15:52,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. 41 detained protesters have already been released, police told ARMENPRESS.
A total of 129 protesters were detained from Freedom Square in Yerevan where an anti-government rally was organized calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Police warned the organizers of the rally that gatherings are banned under the martial law.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
November 5, 2020
The author, Raffi Bandazian, speaks at a Artsakh solidarity rally in Richmond, Va.
Editor’s Note: The below op-ed is an edited version of a speech delivered by the author, Raffi Bandazian, during a solidarity rally for Artsakh that was organized by the St. James Armenian Church in Richmond, Va. on October 31.
BY RAFFI BANDAZIAN
The Songs of Artsakh and Armenia.
The songs that we have sung for all these years, the songs we grew up singing about heroes and Fedayis and even the more recent songs about villages that were liberated and heroes that had fallen in battle. . . these are not just verses and choruses to sing at events and raise our glass and toast. The lyrics հողը արիունով են պահում իմացէք “know this: land is kept with blood” is not just a catchy phrase to sing along. It is the real world.
It is what Armenia has lived for decades. And is RELIVING right now.
It is what artilleryman Albert Hambartsumyan has actually done. His iconic photo of him just firing his artillery appeared on sites around world.
They, Armenian soldiers, have given their life for land. Their land. Our land. Our country. Mer hyerenik. Our fatherland.
And this is not some distant land far from the soldiers’ home. Not some war on a concept like terror, a concept manufactured by the military industrial complex of the United States to keep fighting in a country for 19 years that’s 7,000 miles away.
These are battles happening in the Armenian soldiers’ home country of Armenia and Artsakh. The soldiers like Davit Uzunyan, who fell in battle. Davit had just completed two semesters at the American University of Armenia, studying for his Bachelor of Arts in Business. In his spare time, he was an avid footballer who enjoyed participating in tournaments with his team.
Or like Shavarsh Muradyan. A bright student in the English and Communications Program at AUA. Shavarsh had already participated in the 2016 April War in Artsakh. He was injured, awarded medals of honor and had enrolled in AUA. When the Sept. 27 war of 2020 started, he volunteered to go back to the front line.
This is what these young soldiers were doing. Trying to better their Homeland. Improving their knowledge to move their country forward. When it came time for the country to call them, they answered and they paid the ultimate price.
The great hero of the 1992-94 war in Arstakh, Leonid Azkaltyan has reportedly said, “One does not protect land with blood; one protects land with love.” Հողը արիւնով չեն պահում, հողը սիրելով են պահում.
Davit and Shavarsh were doing just that.
Aliyev, the assigned President of Azerbaijan, has said that Armenia overstated their importance in the World.
Mr. Aliyev, you have overestimated the power of your oil profits.
You can buy all the mercenaries, all the equipment, all the drones, all the cluster bombs, all the missiles you want . . . you can even buy the 2019 final game of the UEFA Europa League final, and you can plaster your name on as many soccer jerseys as you’d like. You can buy all the favor of politicians in Europe and the kind words of New York Times reporters: but you will never buy a victory over Armenia.
Because victory in your eyes is misinformed. Your understanding of history, like your Turkish counterparts, is misinformed.
Were there Azeris and Armenians living in the area under dispute in Artsakh in the Caucus? Sure. Even Sayat Nova, the great 17th century Armenian troubadour is known to have sung in Armenian, Azeri, and Georgian – although his best songs are in Armenian. You probably even claim him as your own, Azeri musician, ignoring the fact that he was born Aruthin Sayadian, born in 1712, Tiflis, Georgia.
But you are grasping at a concept of a country that is less than 100 years old. Artsakh is Armenia lands going back to at least the 5th century. . . B.C!
The capital of Armenia, Yerevan, is over 2,800 years old. Your idea of the timeline of your country is just a blink of an eye in our people’s existence in the Armenian Highlands.
You will never buy victory. You will never buy loyalty. The mercenaries from Syria that you are renting will never last. One captured just this week has said that “they, the Azeris, send us forward in three lines. They stay back but they send us forward in the first lines of attack.”
Because Armenians’ will, our will to fight is without price. It is immeasurable in currency. Our will to fight is worth blood. It is worth Davit Uzunyan’s blood. [Աստուած հոքին լուսաւորէ] Albert Hovhannisyan’s.
