17:25,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Spokesperson of the Armenian prime minister Mane Gevorgyan denies the reports according to which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has sent a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“A photo is being spread on the internet which allegedly shows the PM’s letter addressed to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. No such “letter” has ever existed, it’s fake”, the spokesperson said on Facebook.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
12:49, 9 November, 2020
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani military’s attempts to attack Martuni, Martakert, Taghavard and other areas are thwarted, Armenian Defense Ministry official Lt. Colonel Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.
“Besides Shushi, the battles taking place in other directions are also important. The enemy’s attempts to attack have failed in the Martuni direction, Martakert direction, Taghavard and elsewhere. The battles in all parts are extremely important,” Hovhannisyan said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Sanubar Aliyeva has lived in Russia for more than half her life, but she says she is still a proud Azerbaijani. On a recent afternoon, the 61-year-old health care worker came to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow to pay her respects to the victims of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, more than 1,000 miles away.
Aliyeva says her younger brother lost a leg in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war almost 30 years ago. When fierce fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis flared up again in September, she says, her brother volunteered for the army.
“Of course they didn’t take him, he’s over 50,” Aliyeva says. “They told him the Azerbaijani army is so strong now that they don’t need dads like him.”
The reignited war in Nagorno-Karabakh has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and Armenians who call Russia home. The two ethnic communities are among Russia’s biggest and most organized, though the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has driven them into hostile camps.
The Soviet Union fell apart after many of its ethnic groups began to break free in the late 1980s. When Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991, the ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region fought and won a bloody war of secession from Azerbaijan. Now, with the support of Turkey, Azerbaijanis are determined to take back the territory they lost to Armenians.
The renewed fighting has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people on both sides.
Red carnations, photographs and stuffed animals have piled up outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow.
Aliyeva also brought flowers. She says she remembers working together with Armenians when she was a young woman in Soviet Azerbaijan.
“I somehow doubt that we’ll be able to live together in the same way we used to during Soviet times,” she says.
Elshad Agverdiyev, a 32-year-old Muscovite of Azerbaijani descent, was born when the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was just coming to a head. He says he has given up hope on the diplomatic efforts of Russia and the United States, which together with France have co-chaired a peace process since the 1990s.
“We’ve waited 10 years, 20 years, now it’s almost 30 years. Unfortunately the international community has done nothing. We were fed empty promises,” Agverdiyev says. “What is left for Azerbaijan to do? We want to resolve this issue on our own.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has led to tensions between Russia’s Azerbaijani and Armenian communities. In July, when Azerbaijan and Armenia skirmished in a prelude to the current fighting, members of the two diasporas clashed in Moscow and St. Petersburg, with reports of dozens of arrests. Following the new outbreak of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, the city of Moscow had leaders of both ethnic communities sign a statement addressed to their constituents appealing for calm.
“From the first day, we called on people not to give in to provocations and emotions and to follow the law,” says Shamil Tagiyev, a leader of the Azerbaijani community in Moscow. His contacts to local Armenians are mediated through the mayor’s office, he says.
The chasm between Armenians and Azerbaijanis widens with every day that fighting continues in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians in Moscow, the Armenian Apostolic cathedral has become the center of gravity for the community. The cavernous church, consecrated in 2013, is built out of tuff stone in the traditional Armenian style.
Sasun Davtyan, a migrant worker from Armenia, came to pray for Artsakh, as Armenians call Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Apostolic cathedral in Moscow has become the center of gravity for the Armenian community in Russia. The church, consecrated in 2013, is built out of tuff stone in the traditional Armenian style.
Lucian Kim/NPR
“My brothers are there now, they’re volunteers. They went to defend their homeland,” Davtyan, 28, says. “When the time comes, I’ll be ready to join them.”
He says he doesn’t harbor any hope for help from Russia, Armenia’s historical protector, or the United States, which also has a significant Armenian community.
“The hope is on us and us alone,” Davtyan says.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the oldest in Christianity, has held together Armenians for almost 2,000 years.
“The conflict has brought the community closer together, because we all understand that Armenia and Artsakh are on the verge of extinction,” says Gevorg Vardanyan, a priest at the Moscow cathedral. He says Armenians’ collective memory of the Ottoman Empire’s 1915 mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians looms large. Most historians and a growing number of countries consider it genocide; Turkey rejects the term.
In today’s conflict, Vardanyan says, religion plays a big role, with Christian Armenians pitted against predominantly Muslim Azerbaijanis. But he suggests that faith can also show the way to reconciliation.
“Both Azerbaijanis and Armenians understand that young men are dying, and no one wants there to be mourning in their home,” Vardanyan says. “Religion is that ray of light around which we can build our relationship, because a religious person never wants to kill and never should kill. There is no need for war; war is there where there is no God.”
