11:37, 6 November, 2020
WARNING: Video contains graphic content
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Artsakh released a video showing the neutralization of an Azeri unit that was attacking in the direction of Berdzor.
November 4, 2020
Nurlan Ibrahimov said ‘we must kill all Armenians’
An official at the Azerbaijan’s Qarabag soccer club has been provisionally banned by UEFA while he is investigated for potentially “violating basic rules of decent conduct” in comments he made against Armenians on social media, the European soccer body said on Wednesday.
Nurlan Ibrahimov, a public relations and media manager for the Qarabag team has been banned from “exercising any football-related activity,” said the UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations.
“We must kill all Armenians—children women and the elderly. We need to kill them without making a distinction. No regrets. No compassion,” Ibrahimov wrote of his social media platforms last week, prompting Armenia’s National Soccer Federation to call for the expulsion of the entire Qarabag team from UEFA on Saturday.
UEFA said that Ibrahimov had also been charged with racist and discriminatory conduct over the comments. It did not give further details and Ibrahimov did not immediately comment.
“The Qarabag FK official, Mr. Nurlan Ibrahimov, is provisionally banned from exercising any football-related activity immediately effective until the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body decides on the merits of the case,” said a UEFA statement on Wednesday, adding that Ibrahimov had violated the basic rules of decent conduct.
In a statement on Sunday, Qarabag claimed that it had opened an internal disciplinary investigation against Ibrahimov, who was described as its chief press officer, and said that his comments were not supported by the club, Reuters reported Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani team said that Ibrahimov had been traumatized while watching footage of the conflict, including the deaths of women and children in Azeri cities, and that he regretted his comments, according to Reuters.
22:22,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is disappointed for non-fulfillment of the ceasefire agreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan, ARMENPRESS reports Trump told the reporters.
Donald Trump emphasized that the conflict has lasted long years. ”Yes, it’s dissapointing to see that. ”This is what happenes when you have countries that have been going at it for a long time. It”ll get beck together”, he said.
Despite the new ceasefire that was supposed to take effect 08:00 October 26, the Azerbaijani forces launched renewed attacks. The Azeri military also bombarded a village, killing 1 civilian and wounding two others.
14:58,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. American actor, filmmaker and producer Sean Penn commented on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policy on Armenians.
“As too many of us sit on our butts, Armenians are being slaughtered by Trump pal Erdogan with weapons WE provided. THIS is NOT America! Biden for America’s new birth!” Sean Penn said on Twitter.
On September 27 Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, launched a massive attack against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), by using all its ammunition, targeting also the civilian infrastructures both in Artsakh and Armenia. There are confirmed reports that there are mercenaries in the Azerbaijani army brought from Syria by Turkey for fighting against the Armenian side.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
16:48,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan had a meeting with the members of the militia with the participation of the representatives of the security system.
“The talk with the defenders of the homeland focused on the ongoing developments and our actions to counter them.
The professionalism and knowledge of our soldiers, who have mastered the enemy’s tactics in the past month, only inspire excitement and trust. They understand very well both the importance of the defense of the homeland and the price of its sacrifice”, the President of Artsakh said on Facebook.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
October 21, 2020
Turkey’s Vice-President Fuat Oktay (right) with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Baku in 2019
Turkey will not hesitate to send soldiers and provide military support for Azerbaijan if such a request is made by Baku, Vice President Fuat Okaty said on Wednesday, adding there was no such request at the moment, Reuters reported.
Speaking in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk, Oktay also criticized the OSCE’s Minsk Group of trying to keep the issue unresolved and supporting Armenia, both politically and militarily.
In comments to Azerbaijan’s parliament, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop portrayed Armenia as the aggressor and criticized mediation by France, Russia and the United States—the Minsk Group co-chairing countries.
“If they are sincere on their path to peace, those who have held Armenia’s leash and supported it for years need to end this dangerous game now and stop supporting Armenia. Azerbaijan does not have another 30 years to wait,” Sentop said, according to Reuters.
The Minsk Group, he said, “is brain dead.”
In a speech to the nation, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Baku was willing to end fighting as soon as possible to complete the restoration of what it sees as its territorial integrity.
Baku also wants Turkey directly involved in the conflict settlement process, which Armenia opposes.
GLENDALE (CBSLA) — For the past two weeks, Armenian Americans have staged demonstrations across Southern California in an effort to draw attention to the deadly conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“We feel that the world is turning their back on us,” Paul Abrahamian, a demonstrator, said. “We feel that our rights and our lives aren’t as important for anybody to make a voice.”
The last two weeks have seen the largest escalation of bloodshed since 1994 between the two sides that have been locked in a decades-old conflict.
Armenia says 520 soldiers have been killed and 25 civilians murdered, while Azerbaijan says it has lost 40 civilians — with another 210 wounded. The numbers have not been independently verified.
On Monday, CBS Los Angeles spoke to Ambassador Armen Baibourtian, the consul general of Armenia in Los Angeles.
“There is not any evidence or proof or confirmed reports that Armenian forces, Artsakh forces, commit war crimes or even violate international laws,” he said.
The bloodshed is happening in a disputed border region that’s internationally recognized within Azerbaijan’s borders, but predominantly occupied by ethnic Armenians.
CBSLA also reached out to Nasimi Aghayev, the consul general of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles.
“All of the fighting at the moment is happening within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan,” he said. “There is no fighting on the territory of Armenia.”
