09:57,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. The situation in the direction of Sotk was “tense” as of 09:50 amid the Azerbaijani gunfire, the Ministry of Defense said in an update.
The Azerbaijani military has been shelling Armenian positions near Sotk since 06:00, May 11.
Three Armenian servicemen have been wounded in the attack.
The Ministry of Defense said it will issue updates on the condition of the wounded troops.
10:33,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. The number of wounded Armenian troops in the May 11 Azeri attack has reached 4, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported.
The wounded troops are in non-life threatening condition.
As of 10:25 the tension in the direction of Sotk was reducing.
The situation was relatively stable in other parts of the border as of 10:25.
The Azerbaijani military has been shelling Armenian positions near Sotk since 06:00, May 11.
10:34,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Azerbaijan is explicitly disregarding the foreign ministerial talks held in Washington D.C., as well as the planned meetings in Brussels and Moscow with its latest aggressive actions.
Below is the full statement issued by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on May 11 after Azerbaijani forces attacked Armenian positions in Sotk.
“In the early morning of May 11 Azerbaijani armed forces, once again resorting to provocative and aggressive actions, opened fire on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia using mortars and artillery. There are wounded on the Armenian side.
These repeated violations of one of the fundamental principles of international law – the non-use of force or the threat of force – demonstrate contempt of the Azerbaijani side for the agreements, including the obligations assumed by the Trilateral Statement of Sochi on October 31, 2022.
These actions of Azerbaijan, aimed at destabilising the situation, are also an open disregard for the meeting held in Washington, the meetings planned in Brussels and Moscow, aimed at the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the efforts made by international partners interested in stability and peace in the South Caucasus.
We call on the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan to stop the groundless, unjustified and shameful attempts aimed at disrupting the negotiation process by using force and thereby exerting pressure on Armenia.”
11:26,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on May 11 that there is little chance of Armenia and Azerbaijan signing a peace treaty on May 14 in Brussels.
He said that despite the May 11 Azeri aggression against Armenia, he will travel to Brussels for a meeting with Azerbaijani leader Aliyev, as planned.
“First of all I’d like to answer a question. How likely is it for a peace treaty with Azerbaijan to be signed Sunday? Unfortunately, there’s very little possibility for that, because the draft bilateral agreement on peace and interstate relations still has a very preliminary form, and it is still too early to speak about signing it. On the other hand, we need to mature this document as soon as possible and prepare it for signing,” the Armenian PM said at the Cabinet meeting.
18:30,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. On May 11, 9 patients in serious condition were transferred from Artsakh to Armenian specialized medical centers by an ambulance accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, and another 21 are still waiting for their transfer, ARMENPRESS reports, the Ministry of Healthcare of Artsakh informs.
“Considering that since April 29, due to the obstacles caused by the Azerbaijani side, the International Committee of the Red Cross has stopped the transportation of Artsakh’s patients to Armenia, as a result of which 30 patients were deprived of the opportunity of transportation, the Artsakh side had to turn to the support of Russian peacekeepers for transporting those patients needing urgent medical intervention to Armenian medical facilities in order to save their lives. And the remaining 21 patients are under the supervision of Artsakh doctors, who are taking all possible measures to prevent further deterioration of their health condition,” the ministry informed.
Artsakh’s Healthcare Ministry stressed the importance of urgently restoring the humanitarian transportation of patients and medicines carried out by the Red Cross, without any hindrance or supervisory intervention by the Azerbaijani side.
ICRC has not carried out humanitarian transportations since April 29.
12:22,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that with its latest actions in the direction of Sotk, Azerbaijan is calling into question the fundamental agreements that have been reached on 6 October 2022 in Prague and 31 October in Sochi.
“These documents emphasize that Armenia and Azerbaijan are recognizing each other’s territorial integrity based on the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. The questions that arises in this context is the following: If Azerbaijan recognizes Armenia’s territorial integrity, then why does it fire on the sovereign territory of our country, especially when the sides should refrain from the use of force or the threat of force under the 2022 Sochi trilateral statement. Today, Azerbaijan again grossly violated these written, public agreements and generally it is difficult to recall any joint document that Azerbaijan hasn’t violated so far,” Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
Armenian News Calendar of events
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What: “Strengthening the Armenian Village Through Deep Engagement”
A lecture in Armenian presented by Aida and Asbed Pogharian
When: Thursday May 18, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Crescenta Valley Meher & Satig Der Ohanessian Youth Center Hall
2633 Honolulu Ave. Montrose, CA 91020
Misc: Aida and Asbed are a diasporan couple who will share their experiences in bringing about
positive change in the village of Gosh in Armenia. In 2019, they toured Armenia for a month,
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presentation, they will talk about the numerous projects they have accomplished so far
and their impacts on the village.
We invite the greater community to attend this free presentation.
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20:35,
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. On May 10, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received Igor Khovaev, the Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the special representative of the Russian Foreign Minister for supporting the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, issues related to security and stability in the region were discussed at the meeting.
Minister Mirzoyan referred to the positions of the Armenian side regarding fundamental issues within the framework of the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The need for effective action by partners interested in the stability in the South Caucasus was reaffirmed in the context of the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor in violation of the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020, and the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
PanARMENIAN.Net – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been unable to transfer patients from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia for 11 days now, head of communication programs at the ICRC’s delegation in Armenia Zara Amatuni has said, according to Sputnik Armenia.
Amatuni’s remarks came two weeks after Azerbaijan established a checkpoint on the road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
Armenia said the checkpoint at the Hakari bridge in the Lachin corridor was a gross violation of the 2020 cease-fire agreement which ended a 2020 war.
Since December 12, the sole road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia – the Lachin Corridor – has been blocked by self-described Azerbaijani environmentalists, who have now replaced by the Azerbaijani military. Karabakh residents have reported food and fuel shortages, while hospital patients don’t have access to essential medicines, with only a handful allowed transfer to facilities in Armenia proper.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold talks in Brussels on Sunday (14 May), the European Union said, amid efforts to reach a peace deal over their three-decade territorial dispute.
European Council president Charles Michel will host Armenia’s Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev as part of the push “to promote stability in the South Caucasus and normalisation between the two countries”, a statement said Monday.
The meeting in Brussels comes after the United States said “tangible progress” was made towards a peace agreement to end the dispute over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh at talks between their foreign ministers in Washington last week.
Pashinyan and Aliyev have held several rounds of talks, generally organised by the EU or Russia, but have failed to resolve outstanding difficulties, including border demarcation and access to areas across each other’s territory.
The EU statement said the two leaders had also agreed to meet together with the leaders of France and Germany on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova on 1 June.
They in addition committed to meeting in Brussels “as frequently as necessary to address ongoing developments on the ground”, the statement said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were both republics of the Soviet Union and gained their independence when it broke up in 1991.
The two sides have gone to war twice over disputed territories, mainly Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.
Tens of thousands were killed in the wars, one lasting six years and ending in 1994, and the second in 2020, which ended in a Russia-negotiated ceasefire deal.
But clashes have broken out regularly since then.
Azerbaijan has injected new tensions by placing a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor, the only land link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia views the move as a violation of a ceasefire negotiated between the two sides.
The Western mediation efforts come as major regional power Moscow has struggled to maintain its decisive influence due to the fallout from its war on Ukraine.
The Kremlin has insisted there is “no alternative” to the ceasefire deal it signed with the two warring neighbours in 2020 that saw Russian peacekeepers deployed on the ground.
Pashinyan is visiting Moscow on Tuesday to attend the 9 May parade dedicated to the victory in World War II.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)