10:01,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. The former Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Harutyunyan has been appointed as chief advisor to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Harutyunyan served as minister since 2018 until November 23rd of 2020.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
12:13,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. On November 24, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh Masis Mayilian received a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headed by Mr. Pascal Hundt, Senior Representative of the ICRC, the Artsakh MFA told Armenpress.
Issues related to the withdrawal of the bodies of Armenian servicemen killed as a result of the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh on September 27, the fate of the missing and the release of prisoners of war and hostages were discussed at the meeting.
In this context, Masis Mayilian noted the importance of the earliest possible implementation of measures in these areas.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Pascal Hundt informed about the humanitarian aid that the ICRC Office in Artsakh, in cooperation with the state bodies of the republic, is providing to the civilian population to meet their urgent needs.
19:18,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan received on November 13 Baroness Cox, Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the delegation at her head, ARMENPRESS was informed from Arayik Harutyunyan’s Facebook page.
‘’I thanked Baroness Cox for supporting the people of Artsakh at the most challenging times for them, for her humanitarian activity in Artsakh.
During the meeting we touched upon in details the large-scale war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, with direct involvement of Turkey and foreign mercenary terrorists, recent developments around the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, the 10 November statement by the Republic of Armenia Prime Minister, President of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan on complete ceasefire and termination of all hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh and its provisions, as well as subsequent developments.
Baroness Cox briefed on the steps she undertook during the war to condemn Azerbaijani criminal conduct and raise awareness on various international platforms about the legitimate struggle of the Artsakh people for their rights and freedoms, underlined the imperative to take measures to address on ground the humanitarian crisis resulting from the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression in Artsakh”, he wrote.
17:34, 10 November, 2020
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili has commented on the agreement reached over cessation of war in Nagorno Karabakh, stating that “a new ear starts in the Caucasus”.
“A new era starts in the Caucasus. I congratulate our friends Armenia and Azerbaijan for ending a tragic war and thank all the facilitators. My sympathy to the families of the victims. Peace and stability have no alternative! We launch together a new chapter of cooperation”, the Georgian President said on Twitter.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a statement on a full ceasefire and cessation of all military actions in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone since 01:00 Yerevan Time on November 10.
Editing by Aneta Harutyunyan
Only Russian peacekeepers will be deployed on the Karabakh line of contact, announced the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
In an interview with “Echo of Moscow” radio station, Zakharova said, “Once the official text of the statement is published, no one will have any doubts. Once again, I would like to direct your attention to the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which notes that we are talking about the deployment of only Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh along the line of contact.”
On November 9, following the announcement of the statement by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian presidents, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had said that the peacekeepers’ mission be both Russian and Turkish, despite no formal announcement of Turkish peacekeepers from the other parties.
The information about the deployment of Turkish peacekeepers was also denied by Armenian Prime Minister’s spokesman Mane Gevorgyan.
14:11,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. No Turkish peacekeeping missions will be dispatched to the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian and foreign media in an interview concerning crucial issues on the international agenda, reports TASS.
“No peacekeeping units of the Turkish Republic will be dispatched to Nagorno Karabakh. There is a clear provision on that score in the joint statement of the leaders [of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia on complete termination of hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh]”, he said.
10:52, 9 November, 2020
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Battles continue near the town of Shushi, Armenian Defense Ministry official Lt. Colonel Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
He said the Defense Army of Artsakh is successfully carrying out its mission and is “depriving the adversary from proactiveness.”
“This is the true state of affairs. Simply dismiss other, ungrounded opinions,” he said on social media, referring to disinformation campaigns.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
London-listed company had welcomed “liberation” of disputed region where it has mining operations
NGLO Asian Mining was today accused by a group of British Armenians of “exploiting” the country’s conflict with Azerbaijan.
The AIM-listed gold miner has rights to the Vejnaly Contract Area, a 300sq km area within the mineral-rich Zangilan district now under the control of the Azeri army.
The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region is recognised as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians and the subject of conflict since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
In a statement to the stock market last month, Anglo Asian welcomed what it called the “liberation” of the region.
It said: “This district forms part of the territory of Azerbaijan which has been occupied by Armenia since 1994 in defiance of … UN Security Council Resolutions…”
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has sounded the alarm over recent “indiscriminate” attacks in and around the border region.
The Armenian National Committee UK issued a statement today pointing out ongoing conflict has forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
It said: “It is sad that a London-listed company should think it appropriate to put out a press release celebrating the ‘liberation’ of land it plans to exploit for commercial gain.
That ‘liberation’ has come about through the expulsion of the ethnic Armenians who lived there.”
Anglo said mining would only commence once it has been informed “of the cessation of all hostilities and that it is safe to access the district”.
A spokeswoman added: “Anglo Asian complies with all international laws and with the laws in the countries in which it operates. As a company listed on public markets, Anglo Asian will continue to keep its shareholders informed of any material developments which may impact the territories in which it operates.”
YEREVAN, October 31. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s armed forces used white phosphorus munitions prohibited by the Geneva Conventions in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday morning, the Armenian government’s United Information Center reported.
