The Azerbaijani side fired more than 2,000 shots from artillery weapons of different caliber in the direction of the Armenian positions during clashes at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.
The Azerbaijani side used Zu-23-2 missile units, 82mm mortars and HAN-17 grenades.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation at the frontline and confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact.
“The situation was relatively calm at the border last night,” Spokesman for the Minister of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a press conference today. He said the final data on the losses of the Azerbaijan side would be published by the end of the year. According to different estimates, the number of losses exceeds 210.
The Spokesman said since the beginning of the year Azerbaijan has used weapons that had not been used after the conclusion of the ceasefire, including tanks, howitzers, anti-aircraft units.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan urges not to use the term “ceasefire violation,” when speaking about the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, since we have long not had ceasefire and peace, we have a “relatively calm ceasefire.”
He said “the rival has tried to conquer military strongholds on several occasions over the past years, but has always faced a worthy response.”
“The adversary has used different means, but has never succeeded. Therefore, we can say Azerbaijan is moving along the path of exhausting its important forces, i.e. exhausting its ‘golden fund’,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
The Spokesman avoided speaking about CSTO response to the border tensions and referred to President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the CSTO Collective Security Council yesterday.
President Sargsyan said that “every time Azerbaijani Armed Forces use automatic guns, mortars and artillery equipment against the Republic of Armenia, they shoot in the direction of Astana, Dushanbe and Bishkek, Moscow and Minsk.”
“Taking into consideration the recent tense atmosphere in the region, we should not rule out that Azerbaijan has been guided or supported by outer forces,” the Armenian President stated.
Private of the NKR Defense Army Varazdat Khachatryan, born in 1995, was wounded as a result of shelling from the Azerbaijani side at about 18:45, November 5.
According to a report from the NKR Ministry of Defense, about 180 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side were registered at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night.
The rival used weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 3,500 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.
“Taking into consideration that complex geopolitical situation and in an attempt to foil the ongoing state-building processes in Armenia and Artsakh, the rival continues to destabilize the situation all along the line of contact, intensively violating the ceasefire regime with the use of artillery weapons of different caliber, mortars and rocket launchers,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The NKR Defense Ministry declared that “the rival’s adventurist policy will not go unpunished, and the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan carries full responsibility for the whole situation.”
Photo: Getty Images
Germany’s parliament has voted to send German military support to the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, the BBC reports.
MPs approved the controversial plan for a German non-combat role.
Tornado jets – for reconnaissance – a naval frigate and 1,200 soldiers will be sent to the region.
The vote comes after a French request following last month’s Paris attacks. Ministers believe Germany is now an IS target too.
On Thursday, British warplanes carried out their first air strikes on IS targets in Syria after the country’s parliament authorised the military operation.
Liverpool are likely to be linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund’s star players after the Bundesliga club said they would be open to speaking with former manager Jurgen Klopp about potential transfer targets, reports.
Klopp is preparing for his first transfer window as Liverpool manager following his appointment at the start of October. Despite the club’s generally positive results and improved displays that have yielded 11 points from a possible 18 in the Premier League, it’s understood the German coach is keen to bolster his side. The logical focus of his interest would be in the players he knows from his time as Dortmund manager.
Among the players at Signal Iduna Park are international stars that would instantly improve the Liverpool squad, including Marco Reus, Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
How open Dortmund would be to selling one of their star assets is unclear, but CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has revealed that the club would be open to speaking with their former employee Klopp should he make an approach.
“One thing is clear, we at BVB have a very good relationship with Jurgen,” he told Die Welt.
“I think there would be no conflict were there to be interest in one of our players at some point. He would contact us before (he contacts the player).”
Klopp is renowned for his man-management and enjoyed excellent relationships with members of his squad, potentially making any proposed switch to Anfield an alluring one.
Photo: Jennifer Roberts for The Globe and Mail
A sunlit building with marble floors in northern Toronto is the headquarters for a quiet but massive resettlement effort that’s stretching the limits of the city’s small Armenian community.
