Author: Hagop Kamalian

                                        Monday, 

Most Karabakh Residents Displaced By Fighting

        • Marine Khachatrian

NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A medical worker talks to a sick woman in a bomb shelter in 
Stepanakert, October 22, 2020

Nearly 60 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population has been forced to flee homes 
since the start of the war with Azerbaijan one month ago, an official in 
Stepanakert said on Monday.

Artak Beglarian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, said an estimated 90,000 
ethnic Armenian civilians have been relocated to other parts of Karabakh or have 
taken refuge in Armenia due to Azerbaijan’s shelling of their towns and 
villages. They are enduring serious hardship despite food and other relief aid 
delivered to them by the Armenian and Karabakh governments as well as private 
charities, Beglarian told reporters.

The shelling has targeted Stepanakert and most other Karabakh communities, 
causing extensive damage to local homes and public infrastructure. Most of 
Stepanakert’s remaining residents now live in basements and other bomb shelters.

The vast majority of the displaced people are women, children and elderly 
persons. Those who have fled to Armenia are typically staying with their 
relatives or in temporary shelters made available by the government.

Among them are Nanar Karapetian and her two young sons. They lived in the town 
of Shushi until the outbreak of the war on September 27.

Like many other Karabakh men, Karapetian’s husband is a military officer who is 
now fighting against Azerbaijani forces on the battlefield. “My brothers, 
cousins, husband’s brothers are also on the frontline,” the young woman told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service in Yerevan.

“All I want is peace so we can return to our homes,” she added.

“I miss my town, I miss my dad, and I want us to go back home soon,” said 
Karapetian’s 7-year-old son, Manvel.

According to Beglarian’s office, the fighting has left nearly 40 Karabakh 
civilians dead so far. One of them lived in a village near Stepanakert that was 
reportedly shelled on Monday despite an Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement 
brokered by the United States.

The hostilities have also affected many residents of Azerbaijani cities and 
villages north and east of Karabakh. The Azerbaijani authorities have reported 
more than 60 deaths among them.



Armenia Expects U.S. Reaction To Another Collapse Of Karabakh Ceasefire


ARMENIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian gives an interview to TASS 
Russian news agency, in Yerevan, October 19, 2020

Armenia urged the United States on Monday to react strongly to what it called 
Azerbaijan’s failure to respect yet another agreement to stop the war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh which was brokered by Washington.
“It’s now clear that once again it has not proved possible to implement a 
ceasefire [agreement,]” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in a video address 
to the nation aired in the evening. “I cannot say at this point what the 
reaction of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries [the U.S., Russia and 
France] and their presidents will be. But you must know that the Armenian side 
has done everything to adhere to the ceasefire.”

“I hope that official representatives of the U.S. will answer these questions. 
Have they clarified as a result of whose actions the ceasefire has been 
violated? If so, what consequences will there be for the party that has violated 
it?” he said.

Pashinian charged that Azerbaijan is continuing its offensive military 
operations in the conflict zone because it wants to force Armenia and Karabakh 
to capitulate. The Armenian side has been “maximally flexible” in negotiations 
mediated by the U.S., Russia and France and prepared to agree to a “painful” 
compromise-based solution to the Karabakh conflict, he said, adding that it now 
has no choice but to continue fighting against the “Azerbaijani aggression.”

The conflicting parties began accusing each other of ceasefire violations 
shortly after the U.S.-brokered agreement went into force at 8 a.m. local time.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said early in the afternoon that Azerbaijani 
forces have launched an assault on frontline positions of Karabakh’s 
Armenian-backed army in southeastern Karabakh. It reported heavy fighting there 
in the following hours.

“Starting from 5 p.m. the intensity of fire along the border of Artsakh 
(Karabakh) has sharply increased,” a ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, 
wrote on Facebook. She said the Azerbaijani army is using heavy artillery and 
tanks against Karabakh positions and civilian areas.

Speaking in the morning, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he has ordered 
his troops to show “restraint” despite what he described as Armenian 
“provocations” on the frontlines.

Aliyev also hit out at the U.S., Russian and French mediators, saying that they 
are now trying to “save Armenia.” “If they want a ceasefire then let them tell 
Armenia to leave our lands,” he said in televised remarks. “If that doesn’t 
happen we will go till the end.”



Russia Hails U.S. Mediation On Karabakh

        • Aza Babayan

RUSSIA -- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends Russian President Vladimir 
Putin's annual life-broadcasted news conference with Russian and foreign media 
at the World Trade Center in Moscow, Russia, 19 December 2019

Russia welcomed on Monday U.S. efforts to stop hostilities in and around 
Nagorno-Karabakh which have resulted in yet another Armenian-Azerbaijani 
ceasefire agreement.

Commenting on the U.S.-brokered agreement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 
“The process of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, which is in an 
acute phase, must not and cannot be a scene of any rivalry or competition 
[between world powers.]”

“Certainly, Russia, as a co-chair of the [OSCE Minsk] group, is ready to welcome 
any steps that will help to stop the war,” Peskov told journalists.

