Author: Badalian Vardan

Turkish Press: Russia, Turkey settle Karabakh truce’s final details

Badalian Vardan
Anadolu Agency
Nov 20 2020
Russia, Turkey settle Karabakh truce’s final details

Elena Teslova   | 20.11.2020

MOSCOW

Russia and Turkey are finalizing the implementation of an agreement on the establishment of a monitoring center in the region of Upper Karabakh, Moscow’s top defense official said Friday.

The two sides are currently discussing where the center will be located, as well as its functions, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said at a meeting on the region, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials.

Also part of the agreement, deployments have been completed for a peace-keeping mission in the region which had recently witnessed fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as Russian contingents have begun to conduct missions, Shoygu added.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, a territory recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted Sept. 27 and the Armenian army continued its attacks on civilian and Azerbaijani forces, even violating humanitarian cease-fire agreements for 44 days.

After Baku liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from Armenian occupation, the two countries signed a Russia-brokered agreement on Nov. 10 to end fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.

Moscow expects UN support

At the meeting, Putin said for his part that Russia expected international organizations to join humanitarian efforts in Karabakh.

He praised the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its contribution in helping the victims of the conflict, saying it had taken on a leading role and was ready to step up its activities in the region.

He also called on a number of the UN organizations to join the ICRC efforts, including the High Commissioner for Refugees, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, World Food Programme and Mine Action Service.

Putin said he counted on help from UNICEF to help in issues concerning children and young people, as well as UNESCO for preserving historical and religious sites.

Support from the UN Development Program will also be needed in the post-conflict settlement stage, he added.

​Azerbaijan’s Fizuli a ghost town after Karabakh battles

Badalian Vardan
RTL Luxemburg
Nov 19 2020
 
 
 
Azerbaijan’s Fizuli a ghost town after Karabakh battles
 
Author: AFP|Update: 19.11.2020 15:59
 
An Azerbaijani flag was freshly hoisted on the roof of a house half destroyed by artillery fire in Fizuli / © AFP
 
Under a light drizzle, Azerbaijani forces reclaim Fizuli three decades after they lost control of the town, finding homes left in ruins and overgrown with foliage.
 
Armenian fighters laid claim to the town and the district of the same name in a 1990s war that saw separatists declare independence over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and several surrounding districts.
 
The entire population of Fizuli — 17,000 people — fled the fighting that erupted following the collapse of the Soviet Union and ushered in a long-simmering dispute.
 
A destroyed tank lies in a field near the village of Garakhabeyli outside Fizuli / © AFP
 
Clashes broke out again in full force late September and raged for six weeks, dealing a decisive victory to Azerbaijan who reclaimed between 15 and 20 percent of territory held by separatists.
 
The only traces of life today were left by recently departed fighters who gave up their positions as Azerbaijan’s more technologically advanced army battled its way into the district during October.
 
A Russia-brokered peace agreement last week ended the fighting between separatists backed by Armenia and Azerbaijan’s forces, but traces of the battle were omnipresent.
 
A burntout car on the outskirts of the virtual ghost town of Fizuli / © AFP
 
On roads leading from Fizuli tank tracks had left deep ruts in the ground.
 
– ‘Crime against humanity’ –
 
Near the abandoned village of Gorgan, AFP journalists saw trenches and ammunition boxes leftover from the fighting as well as a chapel where Armenian soldiers had prayed before forces of majority-Muslim Azerbaijan advanced.
 
In the ruins of the emptied-out hamlet of Garahanbeyli, an Azerbaijani flag was freshly hoisted on the roof of a house half destroyed by artillery fire.
 
A Russia-brokered peace agreement week ended the fighting between separatists backed by Armenia and Azerbaijan’s forces / © AFP
 
During the trip organised by the Azerbaijani defence ministry, officials sought to underscore their version of the decades-long territorial dispute and the recent fighting that left thousands dead and displaced many more.
 
“Fizuli has been occupied by the Armenian armed forces for over 27 years. When you look at the devastation in this city, you once again understand the vandalism of its policies,” proclaims Hikmet Hajiev, adviser to President Ilham Aliyev.
 
“It is barbarism, a crime against humanity, it is a testament to Armenian savagery,” he said.
 
