Category: 2020

 12:28,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. French President Emmanuel Macron promised to send a medical aid to the people injured in Nagorno Karabakh, a source to the Élysée Palace told DPA.

The details will be released in coming days.

The news agency reported that on October 22 President Macron held talks with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian in the Élysée Palace. The French President once again stated that the only solution to the current situation are the negotiations. At the same time, he added that “calm conditions” are needed for the restoration of dialogue.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 13:45,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Heavy battles are taking place in the eastern direction of the Artsakh frontline as Azeri armed forces continue attacking, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

“Persistent battles taking place at the eastern direction as well. In some parts we are repelling the enemy sabotage groups back to their starting lines,” he said.

Earlier the Defense Army of Artsakh said that localized battles are taking place in all directions of the frontline.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 13:43,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. First cellist of the Belgian National Philharmonic Orchestra Sevak Avanesyan, who has recently performed ‘Krunk’ (Crane) by Komitas at the bombarded St. Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi town of Artsakh, made another performance, this time in the Upper Mosque in Shushi.

The St. Ghazanchetsots Cathedral has been bombed and partially ruined by Azerbaijani armed forces on October 8.

The cellist performed Persian Fire Dance by Austrian cellist Kian Soltani.

He released the respective video on his Facebook account, saying that “culture has no borders”.

“I am really happy to be at this Persian mosque which was just renovated. It shows how Armenians value art no matter the religion. We are fighting against Islamist terrorists right now, but we are keeping the mosque in the most beautiful shape as we can”, the Belgian-Armenian cellist said.

Born in 1989 in Armenia, into a musical family, Sevak started studying cello at age of 5, with the well-known Armenian cellist Medea Abrahamyan, student of legendary Mstislav Rostropovitsch. He went on to study at the Tchaikovsky Specialized Secondary and Musical School in Yerevan until 2003. That year, his entire family moved to Brussels (Belgium) where he joined the class of Ms. Viviane Spanoghe at the Royal Conservatory. He graduated with the highest distinction in 2010 and was then accepted in the class of the renowned cellist Claudio Bohorquez at the “Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.

Besides his regular studies, Sevak Avanesyan has received precious advice from world famous artists such as Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Steven Isserlis, Mischa Maisky, Maria Kliegel, Lluis Claret, Peter Bruns, Garry Hoffman, Wolfgang Boettcher, Igor Oistrakh, Artemis Quartet, Gerhard Schulz and many others.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 14:22,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Thousands of Armenians are holding protest in Strasbourg, outside the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR).

They are calling on the international community to give an adequate response to the Turkish-Azerbaijani-terrorist aggression on Artsakh.

Armenians arrived in Strasbourg from different French cities and different European countries, such as Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, for participating in this protest.

One of the protest participants said Europe should stop its support to Turkey and say the truth.

“We demand to withdraw Turkey from NATO. Europeans have never cooperated with terrorists, now the same should happen”, the protest participant said.

The demonstrators also paid a tribute to the memory of those killed in action in Artsakh with a moment of silence.

“Stop terrorism”, “Stop murderer Erdogan”, “Your silence is crime”, “We want peace”, the protests said holding respective posters.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 14:37,

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Two explosions were heard in Stepanakert city, ARMENPRESS correspondent reports from the Artsakh capital.

The air raid sirens were not activated at the time of the blasts.

The sounds of the explosions most likely came from the Artsakh Air Defense units’ interception of Azeri missiles.

Updates will follow.

15:00 – Situation calm in Stepanakert.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 14:59,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani authorities are not disclosing information on their military casualties to their own public, however the number of new graves at the military cemetery of the 4^th largest city of Mingachevir (population of 100,000), gives an approximate picture about the volumes of the losses, BBC Russia reported, noting that it found dozens of new graves there.

“So many were buried here since the escalation of the Karabakh conflict,” the article said.

BBC mentioned that Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev is withholding information on casualties for now. “The Azeri public will be informed about it after the completion of the active phase of the military operations,” Aliyev had said in an earlier interview to the Russian First Channel.

The article also noted that according to the Armenian Defense Ministry the Azeri military lost 6309 troops in between September 27 and October 20.

On October 23, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that the Azeri military casualties are nearing 10,000.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 15:33,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Counter-Terrorism Oleg Syromolotov held a meeting on October 23 with Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan to discuss the situation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone amid the Azeri attacks on Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) with participation of mercenary militants from various terrorism organizations.

“The inadmissibility of the transfer of militants from outlawed armed groups from a number of countries of the Middle East and North Africa into the region and the need to immediately withdraw them was underscored,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 15:15,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has assessed the possibility of the engagement of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to the settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, RIA Novosti reports.

Russian deputy foreign minister Aleksandr Pankin said as long as the conflict continues in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh and has not moved to the territory of Armenia, it’s inappropriate to talk about the CSTO engagement.

“The conflict has not moved to the territory [of Armenia], no official request has been received from Armenia. CSTO assists its member states in some situations where there is clear aggression. Now the talk is about Nagorno Karabakh which has not been recognized by Armenians themselves as part of their territory and probably may not be recognized. Talking about the engagement of the CSTO defense potential is in appropriate”, the Russian deputy FM said.

Recently Armenian deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said in order to apply to the CSTO there must an aggression against Armenia. He said it’s still early to assess Azerbaijan’s some actions against Armenia as an aggression. “If there is an attack on Armenia, yes, we will apply”, he said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 15:54,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Iranian armed forces have increased their border protection due to the situation around Nagorno Karabakh, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a representative of the Iranian military, announced on October 23, RIA Novosti reported.

He once again pointed out that shells from the conflict zone had hit Iranian territory. He advised the NK conflicting sides “not to cross the red lines of Iran and solve problems through dialogue, otherwise Iran won’t tolerate.”

On October 1, five artillery shells fired by the Azeri military hit Iranian territory, striking a residential building and wounding a child. Then, on October 22, Azerbaijani armed forced opened gunfire at Iranian border settlements.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan