Tuesday,
U.S. Weighs In On Russian-Armenian Tensions
U.S. - State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller answers questions during a
news briefing in Washington, July 18, 2023.
The U.S. State Department has called for the dispatch of an international
monitoring mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and effectively backed Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s claims that Russia cannot guarantee Armenia’s security.
“I do think that Russia has shown that it is not a security partner that can be
relied on,” Matthew Miller, the department spokesman, told a news briefing in
Washington on Monday, commenting on the ongoing war of words between Yerevan and
Moscow.
Tensions between the two longtime allies deepened early this month after
Pashinian stated that Armenia’s reliance on Russia for defense and security has
proved a “strategic mistake” because the latter is “unable or unwilling” to
defend the South Caucasus nation.
The Armenian premier doubled down on his criticism following Azerbaijan’s
September 19 offensive in Karabakh launched despite the presence of Russian
peacekeepers there. He said on Sunday that the military alliance with Russia is
not enough to ensure Armenia’s national security.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Pashinian of seeking to ruin
bilateral ties and reorient Armenia towards the West. Russian officials have
repeatedly charged that the United States and the European Union are keen to
drive Russia out of the South Caucasus.
Pashinian and his political allies have so far not signaled plans to get Armenia
out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) or other Russian-led
blocs. Nor have they indicated any alternative geopolitical arrangements which
they believe can protect Armenia’s borders.
Miller reaffirmed U.S. support for Armenia’s territorial integrity but declined
to clarify what Washington could do if it is jeopardized by Azerbaijan. “What we
think is important is that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a lasting peace
agreement,” he said in this regard.
ARMENIA - Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in the border village of
Kornidzor, .
Miller also reiterated U.S. concerns about the fate of Karabakh’s ethnic
Armenian population severely affected by last week’s Azerbaijani assault.
“The population of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh should be able to remain
in their homes in peace and dignity, with respect for their rights and security
if they choose to do so,” he said. “Those who want to leave and return should be
allowed safe passage overseen by a neutral, independent third party.”
“We do believe there should be an international mission to provide transparency,
reassurance, and confidence to the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and the
international community, that … their rights and security will be protected
consistent with the public statements that Azerbaijan has made,” added the U.S.
official.
Yerevan advanced the idea of such a mission even before the latest escalation.
Baku strongly opposed it.
Baku, Yerevan Resume Talks On Peace Deal
Belgium - Armenian, Azerbaijani, French, German and EU officials meet in
Brussels, Septembe 26, 2023.
The European Union urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to find “decisive compromise
solutions” on Tuesday as it hosted fresh talks between senior officials from two
states one week after the Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, and Hikmet
Hajiyev, a senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, met in Brussels
together with diplomatic advisers to EU chief Charles Michel, French President
Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The EU’s special envoy to the
South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, was also in attendance.
They are understood to have concentrated on preparations for Aliyev’s next
meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian which is expected to take
place on the sidelines of an EU summit in Granada, Spain on October 5.
A spokeswoman for Michel, Ecaterina Casinge, said Hajiyev and Grigorian
discussed “possible concrete steps to advance the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace
process in the upcoming possible meeting, such as those with regard to border
delimitation, security, connectivity, humanitarian issues, and the broader peace
treaty.”
“Concrete action and decisive compromise solutions are needed on all tracks of
the normalization process,” said Casinge.
“The EU believes that the possible meeting in Granada should be used by both
Yerevan and Baku to reiterate publicly their commitment to each other’s
territorial integrity and sovereignty in line with agreements reached previously
in Prague and Brussels,” she added in a statement.
Reuters quoted Hajiyev as calling the Brussels meeting “quite constructive” and
saying that it increased chances of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal. He did
not elaborate.
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said late on Sunday that Baku and
Yerevan are now “very close” to signing a bilateral peace treaty which has been
the main focus of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations over the past year. He did
not clarify whether Pashinian’s administration is ready to make more concessions
now that Azerbaijan is regaining full control over Karabakh as a result of the
September 19-20 offensive.
U.S., EU Announce Relief Aid To Karabakh Refugees
• Susan Badalian
• Nane Sahakian
ARMENIA - Vehicles carrying refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region queue on the
road near the border village of Kornidzor, .
