Category: 2020

Armenia reports ‘heavy fighting’ with Azerbaijan in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region

Emil Lazarian
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Oct 3 2020

Scores of soldiers were killed in heavy clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces despite calls for a ceasefire. A pro-Armenian separatist leader said he was heading into a “final battle” in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces were locked in intense warfare over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh province on Saturday, with Armenia reporting that over 50 pro-Armenian separatist soldiers lost their lives.

Armenia-backed separatist forces had thwarted a “massive attack” by Azerbaijan and begun a counter-offensive, Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said. “Heavy fighting is ongoing,” she added.

Read more: Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia ‘stands ready’ for peace talks

Pro-Armenian Karabakh separatist leader Arayik Harutyunyan said he was on his way to the front line for what he described as the “final battle.”

Read more: US, Russia, France condemn fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh

Baku and Yerevan have for decades been engaged in a simmering conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian part of Azerbaijan which broke away from Baku in a 1990s war which claimed some 30,000 lives.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have defied international calls for a ceasefire while accusing each other of starting the recent conflict.

The fighting, which broke out last Sunday, has seen the heaviest clashes since a 1994 truce between the warring sides. Some 200 people have perished, including more than 30 civilians.

The conflict increases the likelihood of a wider regional war that could involve Russia and Turkey amid concern about stability in the South Caucasus, where pipelines deliver Azeri oil and gas to global markets.

https://www.dw.com/en/armenia-reports-heavy-fighting-with-azerbaijan-in-disputed-nagorno-karabakh-region/a-55145859

Sorrow and pride as Karabakh capital comes under fire

Emil Lazarian
RTL – Luxembourg
Oct 3 2020

Author: AFP|Update: 03.10.2020 17:55

Reeling from the heavy shelling of their city, residents of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region’s capital Stepanakert emerged after dawn Saturday to take stock of the damage.

Some cleaned up glass from shattered windows, some cleared debris from collapsed parts of their homes and some packed up to leave.

The city of 50,000 came under heavy artillery and rocket fire on Friday for the first time since the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh erupted into fierce new clashes on Sunday.

Stepanakert, home to Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian separatist government, is a few dozen kilometres from the frontline but within firing range of Azerbaijani forces.

A woman collects drinking water from a spring on a street / © AFP

Azerbaijan has also accused Armenian forces of shelling its settlements in the fighting, which has so far left more than 240 dead, including more than 30 civilians on both sides.

In one part of Stepanakert, a row of three-storey apartment buildings had been hit, the windows blown out and parts of the roofs ruined.

While some residents cleaned up, others were carrying belongings as they prepared to leave. A pool of blood lay between two damaged cars.

“I left my home and five or 10 minutes later, boom! An explosion. Thankfully there was no one in the house,” Nelson Adamyan, a 65-year-old electrician, told AFP outside his damaged building.

“This is a great sorrow for our community, for our people. But we will stand for our freedom, we will always be free.”

– Drones buzzing overhead –

Artak Beglaryan, the region’s rights ombudsman, said at least one person died in Friday’s strikes and 11 people were wounded.

Another Nagorno-Karabakh official, Grigory Martyrosyan, told journalists that “public buildings, houses and infrastructure were damaged” in the attacks but that there were no plans yet for city to be evacuated.

One of the worst-hit buildings was the headquarters of the emergency situations ministry, which is in charge of rescue and firefighting services, officials said.

A woman removes broken glass from a window in an apartment building / © AFP

“Azerbaijan continues to target civilian infrastructure,” Beglaryan said.

Armen Muradyan, a former Armenian health minister who is working as a voluntary doctor in Nagorno-Karabakh, said civilians were being treated for shrapnel wounds. The region was low on resources, he said, and needed more medical supplies and doctors.

Drones have been flying over the city for days, with a characteristic buzzing sound that can be heard every night.

Public lighting has been turned off and residents are careful to draw the curtains tight to avoid letting light escape from their homes.

Bombing alerts sound several times a day, sending residents rushing to shelters.

