On November 1, during the military actions the military units of the Artsakh Defense Army captured the second terrorist fighter employed by the Azerbaijani side in the military hostilities against Artsakh, who introduced himself as Yusuf Alaabet al-Hajji, a resident of the village of Ziyadiya in the Jisr al-Shughur region of Idlib province of Syria.
Another terrorist fighter captured by the Artsakh Defense Army on October 30 introduced himself as Mehrab Muhammad Al-Shkheir from the Syrian city of Hama.
“The Armenian side has repeatedly voiced out about the recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters and jihadists by Turkey from various “hot spots” in the Middle East, particularly from Libya and the areas under its control in Syria, and their subsequent transfer and deployment to the region with the purpose of committing atrocities against the people of Artsakh,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a Statement.
It noted that the above-mentioned fact is not merely confirmed by the intelligence services of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, a number of our partners and international community, but also by the direct testimonies of the terrorists.
“In their testimonies the above-mentioned terrorists provided detailed information about their recruitment process, the expected monthly payment for fighting against “kafirs” (infidels), the extra payment for each beheaded “infidel”, as well as about their envisaged terroristic plans. The transfer of jihadists to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone reveals the intentions of the Turkish-Azerbaijani leadership to give the conflict an inter-religious character,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
It said “this is a completely new manifestation of expansion of terrorism, when foreign terrorist fighters and jihadists from the Middle East have been deployed to the conflict zone in the OSCE area; it is a serious threat to the international and regional security and stability.”
“Armenia will continue to undertake consistent steps in the fight against international terrorism, in that regard cooperating with all interested partners,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Air raid siren activated in Artsakh’s Stepanakert, explosions are heard – DEVELOPING
18:39, 1 November, 2020
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Air raid siren is activated in Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert, a number of explosions were heard, the correspondent of ARMENPRESS informs from Stepanakert.
18:38 – The State Service of the Emergency Situations of Artsakh informed ARMENPRESS that the air defense units of Artsakh have destroyed an Azerbaijani drone.
18:49 – Air raid siren in Stepanakert deactivated.
19:36 – Air raid siren activated, nearly 4 explosions were heard.
19:39 – Air raid siren is deactivated.
23:07 – Air raid siren again activated.
23:18 – Air raid siren deactivated.
Chairpersons and members of Turkey’s leading economic civil society organizations and Azerbaijani officials will come together for a meeting in Baku tomorrow.
The meeting will be organized by the Turkish Trade and Industry Chamber (Türk TSO) and chaired by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).
The special-agenda visit to the Caspian nation comes as part of Turkey’s wider support for Baku amid its efforts to liberate the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
The business delegation will include TOBB Chairman Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, who also heads Türk TSO, Confederation of Turkish Tradesman and Craftsman (TESK) Chairperson Bendevi Palandöken, Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-Iş) Chairperson Ergün Atalay, Ali Yalçın – who heads Turkey’s largest civil servants’ union Memur-Sen, Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) Chairperson Önder Kahveci, Hak-Iş Trade Union Confederation Chair Mahmut Arslan, Metin Demir – a supervisory board member of the Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TISK) and other TOBB members.
Along with Turkey and Azerbaijan, representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan will also participate in the meeting.
Secretary-General of the Turkic Council, Ambassador Baghdad Amreyev, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikail Cabbarov and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ramiz Hasanov are also expected to participate in the meeting.
TOBB’s Hisarcıklıoğlu is also expected to be received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Türk TSO was established under the Turkic Council with an agreement signed in Kazakhstan’s capital on May 17, 2019. The permanent secretariat of the organization is located in Istanbul.
Turkey’s foreign minister arrived in Azerbaijan on Sunday for talks over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku’s arch-enemy Armenia requested security assistance from Russia.
“We are once again in Baku with our brothers to renew our strong support for dear Azerbaijan and exchange on the latest developments in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.
On Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan formally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin consultations on security assistance, invoking the two countries’ defense pact.
Pashinyan said hostilities were approaching Armenia’s borders and reiterated that Turkey was backing Baku.
Moscow’s defense pact with Armenia does not extend to Nagorno-Karabakh and Russia said Saturday that “necessary” help would be provided if the fighting reaches Armenian territory.
At the same time, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “concrete formats” of assistance to Armenia would be discussed.
Armenia’s request for assistance from Moscow further raised fears of Russia and Turkey getting sucked into the decades-old conflict over Karabakh.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in fierce fighting for more than a month over Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian separatists in the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Fighting continued overnight and Sunday morning, the warring sides said.
The Karabakh separatist leadership accused Azerbaijan of striking civilian settlements including the strategic town of Shusha.
“In the morning the enemy forces renewed offensive operations,” the Karabakh army said.
The Azerbaijani defence ministry for its part accused Armenian forces of targeting its army and civilian settlements on Saturday and overnight.