The United States and the European Union pledged on Tuesday to provide urgent
humanitarian aid to ethnic Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh fleeing to
Armenia in droves amid the ongoing restoration of Azerbaijani control over the
region.
A steady stream of these refugees crossed the Armenian border for the third
consecutive day in cars, trucks and buses that jammed the main road connecting
Karabakh to Armenia. Their total number reached 28,000 as of 8 p.m. local time,
according to the Armenian government.
The vast majority of an estimated 100,000 people remaining in Karabakh are
expected to follow suit in the coming days and weeks. They too are unwilling to
live under Azerbaijani rule as a result of last week’s Azerbaijani military
offensive.
“We have been hungry for four days,” one of the refugees told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service in the Armenian border town of Goris. The visibly exhausted woman said
she and her family members spent five days at a Russian military base in
Karabakh before being evacuated to Armenia.
ARMENIA -- A refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh holds a child while standing next to
a car upon their arrival in the border village of Kornidzor,, .
Some of the other refugees said they left behind children and other loved ones
who went missing or were seriously wounded and hospitalized during the
Azerbaijani assault that reportedly left dozens of Karabakh Armenian civilians
dead.
All arriving refugees are redirected to a reception center set up by the
government in Goris. Government officials and private charity activists working
there offer them food, temporary housing and other urgent assistance.
Another Karabakh woman, who fled to Armenia together with her children on
Monday, complained that they have still not been provided with any
accommodation. “We are now going into the [Goris] municipality building to see
where they are going to send us,” she said.
In Yerevan, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian reaffirmed the Armenian
government’s pledge to accommodate all Karabakh refugees. In his words, 2,500
refugees have already been sent to their new homes in various parts of Armenia,
while 1,200 others are in the process of receiving government-funded housing.
“The other people [who fled Karabakh] have said that they have somewhere to live
and don’t need our assistance,” Khachatrian told a news conference.
ARMENIA - Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh register at the aid centre in the
border village of Kornidzor, .
Some refugees interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service said they have rejected
government offers to settle in towns or villages close to Armenia’s volatile
border with Azerbaijan. They said they do not want to fear for their safety
anymore.
Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), witnessed the flow of refugees and spoke to some of the displaced
Karabakh Armenians when she visited the Goris area adjacent to the Lachin
corridor on Tuesday.
“The experiences these families have had are harrowing,” she told reporters
there. “Many of them fled their villages under shelling and many who have
arrived here, according to the doctors that we spoke to, are suffering from
severe malnutrition.”
Power announced that the U.S. government will provide $11.5 million in
humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
“This assistance will be used to provide everything from food to psychosocial
support, given the psychological wounds that so many citizens are carrying,” she
said, adding that it will also support “efforts to reunite families” from
Karabakh.
Armenia - USAID chief Samantha Power talks to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh,
.
“There are many unaccompanied children who have crossed into the Republic of
Armenia and it is absolutely urgent that they be reunited with their families,”
explained the U.S. official.
The European Union announced, for its part, a relief aid package worth 5 million
euros ($5.1 million) for Karabakh’s civilian population. An EU statement said
the sum will be spent on providing “cash assistance, shelter, food security and
livelihoods assistance” to up to 25,000 refugees in Armenia. It said similar aid
will be delivered through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to
around 60,000 Karabakh Armenian remaining in their homeland for now.
The ICRC is the only international humanitarian organization which is allowed by
Azerbaijan to operate in Karabakh. Power said Baku must also give other aid
agencies “full and unimpeded access to the Lachin corridor and into villages and
towns of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Armenian Medics Rushed To Karabakh After Deadly Blast
• Tigran Hovsepian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Robert Zargarian
Nagorno-Karabakh - This grab taken from video distributed by Siranush Sargsyan's
Twitter account on Sept. 25, 2023, shows smoke rising after a fuel depot
explosion near Stepanakert.
Azerbaijan allowed Armenian doctors on Tuesday to visit Nagorno-Karabakh to
treat and evacuate scores of people injured in Monday’s powerful explosion at a
fuel depot outside Stepanakert.
Karabakh authorities said at least 20 people were killed and over 270 others
seriously injured and hospitalized as a result of the explosion. They appealed
for urgent medical aid from Armenia, saying that Stepanakert’s two main
hospitals cannot to provide adequate care to all victims due to their limited
capacity and lack of medication.