“In the morning, hostilities resumed in the northeastern, southern and southeastern directions. The enemy continues to attack peaceful settlements and civilian infrastructure. The enemy used weapons containing chemical elements (white phosphorus) prohibited by the Geneva Conventions,” it said citing a statement by the Defense Army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Azerbaijan seems poised to capture a crucial city that could end the military phase of its war with Armenia. Securing a political victory in the war, however, will require Azerbaijan’s restraint to avert a humanitarian catastrophe that could arise were its forces to press all the way into the capital of the region.
On October 29, the leader of Nagorno Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, issued an ominous warning that Azerbaijani troops were within 5 kilometers of the city of Shushi. He then appealed to all residents of Nagorno Karabakh to join the fight to hold the city, stressing, “As in 1992, when our victory began with the liberation of Shushi, today, our victory depends on the defense of Shushi.”
Known to Azerbaijanis as Shusha, this city within Nagorno Karabakh is of great importance to both sides. Culturally, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis consider the city a cradle of their respective cultures. Militarily, it sits atop commanding heights above Nagorno Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert (or Khankendi for Azerbaijanis). Whoever controls Shusha controls the “Lachin Corridor,” the lifeline linking Armenia to Stepanakert via the occupied Azerbaijani district of Lachin.
During the past month, Azerbaijan’s army has been decimating Armenian forces. Initially, Azerbaijan relied on precision drone strikes (using drones purchased from Turkey and Israel) to destroy Armenia’s high-value military assets (e.g., air defenses, tanks, and artillery) and regain its districts of Fuzuli and Jabrayil, which, like five others that surround Nagorno Karabakh, had been occupied by Armenia since the first Karabakh war. Azerbaijani forces then achieved a military breakthrough along the border with Iran about two weeks ago. Azerbaijan subsequently shifted to a combined arms operation that has pushed northward, regaining its regions of Zenglian and Gubadli, and now pressing into Lachin and toward Shusha.
Azerbaijan’s battlefield successes have sparked fears that the Azerbaijani military might now press its advantage to Shushi and beyond to Khankendi, spurred on by Azerbaijani citizens’ newfound nationalist fervor. Such sentiment has intensified as civilian casualties have mounted from Armenian shelling (including by tactical ballistic missiles) of Azerbaijani towns far from the conflict zone. These attacks have been accompanied by Azerbaijani shelling of Armenian civilians in Stepanakert/Khankendi.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, however, has consistently proposed more restrained goals, namely to:
Convincing Armenians to remain in Nagorno Karabakh will be difficult. They fear for their physical security and loathe being forced to become citizens of Azerbaijan if Nagorno Karabakh returns to Baku’s control.
In an October 29 interview to Russia’s Interfax News Agency, however, President Aliyev suggested a way forward. On security, Aliyev announced that Azerbaijan is “…ready to stop all military operations immediately” if Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan commits to withdraw all Armenian troops from the conflict zone. It is important to recognize that Aliyev insisted only on a commitment by Yerevan to withdraw its troops rather than actual withdrawal.
On citizenship rights, Aliyev reiterated his call for negotiations to end the conflict on the basis of the so-called “Basic Principles.” First tabled in November 2007 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, the Basic Principles allow inter alia for Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenian residents to claim they are not citizens of Azerbaijan because they live in a region whose legal status is ambiguous and not necessarily part of Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan will resist accepting these conditions. He has already declared “There is no diplomatic solution” to the war over Nagorno Karabakh and publicly abandoned the Basic Principles and their fundamental formula of “land for peace,” instead embracing a formulation of “new territories for new wars.” President Aliyev also faces political danger at home if he defies intense popular sentiment for total military victory.
As they fill a diplomatic vacuum in the region, Russia and Turkey may now be planning to counsel their respective partners to show restraint. In the October 10 ceasefire agreement Russia brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently compelled Pashinyan again to embrace the Basic Principles, (which his predecessor and President Aliyev informally accepted in January 2009). Meanwhile, Turkey’s Daily Sabah newspaper reports that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told Putin that Russia could lean on Armenia while Turkey could do the same with Azerbaijan to end the fighting.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan would be wise to embrace the political cover their Russian and Turkish counterparts might provide. To survive politically, Pashinyan needs Putin’s public support if he is to stop the fighting by committing to withdraw all Armenian troops and proceed with peace talks in line with the Basic Principles. But by doing so, Pashinyan would save many Armenian soldiers’ lives and provide Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenian residents a chance for a peaceful and prosperous future. He would also bring Armenia into compliance with four United Nations Security Council Resolutions calling for its troops to withdraw from the Azerbaijani regions they occupy. And if Aliyev is willing to defy the Azerbaijani public’s demands for military vengeance, he will spare his country international pariah status while enabling Azerbaijan to attract the international support it will need to rebuild its recovered lands.
Matthew Bryza is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. He served as a US diplomat for over two decades, including as US ambassador to Azerbaijan, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and as a former US mediator of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.