threat to all peoples of
the region, including its own people,” it said in a statement.
An Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, also condemned
Baku's threat, saying that it amounts to a “concrete crime.” “I am very glad
that our officials, politicians and diplomats are raising this issue with
relevant [international] bodies,” he told journalists.
Hovannisian suggested that the threat came in response to statements made by
“various private individuals” in Armenia. “There have been no official
statements by Armenian military authorities about hitting such civilian,
strategic or non-strategic facilities [of Azerbaijan,]” he stressed.
The Soviet-built nuclear plant located 35 kilometers west of Yerevan generates
roughly 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. Baku’s threat to destroy it came
hours after fierce fighting resumed on a volatile section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
At least 16 soldiers from both sides have been killed and dozens of others
wounded there since Sunday. The two sides blame each other for the worst
escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 2016.
Azeri FM Sacked For 'Meaningless' Talks With Armenia
Belgium -- Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov gives a press
conference after an EU-Azerbaijan cooperation council meeting in Brussels, April
4, 2019.
(Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sacked his foreign minister on
Thursday after accusing him of “meaningless negotiations” with neighboring
Armenia amid a flare-up in hostilities between two South Caucasus countries.
Eleven Azeri soldiers and a civilian and four Armenian servicemen have been
killed in border clashes between two former Soviet countries that fought a war
in the 1990s over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Aliyev said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov did not do enough to
try to resolve the conflict.
“What was the foreign minister doing? Where he was? We were all at work after
the July 12 events ... and I could not find him,” Aliyev told a government
meeting of the start of the clashes on Sunday.
“... Unfortunately, recently our diplomacy is not compatible with the successful
development of our country. In some cases it is engaged in meaningless work,
meaningless negotiations.”
Mammadyarov, 60, has been foreign minister since April 2004.
According to the president’s decree, former Education Minister Jeihun Bayramov
was appointed to succeed Mammadyarov.
Armenia, Turkey Trade More Accusations Over Azeri Border Clashes
Armenia -- The Armenian Foreign Ministry building, Yerevan.
Armenia and Turkey have accused each other of seeking to destabilize the South
Caucasus in a continuing war of words over the latest deadly clashes on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Turkey was quick to blame Armenia for the fighting, which broke out at a
volatile border section on Sunday, and reaffirm Turkish support for Azerbaijan.
The Armenian government denounced Ankara’s “provocative attitude” on Monday.
On Tuesday Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added his voice to the
Turkish criticism of Yerevan while his defense minister, Hulusi Akar, vowed
continued military assistance to Baku.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry responded by issuing on Wednesday another, more
strongly-worded statement that branded Turkey a “security threat to Armenia and
the region.”
“Invoking its ‘historical mission’ and ethnic or religious affiliations, Turkey
has already destabilized the situation in a number of neighboring regions: the
Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, causing immeasurable
suffering to the peoples of those regions,” said the statement.
The ministry again accused Ankara of undermining international efforts to
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with its pro-Azerbaijani stance.
“We observe that Armenia now tries to resort to a hypocritical smear campaign
against Turkey in an effort to cover up its aggressive actions against
Azerbaijan,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry hit back on Thursday.
A ministry statement said Armenia itself prevents the conflict’s resolution by
“illegally occupying Azerbaijani territory for many years.” “Armenian
authorities need to come to their senses and comprehend, as soon as possible,
that they should be part of the solutions, not problems, in the South Caucasus,”
it added.
Meeting with Azerbaijan’s visiting Deputy Defense Minister Ramiz Tahirov later
on Thursday, Akar said that Armenia will be “brought to account” for its
“attack” on Azerbaijan.
“They will be drowned under this plot and certainly pay for what they have
done,” “Hurriyet Daily News” quoted the Turkish defense minister as saying. He
did not elaborate.
Successive Turkish governments have lent Azerbaijan full support throughout the
Karabakh conflict, reflecting close ethnic and cultural ties between the two
Turkic nations. They have made the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Armenia conditional on a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Baku.
Armenia has always rejected this precondition. It has forged close military ties
with Russia to counter what many Armenians see as a serious security threat
emanating from Turkey.
From Yerevan’s perspective, the presence of thousands of Russian troops in
Armenia precludes Turkey’s direct military intervention in the Karabakh dispute
on Azerbaijan’s side.
Fighting Resumes On Armenian-Azeri Border (UPDATED)
• Lilit Harutiunian
Azerbaijan -- A video grab shows the smoke from the explosions of the shelling
by Armenian forces of an Azerbaijani army position in the Tovuz region, July 14,
2020.
Fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly resumed early
on Thursday, with the two sides accusing each other of attacking their frontline
positions and shelling villages.
The Armenian military claimed to have thwarted a pre-dawn Azerbaijani raid on
one of its border posts in the northern Tavush district.
“After a fierce gun battle the enemy was repelled, suffering casualties,” said
Shushan Stepanian, the spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry in Yerevan. She said
Azerbaijani forces then began shelling two Armenian border villages.
“Gunfire is continuing at the moment,” Stepanian wrote on Facebook in the
morning. “Units of the Armenian Armed Forces are neutralizing Azerbaijani
provocations.”
Stepanian reported shortly afterwards that Armenian Defense Minister Davit
Tonoyan has phoned Andrzej Kasprzyk, the head of an OSCE mission monitoring the
ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, to brief him on the latest
escalation. She said Tonoyan told Kasprzyk that the Azerbaijani side suffered
“many casualties.”
The official added that no Armenian soldiers were killed at the volatile border
section as of 9 a.m. local time.
Opening a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan later in the day, Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian said that a hilltop border post of the Armenian army in Tavush
was the primary target of overnight Azerbaijani attacks.
Pashinian said that more than 100 Azerbaijani commandos stormed but failed to
seize it before other Azerbaijani troops launched unsuccessful attacks on
adjacent Armenian positions. None of the Armenian soldiers was killed or
wounded, he told ministers.
Stepanian claimed, for her part, that Armenian forces destroyed an Azerbaijani
tank and struck “artillery and mortar positions that were shelling our
settlements and positions.” She posted a short video of plumes of black smoke
rising from behind a hill on what appeared to be the Azerbaijani side of the
frontier.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry accused Armenian forces of attacking
its frontline troops and shelling Azerbaijani villages in the Tovuz district
bordering Tavush. It said one Azerbaijani soldier was killed in action.
Azerbaijani news agencies quoted the ministry spokesman, Vagif Dargahli, as
denying any incursions into Armenian territory attempted by the Azerbaijani army
and shelling of Tavush villages. “Our army units never shoot at settlements,” he
said.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service in the morning, Tavush Governor Hayk
Chobanian said not only the local villages but also the town of Berd came under
Azerbaijani artillery fire. None of their residents was hurt as a result, he
said, adding that the shelling caused damage to civilian homes and
infrastructure.
“Residents are hiding in basements and shelters,” said Chobanian. “Their life is
not at risk.”
“There is no need for evacuation … I hope that this won’t last long,” added the
governor.
Renewed fighting in the area broke out after a one-day pause that followed three
days of deadly clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces which left at
least 15 soldiers dead and prompted serious concern from the international
community.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the U.S., Russian and French mediators
co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group hailed the lull in the fighting and urged the
parties to “make every effort to continue de-escalation.”
“The Co-Chairs welcomed the confirmation of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan to hold substantive negotiations on crucial aspects of a
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement as soon as possible and emphasized the importance of
returning OSCE monitors to the region as soon as circumstances allow,” said the
statement.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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