The latest truce agreement was announced late on Sunday after talks held by the 
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington with top U.S. 
administration officials and the American, Russian and French diplomats 
co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.

Speaking ahead of the Washington talks, Russian President Vladimir Putting Putin 
expressed hope that the United States will contribute to Russian efforts to get 
the conflicting parties to respect a ceasefire agreement that was brokered by 
Moscow on October 10.

A similar “humanitarian” truce agreement brokered by France on October 17 has 
also not been observed.

Peskov said that Moscow is continuing to closely monitor the situation in the 
Karabakh conflict zone. “We still believe that there can only be a peaceful 
solution to this problem,” said Putin’s spokesman.



Fighting Reported In Karabakh Conflict Zone After Another Truce Accord


NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Members of the Karabakh Ministry of Emergency Situations 
search for unexploded cluster bombs on the outskirts of Stepanakert, October 20, 
2020

Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each of violating a U.S.-brokered ceasefire 
agreement following its entry into force on Monday morning.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said Azerbaijani forces shelled frontline 
positions of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army in northeastern and southeastern 
Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said, for its part, that its troops came under 
Armenian artillery fire at several sections of the “line of contact” around 
Karabakh.” It claimed that Armenian forces also shelled Azerbaijani residential 
areas northeast of Karabakh.

“The Azerbaijani side is demonstrating restraint,” a senior aide to Azerbaijan's 
President Ilham Aliyev told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The Karabakh Armenian army strongly denied violating the truce, saying that Baku 
is “preparing ground for further provocations” with claims to the contrary.

“The Armenian side continues to strictly adhere to the ceasefire regime,” 
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian wrote on Facebook about two hours after 
the truce agreement took effect at 8 a.m. local time.

“Despite some provocations, the ceasefire is largely holding,” Pashinian wrote 
at midday.

Two hours later, the Karabakh Defense Army said that Azerbaijani troops have 
launched an attack on its frontline positions in southeastern Karabakh. It said 
its forces are now trying to repel the attack.

The truce agreement was announced late on Sunday following a series of talks 
held by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington with top 
U.S. officials and American, Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE 
Minsk Group.

In a late-night tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Pashinian and 
Aliyev on the deal.

Russia and France already brokered similar Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire 
agreements on October 10 and October 17 respectively. They did not stop 
hostilities in and around Karabakh, with the warring sides accusing each other 
of not respecting it.



Armenia, Azerbaijan Again Agree To Ceasefire


NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A fragment of an artillery shell at the fighting positions 
of ethnic Armenian soldiers on the front line during a military conflict against 
Azerbaijan's armed forces, October 20, 2020.

Armenia and Azerbaijan reached late on Sunday another agreement to halt 
hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone after holding talks in 
Washington mediated by the United States.

“The humanitarian ceasefire will take effect at 08:00 a.m. local time (12:00 
a.m. EDT) on ,” the U.S., Armenian and Azerbaijani governments 
said in a joint statement.

“The United States facilitated intensive negotiations among the [Armenian and 
Azerbaijani] Foreign Ministers and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to move Armenia and 
Azerbaijan closer to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” 
added the statement.

The U.S., Russian and French co-chairs said separately that they and U.S. Deputy 
Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun held a joint meeting with the two ministers 
in Washington on Saturday. They said they discussed “possible parameters for 
monitoring the ceasefire and initiating discussion of core substantive elements 
of a comprehensive solution” to the Karabakh conflict.

“The Co-Chairs and Foreign Ministers agreed to meet again in Geneva on October 
29 to discuss, reach agreement on, and begin implementation, in accordance with 
a timeline to be agreed upon, of all steps necessary to achieve a peaceful 
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the basic 
principles accepted by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia,” read a statement 
released by the mediators.

On Friday Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and his Azerbaijani 
counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov also separate talks with U.S. Secretary of State 
Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

"Under the president’s direction, we have spent the entire weekend trying to 
broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia has accepted a ceasefire. 
Azerbaijan has not yet,” O’Brien told CBS earlier on Sunday.

“We are pushing them [Azerbaijan] to do so,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump also commented on the Karabakh war as he spoke at an 
election campaign rally in New Hampshire. “Armenia, they are incredible people, 
they are fighting like hell and … we’re going to get something done,” he said.

“We’ll get that sorted out … I call that an easy one,” Trumped added, referring 
to the fighting. He did not elaborate.

Russia and France already brokered similar Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire 
agreements on October 10 and October 17 respectively. The agreements did not 
stop hostilities in and around Karabakh, with the warring sides accusing each 
other of not respecting it.

Speaking before the announcement of the fresh truce accord on Sunday, 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the mediating powers should put pressure 
on Armenia if they want to stop the war.

“We have one condition: if the countries that have supported Armenia and created 
for almost 30 years conditions for its occupation of our lands want a ceasefire 
they must put pressure on Armenia,” Aliyev said, according to TASS. “The 
Armenian prime minister must state that his country will leave the occupied 
territories. We haven’t heard such a statement.”


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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