Willowdale, a suburb tucked just north of Highway 401, is the target destination for almost as many Syrian refugees as Toronto’s core. And almost all the 1,127 refugees going to Willowdale, according to federal documents, are attached to a single address: the Armenian Community Centre.
With no public funding, its members are privately sponsoring more than a tenth of the refugees expected in the coming weeks, opening their spare rooms to usher fellow Armenians to safety and – almost as important – familiarity.
Other people, especially those who haven’t lived as a minority, might be happy to settle wherever fate takes them. But when Armenians migrate, they tend to do it purposely and en masse, said Garen Keuhnelian, whose brother-in-law’s family arrived in Canada on Monday.
“They want to keep the Armenians together,” Mr. Keuhnelian said. “Otherwise they would be scattered in other places and they would be lost.”
The private sponsorships allow the community members to name specific Armenian families or persons, who then file their part of the refugee-resettlement application from Lebanon or Jordan, where the Christian minority community has been living since fleeing Syria.
Toronto’s established Armenian community is about 10,000 families strong and mostly middle class. The new arrivals could add up to much more than 1,127, said Apkar Mirakian, who is directing the settlement project for the community centre.
There are already more than 1,300 approved sponsorship applications, he said. About 350 people have already arrived, with 1,000 expected, and applications are still pouring in for about 80 people a day. The pace of arrivals has picked up to the point that staff are sometimes only told in the morning that a family will arrive at the airport at night.
“The Armenians in a refugee situation in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, this is where they’re looking,” he said.
All newly arrived children will begin school with free tuition at the private Armenian school attached to the community centre, and when the school inevitably overflows, the community centre will start converting its rooms into classrooms, Mr. Mirakian said. “We are exhausting the resources of the community.”
The federal government has told sponsors it costs about $25,000 to sponsor a family for a year. But the Armenian Community Centre asks for only a $100 application fee, trusting the sponsors to sort things out, whether that means offering their own home or lining up a job.
“Responsibility falls on the community if anything goes wrong in that first year,” said Shahen Mirakian, Apkar Mirakian’s son. “We take that with eyes open, very willingly.”
On Tuesday afternoon, two new families arrived in Willowdale with their sponsors, looking around the community centre a day after landing at Pearson International Airport.
Nanor Kojaoghlanian, a 30-year-old mother of two, flew from Lebanon and will be living at first in Brampton, Ont., with her husband’s second cousin, who grew up in Iraq and had met her husband only a few times. They had contacted him and he quickly agreed to help.
Very few of the privately sponsored Armenians are coming from refugees camps. Many Armenians associated camps with the Turkish genocide of their people a century ago, and friends and family will try hard to find them other housing, said the elder Mr. Mirakian.
However, in Lebanon they were unable to work. Ms. Kojaoghlanian, once an English teacher, hopes to teach again in Canada. “It was a dream to come here,” she said.
Many Armenians work as goldsmiths, silversmiths, tool and die makers and car mechanics, said Apkar Mirakian. Toronto’s Armenian business owners have been working together to place people in their fields and calling around when they can’t. Two local Middle Eastern supermarkets have given jobs to Armenians, as has a Loblaws warehouse east of Toronto.
In Montreal, 700 or 800 Armenian Syrians have already arrived, though the flow has slowed, said Shahen Mirakian. The extra students there put a strain on the Armenian school. In Toronto, housing will be one of the biggest hurdles, he said. There’s a short supply to begin with, and some landlords have been demanding six months’ rent up front.
“Maybe we’ll have a huge community pop up in Mississauga or Brampton or wherever they can afford housing,” he said.
Armen Malkounian, a goldsmith, arrived Monday with his wife, Noushig, their five-year-old daughter, and his mother. They will move in with his sister, her husband and their two children – the Keunhelians – in Richmond Hill.
The Keunhelians have already filed another application to bring more family, but they still have room. The house has four bedrooms and a basement, Mr. Keunhelian said.
Beyond family, Mr. Malkounian hastened to add, he also has “lots of friends” in Canada whom he once knew in Syria. “All Armenians are my friends,” he said, laughing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama held a meeting on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference that lasted for around 30 minutes, TASS reports.
