Author: Alex Nanijanian

PHOTOS: Stepanakert City after Azerbaijani overnight bombardment

Alex Nanijanian

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 11:18, 8 November, 2020

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The State Emergency Service of Artsakh has released photos showing the capital Stepanakert after the latest Azerbaijani bombardment overnight November 7-8.

“The adversary’s handwriting on targeting the civilian population, launched since September 27, is not changing”, the Service said.

Overnight November 7-8 the situation has been tense in Stepanakert as the capital of Artsakh has been reportedly hit with missiles by the Azerbaijani forces. 8 long-range missile strikes were fired at the city’s apartment buildings, residential districts, public facilities and other civilian infrastructure. According to preliminary reports, there are no casualties. In other communities, the relative calm situation has been maintained.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 



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Fighting nears key town as Azerbaijani forces advance in Karabakh

Alex Nanijanian
Yahoo! News
Nov 8 2020
 
 

The clashes are getting closer every day to Shusha — a sign of how far Azerbaijani forces have advanced in their campaign to retake the region

 
AFP•November 7, 2020

Explosions sound in the distance as Kamo Hayrapetyan kneels to pray at the Holy Saviour Cathedral in Nagorno-Karabakh’s historic town of Shusha.

Dressed in camouflage and white sneakers, the 60-year-old Armenian reservist lights candles and crosses himself under the partially collapsed roof of the church, which was hit by Azerbaijani rocket fire a month ago.

“They bomb us every day, it has become a habit for them,” says Hayrapetyan, whose own home was destroyed in the artillery fire that has been pummelling Shusha.

“We will defend our land, we will hold out until the end. And we won’t abandon Shushi,” he says, using the Armenian name for the town.

An ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Baku’s control in a war in the early 1990s that left some 30,000 people dead.

Decades of stalemate, failed negotiations and sporadic clashes followed, until the heaviest fighting since a 1994 ceasefire erupted on September 27.

Nearly six weeks later, the clashes are getting closer every day to Shusha — a sign of how far Azerbaijani forces have advanced in their campaign to retake the region.

Karabakh’s separatist leader Arayik Harutyunyan sounded the alarm late last month, warning that Azerbaijani forces were only five kilometres (three miles) from Shusha.

“Whoever controls Shushi controls Artsakh,” he said in a video filmed in front of the cathedral, using the Armenian names for the town and Nagorno-Karabakh.

– Hilltop fortress –

The hilltop town, whose cliffs make it a natural fortress, is of huge strategic importance. 

It sits on high ground over the region’s capital Stepanakert and on the main road linking the city with the territory of neighbouring Armenia, which backs the separatists.

Officials in Karabakh and Armenia have reported numerous attacks to the south of Shusha in recent days.

There have been clashes in Karintak, known as Dashalty in Azerbaijan, a town at the base of the Shusha cliffs, and around the town of Lachin to the south.

Crucially, Azerbaijani forces have also reached the road that leads south from Stepanakert, through Shusha and Lachin, to the Armenian border.

This is the main road through the region and its capture would cut off the separatists’ most important supply route.

It was closed for the first time on Wednesday, with Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan saying this was because of “search operations for possible subversive groups”.

It is unclear how far — and in what strength — Azerbaijani forces have pushed in to the area around Shusha and the road, though Armenian officials have reported regular clashes and the destruction of armoured vehicles and tanks.

What is clear is that making it to the area at all represents a major gain for Azerbaijan since the start of fighting.

Azerbaijan has reclaimed swathes of territory on Karabakh’s southern flank — with experts estimating Baku has retaken 15 to 20 percent of the territory it lost in Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions in the 1990s.

Much of this land is plains and the fighting will be much harder in the narrow passes and mountains where separatist forces have had years to build up their defences.

Armenian officials say any Azerbaijani gains have come at an enormous cost and claim to have killed several thousand enemy troops.


– Coffin factory –

Separatist forces have admitted to more than 1,000 fighters killed, while Azerbaijan has not released any figures on its military casualties.

Both sides have meanwhile accused the other of regularly targeting residential areas with shelling and rocket fire, with more than 130 civilians confirmed dead on both sides.

In Shusha the signs of these attacks are everywhere, from bomb craters in gardens to apartment blocks with their windows blown out.

Most of Karabakh’s civilians have fled the fighting to Armenia and Stepanakert on many days resembles a ghost town, with the sound of shelling and air raid sirens ringing through empty streets.

One of the few hubs of activity is a furniture workshop that has put its usual business on hold to make coffins, a sombre reminder of the growing number of dead.

The workshop is lined with a dozen newly-made caskets, their polished brown wood gleaming in the light. 

“Unfortunately, we have to make coffins now because it is very important and in demand,” says David Hayrapetyan, a 41-year-old who works in the factory, as a colleague secures a gold-coloured cross on top of a casket lid.

bur-acl-mm/jbr/wdb


 

Artsakh’s army carries out successful operations south from Shushi – MoD

Alex Nanijanian

Artsakh’s army carries out successful operations south from Shushi – MoD

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 20:10, 7 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Army of Artsakh has carried out successful operation in the south from Shushi, representative of the Defense Ministry of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan told on his Facebook page.

”Heavy clashes take place in the North and Martuni direction. Our troops have carried out successful operation south from Shushi”, Hovhannisyan wrote




More Italian cities officially recognize Artsakh as independent country

Alex Nanijanian

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 15:58, 5 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The municipalities of Drena and Bleggio Superiore in Italy’s Trentino have officially recognized Artsakh as an independent country, the Armenian Embassy in Italy said.