A team of Armenian doctors flew to Stepanakert early in the morning and
evacuated the first injured Karabakh Armenians by helicopter hours later. They
were transported to hospitals in Yerevan. Three more such flights were carried
out in the following hours.
At least 14 patients were admitted to the Yerevan-based National Center for
Burns and Dermatology in the afternoon. An ambulance driver there said more of
them are on their way to the hospital.
“The team of doctors transported by helicopter from Armenia to Stepanakert with
necessary medicines and medical supplies are currently in the medical
institutions of the [Karabakh] republic and together with local doctors are
providing the necessary medical assistance to all the victims,” read a statement
released by Karabakh health authorities.
Early in the afternoon a convoy of Armenian ambulances escorted by
representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) left
Armenia for Karabakh through the Lachin corridor controlled by Azerbaijani
forces. A senior Azerbaijani official said, meanwhile, that Baku is ready to
open a “medical corridor” to Karabakh for the ICRC.
The precise cause of the blast remained unknown. An official in Stepanakert,
Davit Babayan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the authorities there believe
it was most probably an accident caused by “negligence.” He said they are hardly
in a position to conduct an investigation given the ongoing exodus of Karabakh’s
population to Armenia and Azerbaijan’s takeover of the region.
According to the Armenian government, the number of Karabakh residents who have
fled to Armenia since Sunday surpassed 13,500 by Tuesday morning. The Lachin
road connecting Karabakh to Armenia reportedly remained clogged by hundreds of
vehicles carrying other Karabakh Armenians.
Many Casualties Feared In Karabakh Fuel Depot Blast
Nagorno-Karabakh - A fuel depot outside Stepanakert burns after a powerful
explosion, .
A powerful explosion destroyed a fuel depot near Stepanakert, killing and
injuring many people, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said late on Monday.
They said they are unable to immediately specify the number of casualties or
establish the cause of the explosion at the facility located on a highway
connecting the Karabakh capital to the town of Askeran.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, said more than 200 people
were injured in the explosion. He said that due to their limited capacity and
lack of medication Stepanakert’s two main hospitals cannot to provide adequate
care to all of these people. Many of the critically injured persons need to be
urgently flown to hospitals in Armenia, added Stepanian.
“Active efforts are being made to organize the transportation of the injured to
Armenia by helicopters,” the Armenian Ministry of Health told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service later in the evening.
The blast occurred amid a mass exodus of Karabakh’s population that followed
last week’s Azerbaijani military offensive.
Videos posted on social media showed a long line of cars parked near the depot
that received large quantities of gasoline over the weekend for the first since
Baku blocked traffic through the Lachin corridor last December. Their owners
were apparently waiting to fuel up and drive to Armenia along with their
families. Thousands of other Karabakh Armenians fled to Armenia earlier on
Monday.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Emil Lazarian
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS
U.S. calls on Azerbaijan to safeguard Armenians as thousands flee Karabakh
Reuters
Sept 26 2023
NEAR KORNIDZOR, Armenia, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Hungry and exhausted Armenian families jammed roads to flee homes in the defeated breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the United States called on Azerbaijan to protect civilians and let in aid.
The Armenians of Karabakh – part of Azerbaijan that had been beyond Baku’s control since the dissolution of the Soviet Union – began fleeing this week after their forces were routed in a lightning operation by Azerbaijan’s military.
At least 19,000 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home have already crossed into Armenia, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying, with hundreds of cars and buses crammed with belongings snaking down the mountain road out of Azerbaijan.
Some fled packed into the back of open-topped trucks, others on tractors. Grandmother-of-four Narine Shakaryan arrived in her son-in-law’s old car with six people packed inside. The 77 km (48-mile) drive had taken 24 hours, she said. They had had no food.
“The whole way the children were crying, they were hungry,” Shakaryan told Reuters at the border, carrying her three-year old granddaughter, who she said had become ill during the journey. “We left so we would stay alive, not to live.”
As Armenians rushed to leave the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, fuel stations were overwhelmed by panic buying. The authorities there said at least 20 people were killed and 290 injured in a massive blaze when a fuel storage facility blew up on Monday.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power, in the Armenian capital Yerevan, called on Azerbaijan “to maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Power, who earlier handed Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a letter of support from U.S. President Joe Biden, said Azerbaijan’s use of force was unacceptable and that Washington was looking at an appropriate response.
She called on Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to live up to his promise to protect ethnic Armenian rights, fully reopen the Lachin corridor that connects the region to Armenia and let in aid deliveries and an international monitoring mission.
Aliyev has pledged to guarantee the safety of Karabakh’s Armenians but said his iron fist had consigned the idea of the region’s independence to history.
“It is absolutely critical that independent monitors as well as humanitarian organisations get access to the people in Nagorno-Karabakh who still have dire needs,” Power later said during a visit to the village of Kornidzor on the Azeri border.
She also announced $11.5 million in emergency U.S. aid for Karabakh.
Asked if she believed Azerbaijani forces had committed atrocities against civilians or combatants in Karabakh, she said: “We have heard very troubling reports of violence against civilians. At the same time given the chaos here and the trauma, the gathering of testimonies… of the people who have come across is something that is just beginning.”
Ethnic Armenians who managed to get to Armenia have given harrowing accounts of fleeing death, war and hunger.
Some said they saw many dead civilians – one said truckloads. Others, some with young children, broke down in tears as they described a tragic odyssey of running from war, sleeping on the ground and with hunger churning in their bellies.
“We took what we could and left. We don’t know where we’re going. We have nowhere to go,” Petya Grigoryan, a 69-year-old driver, told Reuters in the border town of Goris on Sunday.
Reuters was unable to independently verify accounts of the military operation inside Karabakh. Azerbaijan has said it targeted only Karabakh fighters.
The Azerbaijani victory changes the balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are jostling for influence.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia had relied on a security partnership with Russia, while Azerbaijan grew close to Turkey, with which it shares linguistic and cultural ties.
Armenia has lately sought closer ties with the West and blames Russia, which had peacekeepers in Karabakh but is now preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, for failing to protect Karabakh. Moscow denies blame and has told Pashinyan that he is making a big mistake by flirting with the United States.
The Kremlin said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin discussed the Karabakh situation on Tuesday with President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, which shares borders with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Aliyev hinted on Monday at the prospect of creating a land corridor to Turkey across Armenia. Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, who met Aliyev on Monday, said on Tuesday such a corridor must be completed.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the United States, told Washington to stop stoking anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia.
Reporting by Felix Light NEAR KORNIDZOR, Armenia, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones; Editing by Peter Graff and Alex Richardson
https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-us-trade-diplomatic-blame-over-instability-karabakh-crisis-2023-09-26/
Nagorno-Karabakh representatives, Azeri authorities hold second meeting, third round set to take place in Stepanakert
18:26,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Nagorno-Karabakh representatives and Azerbaijani authorities held their second meeting today in Ivanyan (Khojaly.)
According to a statement released by the Azeri government, issues related to a number of humanitarian issues were discussed.
An agreement was reached to hold another meeting in the coming days. The third meeting will be held in Stepanakert. Azerbaijan will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev at the meeting.
THOUSANDS LEAVING ARTSAKH
WAITING TO LEAVE ARTSAKH: Children were among the displaced Artsakh residents waiting to leave for Armenia
Thousands of displaced Artsakh residents starting leaving to Armenia over the weekend and continuing on Monday, a week after the large-scale Azerbaijani military offensive aimed at forcing Baku’s complete control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government said that some 6,650 people crossed into Armenia through the Lachin Corridor as of 5 p.m. local time. The Artsakh Armenians were being escorted by Russian peacekeepers.
Yerevan pledged to provide accommodations to the Artsakh residents entering Armenia.
Artsakh authorities urged the region’s remaining population to stay put for now to allow the displaced residents and the injured to leave first.
“All citizens who wish to move from Artsakh to Armenia will have that opportunity,” a statement from the Artsakh government said.
“The authorities of Artsakh will continue to remain in place and carry out state administration until they fully complete the transfer of citizens wishing to travel to Armenia,” added the statement.
The Artsakh authorities opened depot to distribute free fuel to Artsakh residents planning to travel by car.