Sevak [Arayik] Galstyan’s [born in 1986]
Edvard [Manvel] Petrosyan’s [born in 1991]
Tigran [Hambardzum] Gharibyan’s [born in 2000]
Mekhak [Arest] Sadoyan’s [born in 2000]
Arshak [Gaguik] Abrahamyan’s [born in 1978]
Karen [Khachik] Hayrapetyan’s [born in 1997]
Edgar [Artur] Galstyan’s [born in 1999]
Khachik [Karen] Baghdasaryan’s [born in 1987]
Vahram [Gegham] Hovhannisyan’s [born in 1978]
It is worth Monte’s blood. Leonid’s blood…
And 1,116 other heroes as of 10-29-2020.
May God Rest All of Their Souls. . . .
And Armenians’ will to fight certainly will outlast your assigned role in your political position given to you by your father which you have desperately clasped onto for 17-plus years.
Azerbaijan can cut off their citizens’ internet access. They can block their social media sites. They can restrict access to journalists in their country. They can lock up journalists like their brother state of Turkey does.
Armenians of Richmond rally in solidarity with Artsakh
But it will never hide the truth. The truth will eventually come out. The truth will shine and you will be held accountable for the war crimes documented so far that have been committed under your name at your direction. As of 10-29-2020. . .bombing a newly opened maternity wing of a hospital in Stepanakert, the Capital of Artsakh. Bombing civilian structures. Shelling the Christian Cathedral in Shushi.
Songs of Artsakh. This one just published two days ago:
Եկեղեցիս քանդուել՝ հավատքս չի հանձնուել
Քանի կան քո տղերքն անձնուէր:
My destroyed church, doesn’t surrender my Faith.
As long as they’re here, your sons are devoted.
Just yesterday, reports of potential use of white phosphorous over the forests of Arstakh.
This is most likely provided by the so-called elite mountain forces that have been brought in from Turkey, because the Azeri troops could not handle the dense fighting in the forests of Artsakh. And of course, Turkey would not care that the use of white phosphorous to start forest fires in the mountains is yet another example of war crimes.
And Mr. Aliyev: I have a question for you. If Nagorno Karabakh, Artsakh, is, in fact, as you say Azerbaijan and always has been, why then are you bombing, your own cities? Why are you bombing the civilian population of what you claim is your land? Why have you destroyed 11,600 private properties? 1,600 private vehicles? 2,100 infrastructure public, and industrial structures? Why have you killed 39 civilians (as of Oct 26)? Bombed the electric, gas, and water infrastructure? Burning the village of Aknaghbyur as you pillage? Do you plan on going back in with some type of infrastructure project to rebuild this great nation that you have just demolished?
Is the plan to bring in Haliburton and manage the reconstruction? They already have an office on Salyan Highway, 16km Lokbatan Settlement, Salt Lake Facility, Baku 1032.
So what does Turkey do? It spreads its rat claws into Libya, Syria, territorial waters of Greece, Iraq, Kurdish Territory, and now in an attempt to finally “solve the Armenian problem,” vows support for Turkey’s “Azerbaijani brothers with all our means as always.” And accuses Armenia of “being the biggest threat in the region to peace and stability.”
Armenians in Richmond protest the Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh
The Armenian nation of 2.965 million is the threat? Armenia would instigate a war against its neighbor nation Azerbaijan of 9.981 million who now has the support of its historic enemy nation of Turkey with 82 million? The military budget of Turkey and Azerbaijan dwarf that of Armenia.
Meanwhile, Turkey just recently tested its Russian made S-400 air defense system to which the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms.” Additionally adding, “an operational S-400 system is not consistent with Turkey’s commitments as a U.S. and NATO ally.”
Well guess what—Turkey never follows its commitments to the US or its NATO allies.
St. Nerses Shnorhali the Gracious (1102-1173), Catholicos of Armenia.
Armenians are writing this in the 12th century:
Seljuk Turks are coming through from Mongolia destroying. We are creating.
From “I Confess with Faith”
Hour 23
All-merciful Lord,
have mercy on all those who believe in you;
on my beloved ones, and on those who are strangers to me;
on all those I know, and on those unknown to me;
on the living and on the dead;
even forgive my enemies, and those who hate me,
forgive the trespasses they have committed against me;
and relieve them from the malice they bear towards me,
so that they become worthy of your mercy.
Have mercy upon your creatures,
and on me, a manifold sinner.
Let me repeat that line:
“and relieve them from the malice they bear toward me”
Why are the Azeri’s doing this now?
Why did Azerbaijan and Turkey attack Artsakh and Armenia on September 27, 2020?
It is jealousy? Envy? Resentment of Armenians?
Did we overstate our importance in the world, like Aliyev said?
Was it the World IT Conference in 2019 held in Yerevan?
Was it the revival of the wine industry in Armenia? The discovery of the oldest winery in the Noravank caves?
Was it the designation by UNESCO of our World Heritage Sites of Geghard Monastery, Haghpat and Sanahin, Etchmiadzin and Zvartnos? Or the UNESCO designation of Intangible Cultural Heritage items the Khachkar, the duduk, LAVASH Bread, the Kochari dance, or the Armenian Letter Art or the Folk Epic Sasunsti Davit?
Or that Levon Aronian, our chess champion, is higher ranked FIDE than your guy?
Or was it just simply the democratic revolution, the Velvet Revolution heard around the world in 2018. The revolution won without a bullet fired. Have you, Mr. Aliyev, tried that?
Or is it simply that the Turkish Lira is collapsing—again. Like it did in 2005. And the solution was just to lop off six zeros and call it the new Turkish Lira.
Or is it even simpler that oil and gas account for over 90 percent of Azerbaijan’s exports. To balance its budget, Baku needs oil to sell above $53 per barrel.
Incidentally, it was a mistake, Mr. Aliyev, to name the oil field in the Caspian Sea the “Karabagh field” and have the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani (so called) Republic President, say the field “proudly bears the name of the heart of our Motherland.”
Armenians are not going to be naïve about this situation today. We’re not going to say, oh the truth will prevail. You want to fight? We will fight to our deaths. Death or Freedom. MAH GAM AZADOUTYUN.
The songs of Armenia. We are living the songs. The Armenian Public Radio has changed. There’re no other cultural shows on. There’re no discussions of psychologists talking about kids dealing with stresses of their lives. It’s all day songs of heroes and heroism. Then news of the war. News of missiles landing. News of Armenian troops pushing back the enemy.
If you hear us talking here today and mixing the terms of Armenians or Armenians from Karabakh or using Artsakh and Armenia interchangeable, it is because it is all one people. It is all of us. You should know, as outside viewers to this, that you matter in all of this. Everything we do here in the United States matters tremendously around the world. Anything a high-ranking politician says about Armenia gets repeated verbatim on Armenian media and broadcast to the entire country there. Any chant of protest or singing of Մեր Հայրենիք is echoed through Armenian media. Words matter. Our words matter. Our actions matter more.
And you can be sure that today, these words, yours actions here, will be heard in Armenia.
So, what are we asking you, here in Richmond, those of you who come to us and support us in our usual times of festivities and dancing and celebration? We are asking you a simple thing. Stand with us. Stand with us now. Support Christian Armenia and Christian Artsakh. Go to armeniafund.org and donate monthly. If each one of us donates $20 or $50 a month, we can help our country stand up for what is right in this world. Go to anca.org. It is very simple to reach out to your elected representatives and ask for their support on these issues.
America is distracted right now. This is when the nations of the world act out. The timing of this by Turkey and Azerbaijan is not accidental. Think how difficult it is to get the attention of Americans right now with everything going on in U.S. politics and the country. Who would care about what’s happening overseas?
But we have to care. Because the United States has created this monster of a so-called ally in Turkey. The United States has not taken any concrete action, action not words, to stop Turkey intervening. And by not taking any action, the United States is giving tacit approval to what is going on.
For if two Armenians meet anywhere in the world and will create a New Armenia, witness now what all Armenians over the entire world will do when they unite.
10:14, 1 November, 2020
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani military continued targeting civilian settlements of Artsakh, bombarding the town of Martuni and nearby villages overnight October 31 – November 1 with air force.
The State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh said heavy damages occurred in the city.
“The [Azerbaijani] atrocity resumed at sunrise again in the direction of Martuni. At night, the villages at the upper subregion of Askeran were bombarded. The Azeri military bombarded the Avetaranots and Sznek villages using Grad and Smerch multiple rocket launchers,” the service said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
19:20, 1 November, 2020
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of France to Turkey Herve Magro returns to Ankara, ARMENPRESS reports Foreign Minister of France Jean-Yves Le Drian informed.
On October 24 France had recalled its Ambassador from Turkey following for consultations insulting remarks by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who suggested Emmanuel Macron, needed mental health treatment.
The war continues, and it has changed its nature to some extent, noted Artsrun Hovhannisyan, representative of Armenia’s Defense Ministry, during a press conference on October 27.
“After achieving success in the lowlands, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces are trying to establish their presence in the forests and in the mountains, which is not easy to achieve. In terms of tactics, battles are becoming more difficult and intense,” Hovhannisyan said.
The defense ministry representative mentioned that the opponent has lost its huge quantitative and technological advantage, and that this is due to various circumstances, including the location of current battles and the improvement of Armenian soldiers’ skills and experience.
“Today, the enemy attempted to carry out attacks in the direction of Berdzor. It also attempted to approach the border of the Republic of Armenia from the southern direction. All of the attempts were thwarted,” continued Hovhannisyan. “The fight against the subversive groups attempting to enter villages continues. They generally approach in small groups and bring with them light weapons. After encountering Armenian units, they retreat through the forests and mountains. These light operations continue 24 hours a day.”
Villages and towns in Karabakh’s Martuni and Askeran regions have seen the heaviest Azerbaijani missile attacks in recent days. Civilian deaths and injuries have been reported by the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman.
On Sunday, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed on to a U.S. State Department-brokered humanitarian ceasefire that took effect at 8 a.m. local time this Monday.
In theory, the ceasefire should bring a temporary halt to nearly a month of fighting over control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region that Russian President Putin claims has already cost over 5,000 lives.
An hour later, Armenia reported shelling by Azerbaijani forces. There have since been more reports on major fighting in multiple sectors and military aviation activity near the Armenia/Azerbaijan border.
Azerbaijan’s Pres. Ilham Aliyev also gave a speech today objecting to international interference in the conflict, asserting that “in the current situation, we see there is a military solution.” He also warned in the speech that Turkish F-16 fighters based in Azerbaijan would be used to retaliate in the event of foreign intervention, likely referring to Russia in particular.
Given that two prior ceasefires almost immediately fell apart, the odds of the current one lasting are tenuous unless the belligerents are genuinely willing to make a serious and sustained diplomatic effort. A meeting involving the Minsk Group (France, Russia and the United States) is set to convene on Thursday.
Without diplomatic progress, the ceasefire may merely give both sides a brief breather as they prepare for an even more intense round of fighting focusing on the so-called Lachin Corridor.
That’s because the corridor contains the only major highway connecting the de-facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (also called Artsakh) to the country of Armenia.
The Lachin corridor refers to the loan road running through Lachin that connects Stepanakert, … [+]
Author, using Google Maps Imagery
After capturing most of the southern border with Iran, on October 22, Azerbaijani forces appeared to turn northwest. A cellphone video posted on the internet showed an Azerbaijani mechanized column temporarily delayed by a vehicle immobilized by a mine.
If Lachin were seized by Azerbaijani forces, not only would it cut of the NKR capital of Stepanakert from receiving fuel, ammunitions and reinforcements; it would also cut off the only the route by which refugees in Nagorno-Karabakh could flee to Armenia.
Last Saturday, Armenian forces apparently mounted a counterattack against the forward Azerbaijani elements. An NKR official claimed in a recorded briefing that it had repelled these forces southward down the highway.
Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities have frequently released contradictory claims as to territorial control. But a conservative interpretation suggest that the advance in this sector was at least temporarily stalled short of the coveted corridor.
Armenian forces also began a counter-offensive near the far southwestern border of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Possibly staged from Armenian territory, the offensive may be aimed at diverting pressure away from Lachin. An Armenian video showing seven captured Azerbaijani BTR-70 armored personnel carriers has been geolocated to that sector.
