08:01, 4 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan has joined the troops for a morning coffee on October 4. He posted a photo in the morning of October 4.
“Good morning with the best coffee prepared by our frontline soldier, together with our hero men,” he said.
Earlier on October 3, Harutyunyan took a special forces unit and personally headed to the frontline amid the Azerbaijani attacks.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
09:34, 4 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The situation in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict zone has been relatively stable but tense overnight, the Defense Army of Artsakh reports.
“The situation has been tense especially in the southern direction. The analysis of the actions of the Azerbaijani side shows that the latter is preparing for an attack. The Defense Army follows all the movements of the Azerbaijani troops and is ready to repel all their actions”, the Defense Army said in a statement.
Editing and Translating by AnetaHarutyunyan
09:49, 4 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan has returned back from the frontline, he said on Facebook.
“Dear compatriots,
I am just back from the frontline. I have been in various sections – inspiration, feats, and heroism are abundant everywhere. Our victory is indivertible, as the behavior of our defenders is an exemplary manifestation of the collective strength and everlasting nature of our nation.
I want to convey special gratitude to the Defense Army and the command staff for carrying out the set tasks brilliantly”, he said.
President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan visited the frontline on October 3 to fight “his part of the battle”.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
10:18, 4 October, 2020
STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani forces are again bombarding Stepanakert City, the capital of the Republic of Artsakh.
ARMENPRESS correspondent reports from Stepanakert that air raid sirens are activated in the city.
Multiple explosions are heard.
Stepanakert city has been bombarded by artillery and missile strikes from Azerbaijan several times since the Azeri attack began on September 27.
Heavy damages and casualties are reported.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
10:43, 4 October, 2020
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenians in the United States are holding protest in Hollywood against the ongoing aggression of Azerbaijan and Turkey on Armenia and Artsakh.
The Armenian-Americans blocked the traffic on both sides of the 101 Freeway in Hollywood as sign of protest.
The demonstrators were holding the Armenian flag and kept the freeway blocked for about an hour, according to CBCLA.
Hundreds of Armenians again mobilized outside the CNN building in Los Angeles, urging the media outlet not to stay silent over the ongoing aggression of Azerbaijan and Turkey. They are holding posters “Where are you CNN?”, expressing their surprise on the media outlet’s silence. The representatives of Yazidi people have also joined Armenians.
Azerbaijan launched an attack on Artsakh on September 27 with the support of Turkey, targeting also the civilian settlements, including the capital Stepanakert. Civilians were killed in Artsakh as a result of the Azerbaijani offensive.
Fierce battles took place between the Azerbaijani and Artsakh sides, with both suffering huge losses both in the manpower and the military equipment. But the losses of the Azerbaijani side are much more than that of the Artsakh side. The Azerbaijani armed forces have also targeted Armenia’s military and civilian infrastructures. There is evidence that Turkey is directly engaged in Azerbaijan’s offensive, in particular it transported mercenaries from Syria for using them against Artsakh.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
[see video]
Amid ongoing fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Georgia has suspended the transit of military cargo through its territory to either country either by land or air. No restrictions apply to transit of civilian goods and other cargo.
The National Security Council of Georgia, an eight-member advisory body responsible for national security policy planning and coordination, announced after a meeting earlier today that Tbilisi observes all of its international obligations.
It also said that that the ‘intensity of freight transport is high and it has not changed since the resumption of the armed conflict’ between the two neighbours.
Georgian officials, including Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, who chairs the council and President Salome Zurabishvili, have called on the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other international actors, ‘to take all necessary measures to stop the violence and resume dialogue’ between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Georgia enjoys good neighbourly relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia. We seek to maintain and further strengthen these relations”, the council’s statement reads.
The Georgian officials once again reaffirmed their readiness to contribute, in any form, to the de-escalation of tension, including by facilitating a dialogue and hosting a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani officials in Tbilisi.
President Zurabishvili has tweeted:
On behalf of the Georgian people, I send my deepest condolences for the losses that have been made in this conflict between our two friends and neighbors.
I call on the authorities in both countries to resume dialogue and to work toward deescalation and a ceasefire.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) October 3, 2020
She also called on the European Union to ‘use its force for peace’.
I want to address the European Union. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan are all members of the #EasternPartnership. If that means anything, which I’m sure it does, our regional stability and peace is in Europe’s highest interest. Europe must use its force for peace and deescalation.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) October 3, 2020
Hostilities between the two neighbouring countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh resumed last week.
PM Gakharia has stated earlier as well that ‘it is in our common interest for peace to be restored in the region as quickly as possible’.
By Gavin Coote and Scott Mitchell
In a small office in Sydney’s northern suburbs, a group of young Armenian-Australians are gathering daily to comb news reports and social media feeds for stories from the front lines of Nagorno-Karabakh region that they can share online.