For some members of his congregation, Vardanyan’s words may sound aspirational at best.
Gevorg Vardanyan is a priest at the Armenian Apostolic cathedral in Moscow. “A religious person never wants to kill and never should kill,” he says. “There is no need for war; war is there where there is no God.”
Lucian Kim/NPR
“The longer the war goes on, the more difficult the situation gets,” says Akop Akavyan, who came to the cathedral for an afternoon service with his wife and teenage son. “The wound is very deep and just keeps getting bigger.”
Akavyan says he simply wants the fighting to end and hasn’t started thinking about how Armenians and Azerbaijanis may one day live in peace.
His son Andrei, 17, who was born and raised in multiethnic Moscow, takes another view.
It will take time, he says, but one day Armenians and Azerbaijanis will think differently, the same way that Germans and Russians — bitter enemies in World War II — can now be friends.
✓Azerbaijan shells village within territory of the Republic of Armenia.
✓Karabakh’s President addresses troops despite Azerbaijani claims of having been killed.
✓France outlaws Turkish ultrnationalistic and anti-Armenian Grey Wolves group.
✓Syria’s National Army confirms the death of one of its commanders in Artsakh.
01:37,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. An agreement has been reached between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs on not targeting civilian population and non military objects, ARMENPRESS reports reads the joint statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.
”The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States of America) released the following statement today:
The Co-Chairs met separately and jointly with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Geneva on October 30. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. They also held consultations with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and ICRC President Peter Maurer.
The Co-Chairs once again called on the sides to implement, in full, their commitments, including the immediate establishment of a humanitarian ceasefire, in accordance with the October 10 Moscow Joint Statement, which the sides reaffirmed with Paris on October 17 and in Washington on October 25.
Without prejudice to the implementation of the ceasefire or other commitments, the sides agreed to take a number of steps on an urgent basis, including:
The sides will not deliberately target civilian populations or non-military objects in accordance with international humanitarian law;
The sides will actively engage in the implementation of the recovery and exchange of remains on the battlefield by providing the ICRC and PRCiO the necessary safety guarantees for facilitation;
The sides will deliver to the ICRC and PRCiO, within one week, a list of currently detained prisoners of war for the purposes of providing access and eventual exchange;
The sides will provide in writing comments and questions related to possible ceasefire verification mechanisms in accordance with item 2 of the October 10 joint statement.
The sides engaged in an open and substantive exchange of views aimed at clarifying their negotiating positions on core elements of a comprehensive solution in accordance with item 3 of the October 10 joint statement.
The Co-Chairs will continue working with the sides intensively to find a peaceful settlement of the conflict”, reads the statement.
14:52,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Ukraine’s deputy minister for reintegration Davit Makaryan has expressed his support to the Armenian people, AnalitikaUA.net reports.
“My heart is with the people affected in the hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh. My public activity also includes the fulfillment of power of deputy head of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine. The Union is implementing a number of important projects both in Ukraine and Armenia in different directions – culture, education, sport, history, etc”, the deputy minister said.
He informed that the Union held an emergency meeting aimed at assisting Armenians affected from the military operations.
The Armenian community of Ukraine is actively assisting Armenia, by providing ambulance, medical items, warm clothes and other means.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
October 29, 2020
Arshak Mesrobian is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau Youth Office Executive Director
BY ARSHAK MESROBIAN
Dear fellow Armenian compatriots,
From the early days of the hostilities launched by Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, against the Armenian people, ARF youth from across the globe have been at the frontlines in combatting the aggression of these two criminal regimes both in the homeland and in the diaspora.
The struggle for survival is being fought on many fronts and in order to succeed, we must exceed all expectations.
These fronts are:
On the political and diplomatic front, we must demand the recognition of the Republic of Artsakh and the self-determination and fundamental human rights of Armenians of Artsakh to live freely and peacefully on the land of their ancestors. We must also demand the condemnation of the inhumane and unprovoked invasion of the nomadic tribes in Artsakh.
On the information and public relations front, we owe it to ourselves and to humanity to present the just position of the righteous Armenian people to the world in order to establish pro-Armenian sentiment. In addition, we must work hard to prevent the spread of misinformation and falsified news by Azerbaijan.
As a global Armenian nation, we must continue to support the Armenians of Artsakh and the Armenian Armed Forces by continuing to donate money, medicinal supplies, and any other necessary sources.
Lastly, and of paramount importance, the military front of Artsakh – We must defend the borders of our sacred homeland and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Artsakh.