An explosion in one such fuel distribution center rocked Stepanakert Monday night, with reportedly 200 severely injured people and fatalities.
The explosion complicated an already fraught situation in and around the capital, as those rush to leave created massive traffic jams along the roads leading to and including the Lachin Corridor.
Azerbaijani seems to have depopulated the Martakert region.
The mayor of the northern Karabakh town of Martakert, Misha Gyurjyan, told Azatutyun.am that Azerbaijani troops entered the region on Sunday night after its entire population headed to Stepanakert in a convoy of about a thousand vehicles. He said that “quite a few” Martakert civilians went missing during the September 19-20 hostilities and remain unaccounted for.
People from Martakert and nearby villages were among the refugees who arrived on Monday morning in the Armenian border town of Goris where they were received by aid workers redirecting them to their new places of residents.
“We are from the village of Gandzasar,” said one of them. “The Azerbaijanis are already there. The village suffered many casualties.”
Two other Martakert women said they lost contact with their children during the fighting and still do not know their whereabouts. As one of the mothers explained, “I was at our military positions during the fighting. When I left them I couldn’t get home because the roads were blocked,” Azatutyun.am reported.
The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement on Monday saying that its peacekeeping contingent continued to take steps to stabilize the situation in Artsakh.
“The absolute priority of all our efforts is to prevent a new outbreak of armed confrontation and casualties among civilians,” the statement said.
The Russian peacekeeping contingent has provided massive humanitarian support to the Armenian population. Over the past two days, they have delivered 125 tons of humanitarian aid and 65 tons of fuel to the region, the statement added.
There are now around 700 displaced Artsakh residents at the Russian peacekeeping headquarters at the Stepanakert airport, of whom 400 are children.
“We hope that the positive results of this process will contribute to the speedy resumption of work on the implementation of the set of agreements between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia for 2020-2022, including the unblocking of transport communications, the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the coordination of a peace treaty and the development of humanitarian contacts,” the Russian foreign ministry statement said.
Following Azerbaijan’s military offensive, most ethnic Armenians ‘want to leave’ Nagorno-Karabakh – Video
France 24
Sept 23 2023
The ethnic Armenian leadership of breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh said on Friday that there was no agreement yet with Azerbaijan on security guarantees or an amnesty after a lightning Azeri offensive forced them into a humiliating ceasefire deal. The future of Karabakh and its 120,000 ethnic Armenians hangs in the balance: Azerbaijan wants to integrate the long-contested region, but ethnic Armenians say they fear they will be persecuted and have accused the world of abandoning them. To share a glimpse of the harrowing plight of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenians, FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza is joined by Ruben Vardanyan, Former State Minister of Artsakh.
Number of Nagorno-Karabakh refugees in Armenia reaches 2906
08:57,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. The number of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh who’ve arrived to Armenia reached 2906 as of 06:00, September 25, the government of Armenia said in a statement.
Registration data of 2100 of the 2906 forcibly displaced persons has been completed, while the needs assessment for the 794 others is in process.
1000 of the 2100 registered persons are accommodated in residences chosen by themselves, while the 1100 others have been provided accommodation by the government of Armenia. The accommodation process of a part of the refugees is still ongoing.
The flow of the forcibly displaced persons continued throughout the whole night. The registration process for needs assessment and accommodation continued overnight and is still in process.
Armenian, Indian foreign ministers discuss South Caucasus security and stability
10:07,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. On September 24, in New York, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India.
Issues of security and stability in the South Caucasus were discussed, the foreign ministry said in a readout.
FM Ararat Mirzoyan stressed that Azerbaijan’s continuous aggression and the large-scale military attack against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh unleashed on September 19, that was preceded by the 9-months-long blockade of the Lachin corridor and total siege of Nagorno-Karabakh, once again demonstrated the importance of concrete steps by international partners.
The imperative of restraining the steps aimed at destabilisation of the region was emphasised.
Bilateral agenda between Armenia and India was touched upon.
Armenia’s territorial integrity is threatened, warns French President and vows support
11:26,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. France is highly vigilant in issues concerning Armenia’s territorial integrity and stands by the Armenian people, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
In an interview for BFM channel, the French President spoke about the September 19-20 large-scale Azeri attack in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“In the past days we witnessed unacceptable crimes and hostilities taking place in Karabakh,” he said, adding that France will continue to mobilize around humanitarian issues in order to provide humanitarian aid to the population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We are providing political support, in order for it to be possible to reach lasting peace through negotiations,” President Macron said.
He warned that Armenia’s territorial integrity is now in danger.
“Today, France is highly vigilant in the issue of Armenia’s territorial integrity, because this is what’s threatened. We now have Russia, who is complicit with Azerbaijan, there’s Turkey, who has always supported its [Azerbaijan’s] actions,” Macron warned, adding that France stands by the Armenian people and international law.
France Concerned Over Armenia’s ‘Territorial Integrity’: Macron
BARRON’S
Sept 24 2023
- FROM AFP NEWS
France is keeping a close eye on the territorial integrity of Armenia after Azerbaijan’s offensive to take full control of the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, accusing Baku of “threatening” Armenian borders.
“France is right now very vigilant concerning the territorial integrity of Armenia. Because that’s what’s at stake,” Macron said in a televised interview
He added that Russia was now “complicit” with Baku while Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey “has always been a supporter of its (Azerbaijan’s) actions”.
Armenia has publicly distanced itself from its traditional ally Russia, which has failed to show any concrete support for Yerevan in the current conflict.
Macron said that the Azerbaijan authorities were now “uninhibited” and “threatening the border of Armenia.”
The ethnically Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but has been run by a separatist administration for three decades.
Azerbaijan already regained control of part of Karabakh in a 2020 war and now appears set on taking the rest of the territory.
Yerevan said on Sunday that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will hold a pre-arranged meeting in Spain next month but Macron made no mention of this summit.
“We will provide political support so that a lasting peace that can be negotiated,” said Macron.
PM hints that Armenia can’t rely on Russia’s protection amid Karabakh debacle
The Kyiv Independent
Sept 24 2023
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hinted on Sept. 24 that his country can no longer rely on Russia’s protection after the Azerbaijani army quickly defeated ethnic Armenian forces in the restive Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“The recent attacks on Armenia by Azerbaijan allow us to draw an obvious conclusion that the external security systems in which we are involved are not effective from the point of view of state interests and the country’s security,” he said in a public comment on TV.
Armenia belongs to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military bloc.
Moscow has sent “peacekeepers” to the region but they had very little impact on Azerbaijan’s military strike. Hundreds are believed to have died and there were widely publicized images of Armenians fleeing through Russia’s own peacekeeping base.
Several of these “peacekeepers” were killed, Moscow later admitted.
This may be reportedly causing an upswell of anti-Russian feelings in Armenia. It is also being reported as a sign of Russia’s waning influence in the lands of the former Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, Pashinyan’s chief of staff, Araik Harutyunyan, charged that Russian media is already waging a hybrid disinformation war against his country.
In his Facebook account, Harutyanyan cited an example of a fake story, in which protesters in Yerevan supposedly broke into a government building and saw American airborne troops inside.
In reality, no protesters stormed government buildings that day, he added.
On Sept. 20, Nagorno-Karabakh surrendered to the Azerbaijani military in exchange for a Russian-brokered ceasefire after one day of attacks by Azerbaijani forces.
Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as Azerbaijani territory under international law. Its population of 120,000 is predominantly Armenian.
The territory declared independence in 1991 with Yerevan’s military support. Until 2020, Armenia de facto controlled Nagorno-Karabakh together with the surrounding regions.
In 2021 Azerbaijani forces also invaded several internationally recognized Armenian territories in the east of the country and are still occupying them.
Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh came amid deteriorating relations between Armenia and Russia. Speculation is rife that the Kremlin has intentionally allowed Azerbaijan to defeat Nagorno-Karabakh in an effort to unseat Pashinyan, who has flirted with the West.
On Sept. 11, Armenian and U.S. forces started joint military exercises.
Moscow reacted negatively to the exercises. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he does not expect “anything good” to come out of the drills.
On Sept. 1, the Armenian government also sent the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to the parliament for ratification.
The move irritated Russia because the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Russia has called Armenia’s intention to ratify the statute “unacceptable” and warned about “extremely negative consequences.”
Meanwhile, Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has threatened that the Kremlin could launch an invasion of Armenia and Georgia.