“We thank the municipalities of Drena and Bleggio Superiore for recognizing the independence of the Republic of Artsakh,” the embassy said.

Earlier the independence of Artsakh was officially recognized also by the Regional Council of Lombardy and the cities of Milan, Asolo, Palermo and Cerchiara di Calabria.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Russia says accurate intel on terrorist presence in NK zone comes from Middle East partners

Alex Nanijanian

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 12:26, 6 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Naryshkin has announced that they have received accurate intelligence data, including from intelligence agencies of Middle Eastern countries, on the participation of Syrian militants in the Nagorno Karabakh fighting.

Naryshkin said that the Russian intelligence agency has “accurate information on the presence of terrorists, including from Middle East and first of all from Syria in the combat zone”.

“We are receiving this data from several countries, various sources, and from our various colleagues, partner services in the Middle East.”

Two Syrian mercenaries fighting for the Azeri side against Artsakh were taken captive by the Armenian forces. Both have testified how they were recruited in Syria and taken through Turkey to Azerbaijan for 2000 dollars a month.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan in committing military crimes in Nagorno Karabakh during CIS session

Alex Nanijanian

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 14:29, 6 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. During the session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan accused Azerbaijan in committing military crimes in Nagorno Karabakh with the support of Turkey, reports TASS.

“Currently the aggression against Nagorno Karabakh continues. Moreover, it is being carried out by the direct military-political support of Turkey and involvement of terrorists from Syria and Libya. The Azerbaijani forces are using the methods of terrorist groups, such as tortures, shootings and beheadings of prisoners of war, encroachments on bodies of those killed. There are a number of military crimes on the conscience of the Azerbaijani leadership”, the Armenian deputy PM said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Greenberg Traurig cuts ties with Turkish government for its support to Azerbaijan

Alex Nanijanian

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 00:21, 7 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS.  The law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig has cut ties with the Turkish government under pressure from Armenian-American activists furious over Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan in its ongoing hostilities with Armenia. The firm sent an internal email this week announcing that it had terminated its relationship with Turkey on Oct. 29, according to a person who saw the email. The firm declined to comment. The Turkish embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Armenian National Committee of America.

Aram Hamparian, the Armenian National Committee’s executive director, told POLITICO after Mercury dropped Turkey that he planned to pressure another lobbying firm, BGR Group , to stop representing Azerbaijan. But BGR said in a statement at the time that it “intends to continue its representation of Azerbaijan.”

U.N. Says Nagorno-Karabakh Attacks Could Be War Crimes

Alex Nanijanian
US News
Nov 2 2020
By Reuters, Wire Service Content Nov. 2, 2020


By Maria Tsvetkova and Olzhas Auyezov

YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) – Artillery strikes on civilians in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could amount to war crimes, the U.N. human rights chief said on Monday, reiterating a call for Azerbaijan and Armenia to halt attacks on towns, schools and hospitals in the mountain enclave.

Separately, Armenia’s prime minister called for an investigation into the presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Nagorno-Karabakh after ethnic Armenian forces said they had captured two fighters from Syria.

Azerbaijan denied the presence of foreign combatants.

Fierce battles continued along the front line of a conflict that has killed at least 1,000 people, and possibly many more. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said indiscriminate attacks in populated areas in and around the conflict zone contravened international humanitarian law.

She said in a statement that repeated calls for both Armenia and Azerbaijan to avoid the loss of civilian life and damage to civilian infrastructure had gone unheeded.

“Instead, homes have been destroyed, streets reduced to rubble, and people forced to flee or seek safety in basements,” she said. “Such attacks must stop and those responsible for carrying them out, or ordering them, must be held to account.”

Just hours after agreeing in Geneva on Friday to avoid the deliberate targeting of civilians, Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh accused each other once more of shelling residential areas.

Citing data from both sides of the conflict, Bachelet said about 40,000 Azeris had been temporarily displaced by the latest fighting while some 90,000 ethnic Armenians had fled Nagorno-Karabakh and were currently in Armenia.

International rights groups have also accused both sides of using banned cluster munitions, most recently in the shelling of the Azeri city of Barda on Wednesday.

FOREIGN FIGHTERS

Armenia’s foreign ministry said the Artsakh Defence Army, its name for the ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, had captured two Syrian combatants over the weekend, one from Idlib province and the other from Hama.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook post that the involvement of “foreign mercenaries” was “a threat not only to the security of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia but also to international security and this issue should become a subject of international investigation.”

Asked about foreign fighters, Azeri presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said: “We reject such allegations.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry said fierce battles took place along parts of the front line on Monday and that it had repelled an Azeri platoon. A spokesman for the ministry said a deputy commander in the Artsakh army was killed in combat.

Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said artillery fire killed one civilian and wounded two in the country’s southern Syunik region.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it had repelled an attack on its positions in the high ground of the Zangilan district, between the enclave and the Iranian border, while army units in the Gazakh, Tovuz and Dashkesan regions also came under fire.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev wrote on Twitter that Azerbaijan had retaken a further eight settlements in Zangilan, Gubadli and Jabrayil regions.

(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan, Olzhas Auyezov and Nailia Bagirova in Baku; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Mark Heinrich and David Clarke)

Meeting of Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs ends in Geneva

Alex Nanijanian

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 00:21,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. The meeting between Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab mNatsakanyan and Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov has ended in Geneva, ARMENPRESS reports Anna Naghdalyan, spokesperson of the Foreign Minister of Armenia, informed.

Earlier today Mnatsakanyan also met with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office.