In the last month, ARF Youth (AYF’s and Student Associations) in the homeland and the diaspora have played a significant role in fighting the aforementioned fronts by unifying the efforts of Armenian youth everywhere.
As a pan-Armenian youth organization, we have utilized our political relationships with the international community. We have organized large scale demonstrations around the world in various diaspora communities in a strong attempt to galvanize the various Armenian communities. We have and continue to inform the international community and various political youth groups about the accurate origins of the history of the Artsakh conflict, the current war, and the details of the battlefield. Through these efforts, we have emphasized the fact that Armenia is up against not only Azerbaijan, but also Turkish special forces and jihadist mercenaries.
Evidently, over a century later, Armenians are still actively fighting against pan-Turkism. I am confident that with the following steps and actions we will reach a just and victorious end to this fight for survival:
This war has shown once again that the struggle for Artsakh’s liberation is a long one. Each individual and especially every young Armenian must channel their patriotism and nationalistic sentiments into a steady and dedicated commitment to help this fight on all fronts.
The time to simply react is over. It’s time to mobilize and organize with the above-mentioned principals in mind in order to combat the efforts of Turkey and Azerbaijan on every front.
The Republic of Artsakh will remain Armenian. The ARF Youth and Student Associations are committed to the victory in Artsakh and a victorious and final end to the Artsakh war.
The sacred work towards these goals requires unmatched dedication and sacrifice. In addition to the many sacrifices the Armenian nation has made on the battlefield, the following members of the ARF youth organizations were also martyred: Aram Grigoryan, Vigen Muradyan, Benjamin Nalbandyan, Eric Galstyan.
We must continue fighting for the rights of our people and our homeland.
Eternal glory to all our martyrs.
Arshak Mesrobian is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau Youth Office Executive Director.
Today, The Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Mr. Arman Tatoyan, met with the French Parliamentary Delegation, which included current and former deputies and journalists.
Mr. Arman Tatoyan presented the actions taken by the Azerbaijani side against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, which are directed against civilians and non-military infrastructure. Mr. Tatoyan noted that among the Armenian population, there were 2 killed and 2 wounded civilians. According to the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), there are at least 39 killed and 120 wounded civilians in Artsakh.
“The targeting of the civilian population, the use of internationally prohibited weapons against them, the involvement of terrorist mercenaries, the inhumane treatment of Armenian captives by the Azerbaijani armed forces, and Armenophobia show that a goal is set to carry out ethnic cleansing in Artsakh by terroristic methods” stated the Human Rights Defender, providing concrete pieces of evidence.
Mr. Arman Tatoyan also referred to the targeting of journalists who were carrying out their professional activities in Artsakh, describing the policy of the Azerbaijani side as a crime against freedom of speech and a gross violation of international law.
The Human Rights Defender urged the French Parliamentary Delegation to personally visit Artsakh, and to meet with the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh and the civil society organizations, and to record the destruction and the atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the ground.
Tôt le matin du 21 octobre, Martakert et les villes et villages adjacents du Haut-Karabakh ont continué d’être pris pour cible par les forces armées azerbaïdjanaises, selon des témoignages d’habitants ainsi que du centre d’information unifié officiel du Karabakh.
Le bombardement aérien des zones civiles du Haut-Karabakh est continu depuis le début de la guerre, le 27 septembre.
“Dans la nuit du 20 octobre, le cessez-le-feu a été plus ou moins maintenu dans les zones civiles. Cependant, vers l’aube, Martakert et les villages environnants sont redevenus la cible de l’ennemi. Le 19 octobre, les infrastructures civiles ont été bombardées dans les mêmes zones”, rapporte le centre d’information.
Selon des responsables arméniens, les forces armées azerbaïdjanaises continuent de violer grossièrement le cessez-le-feu humanitaire, mais aussi l’interdiction d’utiliser des armes interdites contre les civils.
Hier, lors de la réunion à huis clos demandée par la France, la Russie et les États-Unis, les 15 membres du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies ont réitéré un appel du chef de l’ONU Antonio Guterres pour que les parties honorent un nouveau cessez-le-feu.
La reprise des affrontements entre les deux camps a débuté le 27 septembre, à la suite d’une offensive azerbaïdjanaise, soutenue par des tirs d’artillerie et des frappes de drones de précision. Le New York Times rapporte que si les défenses aériennes limitées de l’Arménie n’ont pas permis d’arrêter les drones, ses troupes, renforcées par des volontaires et des conscrits, ont ralenti l’avance azerbaïdjanaise. L’utilisation de mercenaires syriens, déployés par la Turquie en Azerbaïdjan, a ajouté une nouvelle couche aux problèmes sécuritaires de la région.