More than 1,200 people from both sides have been reported killed in the fighting but the death toll is believed to be substantially higher.
Le 28 octobre, les forces armées azerbaïdjanaises ont frappé plus de 15 fois en direction de Stepanakert et dans différentes parties de la ville de Shushi, ciblant délibérément des établissements résidentiels et publics et un centre de maternité.
Le CICR, ainsi que des milliers de civils, ont été témoins aujourd’hui de bombardements massifs des deux côtés de la ligne de front, qui ont fait des morts et des blessés. Martin Schupp, directeur régional pour l’Eurasie au Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, a tiré la sonnette d’alarme.
October 29, 2020
OSCE Minks Group mediators meet with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan in Moscow on Oct. 13
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
The so-called Madrid Principles, based on which the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs have been mediating a settlement to the Karabakh conflict served as a blueprint for Azerbaijan to launch an aggressive attack on Artsakh beginning on September 27.
Since then Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev has wasted no opportunity to tell the world, including over last weekend during an interview with Fox News, that since the settlement of the conflict, in his view, was stalling he was exercising his right to settle the conflict based on the very provisions—or steps—outlined in the Madrid Principles.
First discussed in 2007, Madrid Principles set forth a proposed formula which calls for Artsakh’s up-front surrender of seven regions of its sovereign territory in return for only a vague promise that Azerbaijan will allow a future “_expression_ of will” that would determine its status, setting the stage for continued conflict and increased regional instability.
These principles, which tepidly were accepted by the sides as the basis for the negotiations, essentially were designed to appease Azerbaijan.
Since the 2016 April War, and subsequent violations of the 1994 ceasefire agreement by Azerbaijan, the Madrid Principles were never amended to require security guarantees for the people of Artsakh. Furthermore, Baku did not have to pay a price for its brutal aggression in the 2016 war and subsequent—and continued—violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Instead what Aliyev adopted as his motto were declarations that Azerbaijan would militarily resolve the conflict, including the “liberation of Yerevan,” which he called historic Azerbaijani territory. To add to this equation, Aliyev declared all Armenians around the world to be “enemies of Azerbaijan,” based on which he adopted what has become known as Armenophobic hysteria throughout his country.
Before 2016, of course, among many examples, was the Safarov affair, which saw an ax-murderer being treated as a national hero for killing an Armenian soldier in his sleep.
None of this gave pause to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, because they were determined to mediate a settlement based on the Madrid Principles. Their false parity when it came to warnings to the sides became commonplace. Their turning a deaf ear to the military threats from Baku became the norm. The co-chairs were not even moved to act when Aliyev went on national television in July and called them “useless” and challenged their authority by saying “who are these co-chairs to tell me I can’t get what I want through military means.”
Not even a week after that broadcast, Azerbaijani forces brazenly attacked civilian and military targets in Armenia. A week later, Turkey and Azerbaijan held military exercises for a week very near to the Artsakh border. It’s become evident that Turkey left behind its military equipment in Azerbaijan, including U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and other heavy artillery all in preparation for what was to come in September.
The September 27 attacks didn’t even move the Minsk Group co-chairs, who in their first statement, expressed “concern” for the escalation of violence and urged “both sides” to observe the ceasefire.
Today, three ceasefire agreements later, each being brokered by one of the co-chairing countries, has been violated by Azerbaijan. Yet still the mediators are calling on “all sides” to adhere to the agreements, because their bible—the Madrid Principles—awaits another round of negotiations despite the war crimes committed against the people of Artsakh and regardless of the fact that Turkey has entered the conflict, backed by mercenaries, who are becoming active players in the region.
Baku’s actions have gone unchecked for so long that Aliyev thought he could put into action all his threats, because, at the end of the day, principles on which a settlement would be negotiated would give Azerbaijan the upper hand.
On Thursday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced that Yerevan’s top diplomat will be traveling to Geneva Friday to meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs. The Foreign Ministry also said that the implementation of the ceasefire agreements reached during the past three weeks would be the only topic of discussion at this meeting.
It has been proven, time and again, that the Madrid Principles can only cause instability and become a real threat to regional security. At the same time these principles also give carte blanche to Azerbaijan to advance war and perpetuate the bloodshed that is now threatening the very existence of Artsakh.
22:26,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani army, reinforced by Turkish and terrorist forces, have lost their great quantitative and technological advantage in the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports representative of the MoD Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan said during a press conference.
”The nature of the war has somehow changed. Our Armed Forces carry out difficult battles in mountains, forests and gorges. A number of subversive groups have been neutralized today, some others fled abandoning some military equipment, but this war is somehow complicated in its nature. The adversary has lost its huge quantitative and technological advantage. The war does not continue with the same intensity”, Hovhannisyan said.
He noted that starting from the morning, the Azerbaijani armed forces again continued offensive operations in different directions, at the same time artillery was used against the civilians of a number of settlements.