Armenian residents have fled en masse / © AFP
 
Under the terms of the Moscow-brokered peace accord, Armenia is scheduled to hand control of several other regions around Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan over several weeks, including Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin.
 
Armenian residents in the regions have fled en masse, loading their life’s belonging into trucks and cars under the watch of Russian peacekeepers.
 
Many of the homes abandoned by ethnic-Armenians were once owned by Azerbaijanis, but are being torched by those displaced by the fighting, who prefer to leave nothing in their wake.
 
 

Asbarez: Political Forces in Armenia Issue Joint Announcement

Badalian Vardan

November 9,  2020



Leaders of political parties gather to discuss next steps

The Armenian people, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary political forces, have combined their potential to resist the Turkish-Azeri aggression against the two Armenian states.

Throughout this war, we have presented several proposals to authorities urging them to make a breakthrough on political, diplomatic and military fronts, including proposals for meetings aimed at rectifying the situation, which have remained unanswered and unimplemented.
The war is intense, and the losses are irreversible and heavy. As a state and people, we are facing a decisive juncture that demands resolute decisions and actions. But the steps taken by the political leadership do not adequately meet the threat of survival facing our nation.

In this period, the government has revealed its clear inability to overcome internal and external challenges. The human and territorial losses and the unproductive relations between Armenia and its allies, primarily the Russian Federation, expose the evident bankruptcy of the current regime.

The entire responsibility for this situation lies with the political leadership, which did not let go of its infallibility complex, placing the two Armenian states under harsh realities and Artsakh under threat of grave territorial losses. Therefore, the leadership has been deprived of the political and moral basis to represent the Armenian people.

To prevent irreversible losses, we demand:
The early, voluntary, and smooth removal of the parties responsible for the creation of the catastrophic situation; Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his administration, and the urgent creation of a new executive body with the ability to make breakthroughs in the current reality and resolve political-military problems.

Dear Armenian compatriots,
At this pivotal moment, our demand is dictated by the imperative of the existence of the two Armenian states and with the confidence that under this new scenario the unbreakable Armenian army and the united Armenian people will secure a victorious breakthrough on the battlefield.

Freedom Party
National Security Party
National Agenda Party
National Democratic Union Party
National Unity Party
Alliance Progressive Centrist Party
Prosperous Armenia Party
Democratic Alternative Party
Yerkir Tsirani Party
Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party
Solidarity Party
Liberal Democratic Union of Armenia Party
Republican Party of Armenia
Christian-Democratic Rebirth Party
Homeland Party
One Armenia Party
Constitutional Rights Union Party

P.S. The announcement is open for others to join.

Protesters in Yerevan break into government building

Badalian Vardan
TASS, Russia
Nov 9 2020
The aggressive protesters are breaking the doors in the cabinets

YEREVAN, November 10. /TASS/. The citizens of Yerevan, protesting against the decision on ending the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, have broken a cordon, bursting into the Armenian government’s building, a TASS correspondent reported.

The aggressive protesters are breaking the doors in the cabinets.

After Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared a ceasefire agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh, hundreds of people started gathering on Republic Square in downtown Yerevan, where the government’s building is located.

Police did not use force and tried to calm down protesters. Some protesters are calling for heading towards a government residence where Pashinyan could be now.

Drones Have Wreaked Havoc in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict

Badalian Vardan
The National Interest
Nov 8 2020

Saturating an area with unmanned hunter-killer systems like the Orbiter 1K and Harop drones can overwhelm even the best air defense artillery and missile systems currently fielded, which is one reason both China and the United States are researching technologies that feature swarms of drones.

by John Venable

Worldwide military use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or drones has grown by leaps and bounds since the mid-1990s when the first General Atomics MQ-1 Predator took to the air.  Over the last twenty-five years, the number, type, and mission set of drones has expanded considerably, and the ongoing Armenia-Azerbaijani conflict suggests that drones will play an increasingly significant role in future conflicts. 

Originally, the Predator served exclusively as a reconnaissance platform. That changed in 2001 when an MQ-1 successfully launched a Hellfire missile and hit its target on a test range in Nevada. 