The meeting, which was held behind the closed doors, had not been planned or discussed beforehand. The presidents used the opportunity of attending the international conference to speak about topical issues in the bilateral format. The two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria and Ukraine.
Putin said after the talks there is understanding between him and US President Barack Obama on future political settlement in Syria.
“In general, I think, there is understanding in what direction we should move [on Syria],” Putin told journalists after his visit to Paris. “If we are talking about the necessity of political settlement, then the new constitution is needed [in Syria], along with new election and monitoring the results,” the Russian president noted.
According to Putin, the world leaders generally hold similar views on the Syrian settlement.
Photo: AP Photo/ Alexander Kots
According to an army spokesperson, Syrian army has taken control of key areas in northern Syria, and is near to completing the encirclement of a key town in the Latakia province, near Turkish border, reports.
The Syrian army has taken control of key areas in northern Syria, and is near to completing the encirclement of a key town in the Latakia province still under the control of the Islamic State jihadist group, an army spokesperson said Monday.
“We have cleared the 1122 height and virtually completed surrounding the Salma town,” the spokesperson told journalists.
The spokesperson added that some 2,000 out of an original estimate of 10,000 militants remained in the region, as others had retreated or been killed.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the country’s government fighting opposition forces and radical Islamist militant groups, including the Nusra Front and the Islamic State.
The military conflict has claimed the lives of over 220,000 Syrians and displaced over 12 million, according to UN estimates.
Photo by George Ourfalian, AFP
With the support of Russian airstrikes, the Syrian Army has taken control of approximately 250 square kilometers in Aleppo province, reports.
“Operation Army ATS continues in the south-eastern province of Aleppo,” said Latakia representative of the Syrian Army, Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub, according to RIA Novosti. “In cooperation with civil defense groups we control more than 250 square kilometers, and returned stability in dozens of villages and towns in the region.”
“The army in collaboration with the civil defense forces managed to open the way to Aleppo…to ensure the safe passage of this important route,” Mayhoub added.
The general also said that terrorists sustained a large number of casualties and loss of equipment.
“The survivors fled toward Raqqa,” Mayhoub said, referring to the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State terrorist group.
“Also, our army has strengthened control over the strategic height of Mraga and working to expand its control of the area. In addition, the air force is delivering pinpoint strikes against concentrates of IS and al-Nusra terrorist groups in the vicinity of the airport and near Kueres military air school in the village of Umm Arkile,” Mayhoub said.
Also on Thursday, Syrian government forces gained a key hill in a northern suburb of the capital of Damascus. The Syrian Army has captured al-Mashtal Heights, as well as a number of buildings in the suburb of Harast.
“Many terrorists have been killed and their weaponry and fortifications destroyed,” Mayhoub said.
A large number of foreign fighters have also been killed in Damascus’ southwestern suburb of Darayya.
The Syrian Army is now making a “serious advance” toward the ancient city of Palmyra.
“Our armed forces have taken control over two heights in the Homs Province. We have also made serious advance toward the city of Pal myra near al-Barayat,” Mayhoub added. “Islamic State terrirst sustained heavy losses. Six vehicles and over 25 terrorists have been killed in the western outskirts of the Mheen village.”
“By escalating the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the line of contact, Baku shows its intolerance towards the status quo established at the conflict zone, thus trying to exert pressure on international structures engaged in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict,” NKR Minister of Defense Levon Mnatsakanyan said in an interview with Moscow-based Noyan Tapan newspaper.
The Minister added that “from military point of view Azerbaijan is testing its combat readiness with a view of launching more large-scale actions. He said there are other derivative reasons, which are mainly meant for the internal audience and aim to exert psychological influence on the Armenian side.
Levon Mnatsakanyan said the talks about the might of the Azerbaijani army are more of propaganda rather than reality. The Defense Minister assured the NKR Defense Army has all technical means and moral-psychological capacities to show resistance to the Azerbaijani armed forces.