”Military operations continued in the northern direction with relatively low intensity, at the same time the fight against subversive groups continues in the directions of these villages (mentioned on the map – edit.). In the southern direction the advance of Azerbaijani armed forces looks like this (mentioned on the map – edit.). They also tried to develop an offensive in the direction of Berdzor as well as tried to approach the Armenian border in the southern direction, but the attempts were repelled, they recorded no success”, Hovhannisyan said.
According to him, the Azerbaijani subversive groups have light weapons when approaching villages. ”Crushed by our units, they retreat, flee in forests and mountains, try to develop attacks in other directions and 24-hour operations continue in a not very intensive manner. After some success in the plains the Azerbaijani armed forces reinforced by terrorist groups try to develop the success in complicated areas of mountains and forests, which is not so easy. This is a more difficult and complicated battle in terms of tactics”, Hovhannisyan said.
Tuesday,
Russian, Turkish Leaders Again Discuss Karabakh
• Heghine Buniatian
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
shake hands during a news conference following their talks in Moscow, March 5,
2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced serious concern about the ongoing war
over Nagorno-Karabakh and what he called a growing involvement of “terrorists
from the Middle East” in it when he spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep
Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.
A statement by the Kremlin said Putin and Erdogan discussed the conflicts in
Syria, Libya and Karabakh during the phone conversation.
“The Russian side expressed deep concern over continuing hostilities [in and
around Karabakh] as well as the increasingly large-scale involvement of
terrorists from the Middle East in the armed clashes,” the statement said.
It added that Putin briefed Erdogan on his contacts with the leaders of Armenia
and Azerbaijan and efforts to “promptly achieve a ceasefire and de-escalation of
the crisis.”
Erdogan called Putin shortly after Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov of Russia and
Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey again spoke by phone. They too discussed
international efforts to stop the Karabakh hostilities.
“The ministers emphasized the absence of alternatives to a peaceful resolution
of the conflict, the need for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of a
negotiating process within existing mechanisms of the OSCE Minsk Group,” read a
statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“They particularly noted the inadmissibility of internationalization of the
crisis and involvement of foreign militants in it,” it said.
Turkey has strongly backed Azerbaijan’s military operations since the outbreak
of the war in and around Karabakh on September 27. It has rebuffed calls for an
immediate halt to the hostilities repeatedly made by the United States, Russia
and France, saying that Baku has a legitimate right to restore control over
Karabakh by military means.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip has accused the three world powers co-heading the
Minsk Group of supplying weapons to Armenia. Russian officials have rejected
Erdogan’s allegations.
For their part, the U.S. and especially France have criticized Turkey’s role in
the ongoing military conflict. The French government said last week that
Ankara’s “dangerous provocations” are hampering the mediators’ efforts to stop
the fighting and restart Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Turkish leaders have also called for Ankara’s involvement in the peace process
that has long been mediated by the U.S., Russia and France. A spokesman for
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Tuesday that this cannot happen
without Armenia’s consent.
Armenia has always ruled out any Turkish mediation. It maintains that Turkey is
directly involved in the Karabakh war by providing weapons and Turkish military
personnel to Azerbaijan.
Yerevan has also accused Ankara of recruiting Islamist fighters in Syria and
sending them to fight in Karabakh on the Azerbaijani side. These claims have
been echoed by France and, implicitly, by Russia. The Turkish and Azerbaijani
governments deny them.
U.S. Tells Armenia, Azerbaijan To Stick To Ceasefire (UPDATED)
U.S. - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the
State Department, in Washington, October 14, 2020.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday to
respect a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States over the weekend.
Pompeo separately spoke by phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev amid continuing fighting in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh reported by the two warring sides.
“Secretary Pompeo pressed the leaders to abide by their commitments to cease
hostilities and pursue a diplomatic solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, and noted that there is no
military solution to this conflict,” Morgan Ortagus, the U.S. State Department
spokeswoman, said in in a statement.
According to Ortagus, Pompeo “stressed the importance of fully implementing the
ceasefire” which was initially agreed in Moscow on October 10 and reaffirmed
under French mediation on October 17.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers reached another truce agreement
after holding talks with Pompeo and U.S. National Security Advisor Robert
O’Brien in Washington last Friday. They went on to hold a joint meeting on
Saturday with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun and U.S., Russian
and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.
The conflicting parties began accusing each other of ceasefire violations
shortly after their fresh accord went into force on Monday morning. In
particular, the Armenian side accused the Azerbaijani army of launching a
“large-scale” offensive in southeastern Karabakh.
Later on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged that the ceasefire is
not holding. According to Reuters, Trump expressed optimism that the two sides
will work things out but offered no other details.
“Yes, disappointing when you see that,” he told reporters at the White House.