The MQ-1 and its younger sibling, the MQ-9, have been used as if they were manned light reconnaissance and attack platforms instead of autonomous systems. They have logged more hours per aircraft than any other manned reconnaissance platform and probably more than all manned fighters in the U.S. arsenal. These two aircraft are at the upper end of tactical drones with regard to size, weight, complexity and cost, and they have been incredibly effective for the United States and its allies.

Military UAS platforms in the medium to small categories run from hand-launched, short-range reconnaissance drones with electro-optical/infrared sensors, to medium-sized drones with several hours of endurance that can be used for reconnaissance and/or attack. And every system is capable of delivering significant tactical effects for the warfighter.

In January 2018, a swarm of “home-built” drones carrying small explosive devices attacked Russian forces at Hmeimim Air Base (AB) and Tartus Naval Base in Syria.  While neither the damage inflicted nor the effectiveness of Russian counter-drone systems has been independently verified, there is little doubt that the swarm of thirteen drones presented a significant targeting challenge to the defenders. The small size of the drones and their low radar cross-section made them hard to detect, and recent engagements of state of the art hunter-killer drones prove that, when the drones get through, they are deadly.

In the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijanis have employed three different drones against Armenian armor and personnel to great effect. The Turkish Bayraktar TB2 is a large drone, in the same class as the MQ-9 Reaper. It carries laser and infrared-guided anti-tank munitions. The Israeli Obiter 1K and Harop drones have been used for reconnaissance and recovered to fly again, or employed as kamikaze attack drones.  Collectively, these three types of drones reportedly destroyed more than eighty Armenian armored vehicles in the first few weeks of fighting.  Each has a significant loiter capability, and video from the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict appears to show numerous systems operating in concert.   

Saturating an area with unmanned hunter-killer systems like the Orbiter 1K and Harop drones can overwhelm even the best air defense artillery and missile systems currently fielded, which is one reason both China and the United States are researching technologies that feature swarms of drones. 

China’s recent swarming experiments involve dozens of explosive-filled suicide drones launched simultaneously from specially designed vehicles and aircraft.  Once airborne, the drones can loiter over the battlefield hunting for targets or an operator can designate a target and send the drones to move together and destroy it.

While it may be hard to visualize the size and overwhelming nature of swarming drones, testing conducted by the U.S. Navy in 2016 graphically demonstrated the hopelessness one would feel as a target in the center of such an attack.    

In that test, three FA-18s released 103 micro-drones over China Lake, California. The UAVs executed several missions/maneuvers showing the ability to operate together, deconflict flight paths and then simultaneously attack a single target.  The eyewatering video demonstrates the incredible tactical impact even the smallest drones will have on battlefields of the future.  

For now, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict highlights the deadly mechanisms at play in modern warfare where drones can find and destroy virtually any target on the battlefield.  As long as these unmanned aerial systems have free movement above the enemy, they will wreak havoc on their armor, vehicles and fielded forces.   

America has both a technological edge and decades more operational experience with offensive unmanned aerial systems than its global competitors. While that is a significant advantage, the losses that will come without an effective means of detecting and then countering or destroying the offensive drones of those who would do us harm will be substantial.    

The Defense Department’s first joint strategy to counter small drones is about to hit Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s desk. That’s a step in the right direction. But DARPA and the Defense Department as a whole must put the development of counter-drone systems that can handle swarms of drones near the top of its growing list of priorities.

A twenty-five-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, John “JV” Venable is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense. 

Image: Reuters

Armenians to rally in front of The New York Times building

Badalian Vardan
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 1 2020

The Armenian Youth Federation will march to the The New York Times building in New York City to demand an immediate investigation and retraction of articles by the New York Times’ Turkey Bureau Chief, Carlotta Gall, regarding the conflict in Artsakh, reports the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We demand that the New York Times investigate the sources for Ms. Gall’s claims, whether there was enough supporting authority to promulgate them, whether the conditions of the reporting allowed unbiased and accurate coverage of the Artsakh conflict, and (if not) why the New York Times failed to disclose such conditions to its readership,” ANCA said.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/11/01/armenians-to-rally-in-front-of-the-new-york-times-building/

TURKISH press: Russia vows to support Yerevan if fighting reaches Armenia as Pashinian seeks Putin’s help

Badalian Vardan
 MOSCOW POLITICS 
OCT 31, 2020 11:41 AM GMT+3
Reservists undergo a military training before leaving for the frontline in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, at a range in Armavir region, Armenia, Oct. 27, 2020. (AFP Photo)

Russia said on Saturday it would provide “necessary” assistance to Yerevan in its conflict with Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh if fighting reached Armenia’s territory.