The Pass Running Through Decades of War
Lachin, which means “hawk” in Azerbaijani, is itself is emblematic of the contradictions that have made the war so bitter. It is one of seven rayons (districts) outside of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Artsakh, which are a particular source of grievance to Azerbaijanis.
A truck drives on the so-called Lanchin corridor in 2007 in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. The Lachin … [+]
Getty Images
Soviet-era survey show that Armenians were generally the majority population of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region. But surveys also showed the Lachin rayon, situated in between Nagorno-Karabakh and the Soviet republic of Armenia, as being 80% to 94% Azerbaijani.
Nonetheless, when Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh fought to secede from Azerbaijan in 1992, they seized Lachin to create a land corridor between Armenia and the NKR. Most of Lachin’s Azerbaijani population were forced to flee, becoming refugees in their own country.
Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh, Lachin City was captured by Armenian military units. Photo ITAR-TASS / … [+]
TASS via Getty Images
The NKR renamed Lachin town by the Armenian name of Berdzor. Later, as civil war ravaged Syria, Syrian Armenians fled to Armenia and were resettled in this sector of the NKR.
Azerbaijan. Lachin is captured by Armenian military units. Photo ITAR-TASS / Andrei Solovyov; … [+]
TASS via Getty Images
The NKR’s occupation of Lachin was premised on strategic reasons: if Azerbaijani forces succeed in closing the corridor, they could completely isolate the NKR from external support. If the logistical link is severed, NKR forces would be cut off from the flow of fuel, munitions and reinforcements.
The town of Lachin/Berdzor in 2010 and the critical road running through it.
User Lyonking, released for public use under CC3.0 BY-SA license.
Even seizing terrain affording a good view of the road could render daytime transit on it impossible as convoys would be exposed to observed indirect fire from mortars and artillery, or even direct-fire from armored vehicles and anti-tank guided missiles. Even night travel would be perilous due to the prevalence of infrared sensors on armored vehicles and drones.
With supply lines severed, civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh could be cut off from food, running water and heat during the forthcoming Caucus winter. Furthermore, they may be denied a route by which to flee to Armenia. The result could be a humanitarian disaster in which casualties of trapped civilians spike due to lack of food and medical supplies, exposure to cold, and non-stop artillery bombardment.
A medical worker talks to a sick woman in a bomb shelter in Stepanakert, the separatist region of … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The extent of Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s objectives in the current conflict remain unclear. If he hopes to recapture all or most of Nagorno-Karabakh, he might see isolating it to be a means to weaken its heavily fortified defenders. However, the humanitarian disaster that could ensue would cause international pressure to mount on Baku, and increase pressure on Russia to intervene.
Azerbaijan might instead see capture of the highway as a way to gain leverage when seeking to secure less absolute objectives, notably regaining control of the Azerbaijani rayons outside of Nagorno-Karabakh held by Armenian forces.
GORIS, ARMENIA – OCTOBER 24: Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh board a coach as they flee to safety in … [+]
Getty Images
However, Lachin’s pivotal geographic position as one of those rayons underscores why Armenians fear compromise could render Nagorno-Karabakh difficult to defend in future conflicts.
For example, Aliyev has identified regaining control of the NKR-controlled town of Shusha/Shushi as a priority. Formerly a mixed-ethnicity community of cultural and religious importance to both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, its Armenian population was driven out in a pogrom in 1920; Azerbaijanis were forced out in May 1992. That town is not only situated a short distance away from the capital of Stepanakert, but lies in between it and Armenia.
View from a broken window of a building near the Shushi cathedral, Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, after … [+]
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Border War Risks
Prior to the ceasefire, Armenian troops appear to have been committed to containing the Azerbaijani advance towards Lachin. Because the Azerbaijani advance units approaching Lachin themselves likely depended on narrow, extended lines of communication, they too may have been vulnerable to having their supply lines cutoff.
Observers have also noticed a trend in recent combat footage suggesting that Armenian troops may have fallen back from fortifications on relatively open ground to forested positions.
Not only would forested terrain inhibit observation and attack from drones, but the short lines of sight on the ground limit their exposure to observed artillery fire and make it easier to ambush enemy forces piecemeal.
However, forces confined to the woods may be less effective in interdicting the movement of Azerbaijani forces beyond, which could pose problems when it comes to defending Lachin.
Furthermore, a battle for Lachin would intrinsically take place next to the border with Armenia and Armenian town of Goris. And that carries significant risks for both sides.
Both Yerevan and Baku lean on Artsakh’s status as a de facto secessionist republic in what is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory to manage escalation risks. Officially, Armenia is not at war with Azerbaijan and vice versa, and the fighting is ostensibly between Azerbaijan and the NKR.
This dubious technicality provides a legal rationale for both sides to avoid waging more unrestricted warfare. While some cross-border attacks appear to have been mounted, they have been limited in scale and cloaked in ambiguity.
For example, there appear to have been some limited missile and/or drone attacks on targets in Armenia which Azerbaijan has not taken credit for. Armenian troops have launched Scud and Tochka ballistic missiles at Azerbaijani cities—but truthfully or not, Yerevan denies they were fired from inside the country of Armenia.
One risk for Baku is that an attack on target in Armenia could inadvertently strike, or come close to hitting, Russian military units in Armenia. That could compel Moscow to intervene in the war. If inclined, Putin might also position Russian units in the country to shield Armenian formations. Indeed, Russian formations reportedly have been stationed directly adjacent to Lachin.
In an intense fight for Lachin, Armenian commanders may be tempted to provide artillery support from across the border. But doing so too extensively might incite Azerbaijani escalation, or upset Moscow if it feels that Yerevan is trying to exploit its alliance.
Ultimately, the Lachin corridor seems destined to become a major flashpoint unless diplomatic efforts can capitalize on the ceasefire to explore a new status quo for the region. That might require finding ways to decouple the role that military force wielded by both sides has historically played in determining which ethnicity is permitted to dwell within a community, and which are compelled to flee.
Updated 10:45 a.m. EST with details on the fraying of the ceasefire, new comments made by Pres. Ilham Aliyev, and mention of Russian deployment near Lachin.
Terror suspects spreading 'caliphate' ideology arrested in Russia’s Dagestan and Karachay- Cherkessia
14:04,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Russia’s Federal Security Service released a video from the arrest of terror suspects in Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkessia.
The FSS had earlier said that it thwarted two clusters of the Takfir wal-Hijra terror group who were “calling for the rejection of the authorities and creation of a caliphate.”
Numerous firearms and explosives were found in their possession.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
19:56,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 22, ARMENPRESS. The air defense units of the Defense Army of Artsakh have destroyed another Turkish Bayraktar TB2 UAV used by the Azerbaijani army.
ARMENPRESS reports the footage showing the leftovers of the UAV is posted in the official Facebook page of the Defense Army.
October 21, 2020
Turkey’s Vice-President Fuat Oktay (right) with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in Baku in 2019
Turkey will not hesitate to send soldiers and provide military support for Azerbaijan if such a request is made by Baku, Vice President Fuat Okaty said on Wednesday, adding there was no such request at the moment, Reuters reported.
Speaking in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk, Oktay also criticized the OSCE’s Minsk Group of trying to keep the issue unresolved and supporting Armenia, both politically and militarily.
In comments to Azerbaijan’s parliament, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop portrayed Armenia as the aggressor and criticized mediation by France, Russia and the United States—the Minsk Group co-chairing countries.
“If they are sincere on their path to peace, those who have held Armenia’s leash and supported it for years need to end this dangerous game now and stop supporting Armenia. Azerbaijan does not have another 30 years to wait,” Sentop said, according to Reuters.
The Minsk Group, he said, “is brain dead.”
In a speech to the nation, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Baku was willing to end fighting as soon as possible to complete the restoration of what it sees as its territorial integrity.
Baku also wants Turkey directly involved in the conflict settlement process, which Armenia opposes.
19:17,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Military operations along almost entire Artsakh-Azerbaijan contact line continued on October 17, ARMENPRESS reports President of ARtsakh Arayik Harutyunyan wrote on his Facebook page.
‘’Particularly fierce clashes took place in the southern direction. The Defense Army excellently fulfils its military tasks, inflicting heavy manpower and military equipment losses’’, Harutyunyan wrote.