“That’s what happens when you have...countries that have been going at it for a
long time. It’ll get back together.”
Pashinian said on Monday that he expects Washington to hold Azerbaijan
responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire. He claimed that Baku is
continuing to push for a military victory in the war despite what he described
as Yerevan’s readiness for a compromise-based solution to the Karabakh conflict.
Meanwhile, Aliyev blamed Armenia for the continuing hostilities. He also accused
the U.S., Russian and French mediators of helping the Armenian side.
In a joint statement issued on Sunday, the Minsk Group co-chairs said they and
the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers agreed to meet again in Geneva on
October 29. They said they will try to “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.”
It is not yet clear whether the Geneva talks will go ahead if the fighting in
the conflict zone does not stop.
Aliyev Again Denies Presence Of Foreign Fighters In Azerbaijan
• Heghine Buniatian
AZERBAIJAN -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gestures as he speaks during an
address to the nation in Baku,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has criticized France and Russia for their
“baseless” claims that Turkey recruited scores of Islamist fighters and deployed
to them Azerbaijan for the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“I regret that such baseless accusations are voiced from the [OSCE Minsk Group]
co-chair countries, France and Russia,” he told Italy’s Rai-1 broadcaster in an
interview publicized on Tuesday.
Aliyev singled out French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia’s foreign
intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, for criticism.
Shortly after the outbreak of large-scale hostilities in and around Karabakh on
September 27 Macron accused Turkey of recruiting jihadist fighters from Syria
for the Azerbaijani army.
Russia also expressed serious concern about the deployment of “terrorists and
mercenaries” from Syria and Libya in the Karabakh conflict zone. Naryshkin
warned on October 6 that the region could become a “launch pad” for Islamist
militants to enter Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign and defense ministers have
raised the matter with their Turkish counterparts in phone calls reported in
recent weeks.
Ankara strongly denies sending members of Turkish-backed groups to fight in
Karabakh on Azerbaijan’s side. Baku also denies the presence of such mercenaries
in the Azerbaijani army ranks.
Multiple reports by Western media have quoted members of Islamist rebel groups
in areas of northern Syria under Turkish control as saying over the past month
that they are deploying to Azerbaijan in coordination with the Turkish
government.
Armenia has portrayed those reports as further proof of Turkey’s direct
involvement in the ongoing war.
Fighting Reported Near Armenian-Iranian Border
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A fragment of a Smerch rocket sticks out of the ground near
the town of Martuni,
Fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone reportedly spread on Tuesday to
an area adjacent to Armenia’s border with Iran.
The Armenian Defense Ministry accused the Azerbaijani army of shelling its
border posts and wounding several Armenian servicemen in the morning. The
Azerbaijani side used artillery and combat drones, it said, adding that one of
those unmanned aerial vehicles was shot down over Armenian territory.
A ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, said Armenian army units and border
guards had to strike back in response. They inflicted “considerable losses” on
the Azerbaijani side, she wrote on Facebook early in the afternoon.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied violating in the ceasefire in that area.
It said that Armenian forces themselves opened “intense mortar fire” at its
troops stationed in the Zangelan district bordering Armenia’s southeastern
Syunik province and northwestern Iran.
The reported shelling took place near the Armenian-Iranian frontier which has
long been protected by Russian border guards.
Russia also has up to 5,000 soldiers stationed in other parts of Armenia in line
with bilateral treaties that commit Moscow to defending Yerevan against foreign
aggression.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war in and around Karabakh on September 27,
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow will fulfill its defense
obligations to its South Caucasus ally. He noted at the same time that “the
hostilities are not being carried out on the territory of Armenia.”
The hostilities continued on the Karabakh frontlines on Tuesday, with the
warring sides continuing to accuse each other of not respecting another
Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement that was brokered by the United States
over the weekend.
It emerged that the commander of Karabakh’s Armenia-backed Defense Army,
Lieutenant-General Jalal Harutiunian, was replaced by another general, Mikael
Arzumanian, late on Monday after being reportedly wounded in action.
Karabakh authorities did not specify the circumstances in which Harutiunian
suffered the injuries. They said that his life is not at risk.
The Defense Army army claimed to have repelled on Monday a “large-scale”
Azerbaijani offensive in southeastern Karabakh which it said was launched just
hours after the entry into force of the U.S.-brokered truce agreement.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
13:36,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Lawmakers laid flowers at the Biblical David memorial outside the parliament building in memory of the 1999 October 27 terror attack victims.
21 years ago on this day, a group of five armed gunmen led by Nairi Hunanyan stormed into the parliament while it was in session and assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Deputy Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, as well as three lawmakers and a Cabinet member. The gunmen held the remaining MPs in parliament hostage until surrendering to authorities the next day.
The five perpetrators, which include Hunanyan’s younger brother and uncle, were sentenced to life in prison in 2003.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan