BAKU: Azerbaijan threatened to Armenia an adequate answer for use of strike drones on frontline

Azerbaijan Business Center
Azerbaijan threatened to Armenia an adequate answer for use of strike drones on frontline

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan informed that Armenia used a strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or a drone) on the Karabakh frontline against the Azerbaijani Armed Forces strike

The Ministry says that due to the low quality of the Armenian UAV, the drone caused no damage to the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan.

"In case of further use of shock drones, Armenia will get an adequate response," the Ministry of Defence emphasized.

BAKU: OSCE MG urges Karabakh conflict sides to reduce tensions

Trend, Azerbaijan
18:40 (UTC+04:00)                

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 19

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:

The OSCE Minsk Group (MG) encourages the sides of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to consider measures that would reduce tensions on the line of contact and the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says a statement by the OSCE MG co-chairs, issued June 19.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (ambassadors Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France, and Richard Hoagland of the United States of America), together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, traveled to the region in June, says the statement.

The main purpose of the co-chairs’ visit was to discuss the position of the sides towards the next steps in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process after the trilateral ministerial meeting in Moscow (April 28), as well as the overall situation in the conflict zone, according to the statement.

The co-chairs met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan on June 10 and with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on June 19, as well as held consultations with the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers, says the statement.

In Baku, they also met with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In their talks in Baku, the co-chairs expressed deep concern over the recent violations of the ceasefire, resulting in casualties on the line of contact on the eve of their visit to Azerbaijan.

They appealed to the conflict sides to avoid further escalation, says the statement.

“In both capitals, the co-chairs called upon the parties to re-engage in negotiations on substance, in good faith and with political will,” according to the statement. “They underscored that this is the only way to bring a lasting peace to the people of the region, who expect and deserve progress in the settlement of the conflict. The presidents expressed their intention to resume political dialogue in an attempt to find a compromise solution for the most controversial issues of the settlement.”

The co-chairs will travel to Vienna to brief the members of the Minsk Group on July 3, says the statement. They also plan to meet again soon with the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers to discuss modalities of the forthcoming work.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Sports: Armenian female fencers to begin competition at European Fencing Championships today

Panorama, Armenia

2017 European Fencing Championships is under way in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the participation of the adult fencing team of Armenia. The female fencers of Armenia will begin competing in the saber discipline of the championship today.

As the Armenian National Olympic Committee told Panorama.am, in the saber discipline of the Men’s Championship Armenian fencer Edward Ovikyan claimed a beautiful victory against his Turkish opponent in the fight for top 64. The Armenian athlete, however, suffered a defeat in the next round.

In the same discipline, Armenia’s Mikayel Ghazaryan did not make it to the top 64. In the epee discipline, Armenian fencers were also left outside of the top 64.

BAKU: General Staff: Azerbaijani Armed Forces fully ready to liberate occupied lands

AzerNews, Azerbaijan

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces are fully ready to liberate the occupied lands, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Nizam Osmanov told Trend on June 14.

He reminded that the Azerbaijani army struck a crushing blow to the enemy while preventing Armenian provocation in April last year.

“This once again demonstrated the power of the Azerbaijani army. Today the Azerbaijani flag is waving in our territories liberated following the April fighting,” Osmanov said.

He added that these battles showed that the Azerbaijani people and state will never tolerate the aggression and will restore the country’s territorial integrity at any cost.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

The situation between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops on the frontline aggravated on April 2, 2016, after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands began shelling Azerbaijan’s positions. To protect civilian population, Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Lele Tepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

On April 5, Azerbaijan and Armenia declared a truce brokered by Russia. During the April clashes, over 320 Armenian servicemen were killed, more than 500 Armenian soldiers were injured, 30 enemy tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as more than 25 artillery pieces were destroyed during the counter attacks of Azerbaijan, while Armenian side hides the real figures saying that only 80 soldiers died.