“Russia will render Yerevan all necessary assistance if clashes take place directly on the territory of Armenia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, calling on the warring sides to immediately halt fire.

Earlier on Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin “urgent” consultations on providing security amid a conflict with Azerbaijan after fresh talks failed to agree to a cease-fire.

Pashinian sent the letter to Putin after Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to agree to a fresh cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during talks in Geneva on Friday and as fighting continued overnight and Saturday morning.

The announcement, released by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, raised fears of an escalation in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in fierce fighting for more than a month over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia in the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The flare-up of the conflict has left more than a thousand dead, with world powers so far unable to persuade either side to stop fighting.

Russia has a military base in Armenia and has a defense treaty with Yerevan.

“The prime minister of Armenia has asked the Russian president to begin urgent consultations with the aim of determining the kind and amount of aid which the Russian Federation can provide Armenia to ensure its security,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia has previously said that its defense pact with Armenia does not extend to the occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Pashinian in his letter to Putin said that hostilities were getting closer to Armenia’s borders and reiterated that Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey was backing Baku, according to the statement.

He requested Moscow’s help, invoking the two countries’ close ties and a 1997 treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter conflict over Karabakh since Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan occupied the mountainous province in a 1990s war that left 30,000 people dead.

The current clashes broke out on Sept. 27 and fighting has persisted despite the repeated international attempts to secure a cease-fire.

The warring sides have three times agreed to cease-fires during recent talks mediated by Russia, France and the United States but the truces have all quickly fallen apart.

More than 1,200 people from both sides have been reported dead since the fighting began, but the actual death toll is believed to be substantially higher.

Nagorno-Karabakh: UK to provide food and medicine to people affected by the conflict

Badalian Vardan
The Government of the UK
Oct 31 2020
News story

UK announces £1million funding to provide relief to those affected by Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Published
From:
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP

Thousands of people affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will receive urgent medical supplies, food and safer shelters from a new UK aid package, announced today by the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

The conflict escalated on 27 September. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, with growing numbers of civilian casualties and damage to homes and vital infrastructure.

Now much-needed medical supplies, including dressing kits and bandages, will be provided for civilians caught up in the crisis through a new £1 million UK aid package, in response to an appeal by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). People injured in the fighting, including children caught in the crossfire, will receive life-saving treatment at health facilities or from emergency responders supported by the ICRC.

Many of those affected have limited access to food and other essentials, and UK support will provide blankets, food parcels and basic hygiene items to vulnerable communities near to the fighting.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:

Today’s UK aid package will help deliver vital food, medicine and urgent healthcare to those affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We continue to urge both sides to engage with the OSCE Minsk group and seek a peaceful, negotiated, political solution which the people of the region so desperately need.

ICRC Regional Director for EURASIA, Martin Schuepp said:

The ICRC is most grateful to the UK for its contribution to the ICRC’s response in the region. The high-quality funding the ICRC receives from its donors, including the UK, enables the ICRC to deliver neutral, impartial and independent action to those affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence.

UK support will also help to improve the quality of often overcrowded shelters by installing or improving water tanks and toilets. It will also ensure the shelters are suitably equipped to keep warm as the region’s bitter winter approaches.

The UK, along with Canada, has repeatedly called for both sides to work towards a peaceful, political resolution to the conflict through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk process and has expressed its full support for the work of the Minsk Group.

  • The new funding is in addition to our core funding to ICRC. In recent years, the UK has been the second largest donor globally to the ICRC, helping them to respond quickly to situations of armed conflict.

  • The ICRC is an independent, neutral organisation ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence.

Contact the FCDO Communication Team via email (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 30-10-20

Badalian Vardan

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 17:39,

YEREVAN, 30 OCTOBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 October, USD exchange rate up by 0.45 drams to 493.60 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 2.24 drams to 576.08 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.03 drams to 6.24 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.13 drams to 639.46 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 32.61 drams to 29680.93 drams. Silver price down by 14.09 drams to 365.24 drams. Platinum price down by 19.27 drams to 13647.86 drams.