Friday, November 6, 2020
Armenian President Calls For Unity To Cope With War, Coronavirus
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian clenches his fist as he addresses the
nation, calling for unity in the face of the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the
coronavirus pandemic, Yerevan, November 6, 2020
President Armen Sarkissian has called on Armenian political parties and public
figures to show unity in the face of an ongoing armed conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh and a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, both of which
have claimed hundreds of human lives.
“Be united like our people is. Follow the example of our people,” Sarkissian
said in his address on November 6.
The Armenian president said that unity was the most powerful weapon of Armenians
that helped the newly independent nation prevail in the early 1990s when it had
a ruined economy and was grappling with the consequences of a devastating 1988
earthquake in Spitak.
“Thirty years ago we had no strong economy, no roads, no fuel, we hadn’t enough
weapons. But we won because we had the most powerful weapon, ourselves, our
unity. Some people ask me today what the guarantee of our today’s victory is.
And my answer hasn’t changed – it’s our unity,” he said.
Sarkissian said that besides the war in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia is also
combating another enemy – the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives
of more than 1,500 in the South Caucasus country of some 3 million people to
date.
“Victory over coronavirus also depends on us, on how united, organized and
disciplined we are,” the president said.
Sarkissian, who chairs the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund,
also called on all businessmen, philanthropists and organizations in Armenia and
its far-flung Diaspora to donate as much as possible to the charity.
“Making donations to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund you help families from
Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] who have taken refuge in
Armenia, help solve the problems of refugees, help rebuild destroyed schools and
houses,” Sarkisian said.
“We place our hope on ourselves and our true friends. We will be creating our
victory together. God bless Artsakh, Armenia and our entire nation,” the
Armenian president concluded.
The current hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh between local ethnic Armenians and
Azerbaijan broke out on September 27. The conflict has displaced tens of
thousands of people. The ethnic Armenian army has confirmed the deaths of 1,177
of its soldiers to date. Dozens of civilians have also been killed in shelling
and rocket attacks during the ongoing conflict.
Russia ‘Possesses Precise Data’ On Terrorist Fighters In Karabakh
Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service
Russia possesses precise data about terrorist fighters from the Middle East
involved in the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the country’s top
intelligence official has said.
In an interview with RIA Novosti conducted by Russia Today news agency
director-general Dmitry Kiselyov this week, head of the Russian Foreign
Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin also said that Moscow sees “separate
elements of Turkish intelligence work” in the conflict zone.
Since the outbreak of hostilities in late September Armenia has insisted that
Islamist mercenaries from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East have been
recruited by Turkey to fight on Azerbaijan’s side against ethnic Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Late last week ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed they had
captured at least two Syrian fighters in the battlefield. They showed videos of
interrogations of the two men who admit they had been recruited by Turkey to
fight for Azerbaijan.
Yerevan also claims that Turkish forces are directly helping Azerbaijan fight
the war.
Azerbaijan and Turkey deny deploying any mercenaries in the conflict zone.
Azerbaijan also insists that Turkey’s role in the conflict is limited to
political and moral support only.
According to Naryshkin, Russia got its information about the presence of
terrorist fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh from various sources in the Middle East
and elsewhere in the region.
“We have been receiving these data from a number of countries, from different
sources and from our different partners, partner services in the Middle East,”
he said.
At a news briefing on November 5, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Maria Zakharova expressed Moscow’s lingering concerns about the
deployment of jihadist fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that “it is fraught
with the emergence of a new terrorist enclave in the South Caucasus.”
At Least Three Killed In Overnight Shelling Of Stepanakert
Rescuers remove the bodies of citizens from under the rubble of a building
destroyed during shelling in Nagorno-Karabakh
At least three civilians have been killed in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of
Stepanakert in what local authorities say was overnight shelling of the city by
Azerbaijan’s armed forces.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Emergency Service said that Shushi, a town some 10
kilometers to the south of Stepanakert, was also under intensive fire last night.
“As a result of rocket fire several residential houses were burned in Shushi.
There is also destruction in the capital [Stepanakert]. Rescue services are
working on the spots,” the body reported in the morning.
An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent in Stepanakert has confirmed the deaths
of three civilians in the city, reporting at least a dozen explosions heard in
the area last night.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan also reported shelling of its populated areas by ethnic
Armenian forces. The country’s Defense Ministry said that the town of Tartar and
nearby villages came under fire on Friday morning.
Both sides deny they target civilian populations in the ongoing conflict.
Meanwhile, the two sides again gave different accounts of the developments along
the frontlines in the morning.
Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed to have
conducted “effective defensive battles”, stopping attacks by Azerbaijani armed
forces at several major sectors of the frontline. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan claimed
its armed forces have been on the offensive in several directions, causing
Armenian forces to retreat.
On November 5, Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto ethnic Armenian leader Arayik
Harutiunian said he had visited Shushi (Shusha), a strategic town sitting on a
mountaintop and overlooking the region’s capital Stepanakert, to meet with
defenders of the town and discuss “the strategy of the struggle against the
numerous forces of the enemy.”
As Azerbaijani forces were reportedly closing in on Shushi, Harutiunian said
that “all possible efforts are being exerted to keep the fortress town
impregnable.”
Moscow Remains Concerned About Jihadist Fighters In Karabakh
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova (archive photo)
Russia has again voiced lingering concerns about the presence of fighters from
the Middle East in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
Maria Zakharova, an official representative of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, said during a November 5 news briefing in Moscow that jihadist
mercenaries with “blood on their hands” are being deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“All this cannot but raise our serious concern, as such developments are fraught
with the emergence of a new terrorist enclave, now in the South Caucasus,”
Zakharova said.
“Russia stated about it openly as soon as it got corresponding data,” she added.
In an interview with the Russian Kommersant daily earlier this week Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the number of mercenaries from the
Middle East in Nagorno-Karabakh was approaching 2,000.
Late last week ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed to have
captured at least two fighters from Syria fighting on Azerbaijan’s side.
According to the Armenian side, both admitted during interrogations that they
had been recruited by Turkey.
Turkey and Azerbaijan brush aside accusations of deploying thousands of
mercenaries to fight against Armenians.
In an interview with the Spanish EFE news agency on November 5 Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev responded to Lavrov’s remarks about the presence of
mercenaries in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling it a rumor.
“I regret that high-ranking officials of the countries that should be neutral
and act on the basis of the mandate given to them by the OSCE use these
unconfirmed ‘information’ and rumors,” Aliyev said, reiterating that there are
no mercenaries on the territory of Azerbaijan.
“There is not a single proof that any foreign fighter is fighting on our side,”
Aliyev said.
Armenia’s arguments on the presence of mercenaries on the Azerbaijani side have
also been supported by multiple investigative reports by Western journalists,
some of which alleged that Turkey began recruiting jihadist fighters to be later
deployed in Azerbaijan as early as July.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) in October one such
journalist, Lindsey Snell, estimated that the number of Syrian mercenaries
fighting for Azerbaijan at one point was around 2,000.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based human
rights organization, more than 200 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries have been
killed in Nagorno-Karabakh since fighting broke out in the region in late
September.
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.