Young Armenian-Australian Sarine Soghomonian is using Instagram and Facebook to provide updates to the more than 50,000 ethnic Armenians living in Australia.
“At the moment we have 30,000 people, particularly in Sydney, that are looking to us to lead them on what to do at the present moment, so that’s organising protests, guiding them on how to use their social media platforms to engage non-Armenians in Australia,” she said.
The effort ramped up after last Sunday, when armed conflict began between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh — a region that is officially part of Azerbaijan but governed by ethnic Armenians.
In the past week, renewed violence between the two former Soviet republics has resulted in more than 100 deaths.
Sarine Soghomonian and other young members of the Armenian-Australian community are trawling social media for updates on the conflict.(ABC News: Gavin Coote)
Aram Tufenkjian has never seen things so volatile in his ancestral homeland and he is watching it play out through messaging apps and social media posts.
“I was born in 1991, which is when the first war [between Armenia and Azerbaijan] actually started and we’ve seen a lot of skirmishes, we saw the four-day war in 2016 but this feels a lot different,” he said.
“Although we haven’t experienced the war, we’ve definitely seen the repercussions.
“For me, the main pain is looking through the list of unfortunate soldiers or even civilians that have passed away.”
Ms Soghomonian said she doesn’t think there’s another community in Australia that is as mobilised as the Armenian community right now.
“It’s as a result of our tumultuous history that has created the passionate Armenian that we’ve seen today.”
This passion stems from the Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915. It is estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed under the Ottoman Empire.
Armenian National Committee of Australia executive director Haig Kayserian points out 90 per cent of the Australian diaspora are descendants of genocide survivors.
“The intergenerational trauma is always there, however after 105 years you can sometimes be numb to it,” Mr Kayserian said.
“However, what’s happening in part of the same Armenia that my family derives from, you just can’t be numb to it; you do not sleep at night.”
Haig Kayserian said it had been challenging to help members of the community contact relatives in the conflict zone.(ABC news: Gavin Coote)
Even with the advent of social media, Mr Kayserian said there were big challenges in connecting with relatives and friends in the conflict zone.
“We’ve been contacting them and trying to get on-the-ground reports and updates and just checking their safety, and it’s been very difficult to contact them.”
Mr Kayserian added many Armenian civilians caught up in the conflict were being warned not to post videos on social media for fear it would make them a target.
There’s also a considerable Azerbaijani diaspora in Australia and many of the younger members are equally as invested in the renewed conflict, including Western Sydney lawyer Jessica Oyta.
“This is a very bittersweet moment for the Azerbaijani community internationally because it’s upsetting to see so many of our soldiers fall, but at the same time it’s sweet because this is a long time coming,” she said.
“Now that the military’s moving in to try and take back some of this land, it’s a very emotional time for a lot of Azerbaijanis who have been waiting for this for a long time.”
Ms Oyta said being able to see footage on social media from Azerbaijan had helped her stay across developments.
“It’s definitely an advantage to see this live footage coming from the ground but it is more emotional as well because you feel like you are there.
“It does raise a lot of patriotism, I think on both sides of the conflict.”
Ms Oyta was quick to emphasise the ongoing tensions were not based on religion, in her view.
“The situation began in the early nineties, when roughly 1 million Azerbaijani people were expelled from their homes — that’s almost 10 per cent of the nation’s population,” she said.
“We don’t want to see any harm come to people, we’ve tried very hard to resolve this matter diplomatically for the past 30 years and it hasn’t made any progress.”
Melbourne professional Gunay Gazolva, who was born in Azerbaijan and lived there until she was 20 years old, said long running skirmishes had directly affected her family.
“I lost my relative back in July fighting on the frontline,” Ms Gazolva said.
“Because we are a minority here, Azerbaijani Australians, our voices are not heard as much as we’d like.”
While tensions grow between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ms Oyta doesn’t think there is any reason to believe they could spill over to communities in Australia.
“I hope that we can put these things aside, because we are Australians, we shouldn’t have foreign issues affect us here at home,” she said.
“I obviously hope that as Australians we can live together comfortably together in peace and harmony but these are the realities of the situation unfortunately.”
That’s something Armenian-Australian leader Haig Kayserian can agree on.
“I’m not seeing much of that coming out of Australia and we hope that’s the case, we don’t want anything to spill over and ruin our harmony here in Australia.”
The Australian Government supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and does not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.
However, some Federal MPs from both major parties, including Trent Zimmerman, Joel Fitzgibbon, and Tim Wilson, have singled out “Azerbaijani aggression” as the cause of the current conflict.
In a statement, a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) spokesperson said Australia was concerned by the renewed fighting in the “disputed territory”.
“We urge parties to the conflict and all other sides to show restraint and support the efforts of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group to help negotiate a peaceful resolution,” the DFAT spokesperson said.