A recent report from Amnesty International said that its experts used video footage to trace “cluster munitions that appear to have been fired by Azerbaijani forces.”
“Amnesty International has not done any investigation right on the ground with their people sent to the region, study all the details on both sides of the conflict,” Aghayev said.
“All Azerbaijani accusations are false, and this way they are not only trying to protect themselves while committing real war crimes,” Baibourtian said.
A ceasefire negotiated by Russia quickly deteriorated over the weekend, with both sides blaming the other.
Patrick James, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, said the situation was delicate because Azerbaijan is rich in oil and has ties to Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, Armenia has historically been supported by Russia — a nation that has been known to sell weapons to both sides.
“All the evidence would support the idea that this battle will continue, and the facts that the states are asymmetrical with each other — one being, if you will, larger in population and having energy revenue — is not a decisive matter here,” James said.
Both sides have called on the international community, especially the United States, to intervene. The White House has yet to take a side in the ongoing conflict.
“So the risks of escalation are enormous,” James said. “It would be eyebrow raising for both the Russians and the Turks. The United States could find itself at odds with everyone.”
Amnesty International has called on all sides to fully respect international humanitarian laws and to protect civilians from the hostilities.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said most of the front line was “relatively calm.” But renewed shelling was reported at night.
By
GORIS, Armenia — Fierce fighting over a breakaway Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan partly subsided on Saturday after a cease-fire took effect. But there was little expectation of a durable peace two weeks into the most violent conflict that the volatile region has seen in decades.
The cease-fire agreement, reached by Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow early Saturday after 10 hours of overnight talks, raised hopes of at least a brief respite in the artillery bombardment, drone strikes and trench warfare that have killed hundreds since Azerbaijan launched an offensive on Sept. 27.
Each side accused the other of mounting new attacks after the cease-fire took effect at noon on Saturday. But eyewitnesses reported no shelling in the enclave’s capital, Stepanakert, for much of the afternoon and evening, and the Armenian Defense Ministry said most of the front line was “relatively calm.”
Shortly before midnight Saturday, though, people in Stepanakert said they heard a series of explosions and the wail of air raid sirens, suggesting the cease-fire was teetering just 12 hours after it came into force. Around the same time, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani town of Terter, near the border of the enclave, had come under attack.
Earlier in the day, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it stood ready to use the lull to retrieve the remains of the dead at the front line, where the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh borders Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Emergency services workers fanned out looking for unexploded ordnance, a journalist based in the city, Gegham Baghdasaryan, said in a telephone interview.
Nagorno-Karabakh, with a population of about 150,000, is a landlocked territory in the Caucasus, the mountain range where Europe meets Asia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The territory, smaller than Connecticut, has little geostrategic significance on its own, but is the subject of an escalating test of strength among regional powers.
Russia, Iran and an increasingly assertive Turkey have all been jockeying for influence in the region.
“I hope that the world’s power centers will find enough means of influence on Azerbaijan to have it abide by the cease-fire,” Mr. Baghdasaryan said.
The enclave is part of Azerbaijan under international law, but has been controlled by a breakaway government closely aligned with Armenia since a yearslong war over the territory in the early 1990s. About 20,000 people were killed, and about a million, mostly Azerbaijanis, were displaced in that war.
RUSSIA
GEORGIA
Caspian
Sea
ARMENIA
NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Baku
AZERBAIJAN
TURKEY
IRAN
AZER.
(NAKCHIVAN)
50 Miles
By The New York Times
Azerbaijan says it is now fighting to reclaim land that rightfully belongs to the country, while Armenia says ceding the land to Azerbaijan could bring about the destruction of the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Neither side appears in a mood to compromise, with rhetoric from all parties having grown harsher in recent months. The current war has already killed more than 400 Armenian soldiers and, according to the United Nations, more than 50 civilians; Azerbaijan has not disclosed its military casualties.
“This war did not surprise anyone here,” said Zaur Shiriyev, an analyst with the International Crisis Group based in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku. “No one actually questions why it’s happening now.”
Mr. Shiriyev said he did not expect the cease-fire to hold for long, in part because the agreement announced in Moscow early Saturday morning contained no specifics on geography or timing.
“It can be declared inoperative at any time,” he said.
Repairing electricity lines in Stepanakert on Saturday.Credit…Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Turkey, a member of NATO, is Azerbaijan’s major ally in the region. It is now challenging Russia’s longtime geopolitical primacy in the southern Caucasus, which was part of the Soviet Union.
Russia has a mutual-defense treaty with Armenia and maintains a military base there, but has also nurtured close ties with Azerbaijan.
The region’s southern neighbor, Iran, is also a major player, and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Saturday to discuss the conflict, the Kremlin said.
Whether or not the cease-fire, which was brokered by Russia, holds will test Mr. Putin’s ability to influence events in his country’s post-Soviet neighborhood.
Azerbaijan insists Armenia must withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh if it wants peace. The foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, warned Saturday that his country was prepared to continue fighting, while Turkey said it would stand by “brotherly Azerbaijan” on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.
“Azerbaijan has shown Armenia and the whole world that it has the ability and the self confidence to reclaim its territories under occupation for nearly 30 years,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Saturday. By agreeing to the cease-fire, the ministry said, “Azerbaijan gave Armenia a last opportunity to withdraw from the territories it has occupied.”