But while some residents have left their city, not everyone in Stepanakert was in a state of panic over the clashes.

“There is shelling, bombings… we are used to it,” said Arkady, a 66-year-old resident.

“There will be casualties, war is war,” he said. “We’re not afraid, we have our pride.”

https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/1589898.html

Nagorno-Karabakh: Fresh fighting erupts dashing ceasefire efforts

Manouk Vasilian
Al-Jazeera, Qatar
Oct 3 2020

Armenian prime minister says his country faces ‘decisive moment’ as fighting between Armenian and Azeri forces intensifies in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have been engaged in intense fighting over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, scuttling diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire to end the latest conflict that has killed hundreds of people.

Shushan Stepanyan, spokeswoman for the Armenian defence ministry, said on Saturday that Azerbaijan had launched a new large-scale offensive, which was repelled by Armenia-backed forces who then launched a counter-push.

“Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks,” she wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said its troops had destroyed a large amount of military equipment belonging to the Armenian military.

“During the present day, the troops of the Azerbaijani army, successfully advancing in the intended directions, took possession of new strongholds and carried out a clean-up of the territory from the enemy,” the ministry said early on Saturday.

Nagorno-Karabakh is controlled by ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia and has been the subject of several United Nations resolutions calling for an end to the occupation of Azeri lands.

The leader of the breakaway province, Arayik Harutyunyan, said he was heading to the front and that the “final battle” for the region had begun, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his nation was facing a historic threat.

“We are facing possibly the most decisive moment in our millennia-old history,” Pashinyan said in an address to the nation on Saturday. “We all must dedicate ourselves to a singular goal: Victory.”

World powers have been calling for a ceasefire since Sunday when fighting over the region, which is officially part of Azerbaijan, broke out.

On Friday, Armenia’s foreign ministry said it was prepared to work with international mediators France, Russia and the United States to reach a ceasefire with Azerbaijan. While the three countries called for an end to hostilities, Turkey has staunchly supported its ally Azerbaijan and has repeated that what it called Armenian “occupiers” must withdraw.

“Superficial demands for an immediate end to hostilities and a permanent ceasefire will not be useful this time,” Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency.

Both Azerbaijan and Turkey have repeatedly denied the involvement of Turkish forces in the fighting, as well as assertions by Armenia, Russia and France that Syrian rebels are fighting on the Azeri side.

Azerbaijan has also hit back, saying ethnic Armenians from the diaspora had been deployed or were on their way to operate as “foreign terrorist fighters” on the ethnic Armenian side.

Armenian sources have put the death toll from fighting in the region, where about 145,000 people live, at more than 200, while Azerbaijan most recently said that 19 civilians had been killed and 60 wounded.

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reporting from  Stepanakert, the main city in Nagorno-Karabakh, said “the mood has darkened considerably over the last 24 hours.”

“That is because the city has been hit twice now with a series of attacks of large scale weaponry in two episodes, and that is the first time that this has happened here since the war ended in 1994,” he said. “We’ve seen more women and children trying to leave the town and more civilians sheltering in bunkers.”

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from the Azerbaijani town of Barda, said people displaced by the fighting were sheltering in public buildings such as schools.

“There are no places that they can stay, that’s why most of the public buildings are spared for the internally displaced,” she said. “[Up to] five families sharing one room, sharing one bathroom; they are saying they didn’t have anything with them, except for the clothes and their shoes, and they are waiting to go back when the attacks finish.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Pashinyan said Armenia is the guarantor of security in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Azerbaijan launched a direct attack on Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia has certain obligations to provide the security for the region,” the prime minister said.

“The September 27 Azerbaijan offensive began with shelling of civilian settlements and this is a fact we need to acknowledge. When there is an attack, the very first task is to protect from that aggression after which only it is possible to talk about negotiations.”

For his part, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said Armenia has not been interested in peace for the past three decades, after ethnic tensions increased following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“They want to occupy our lands forever,” he told Al Jazeera’s Koseoglu. “If Armenia demonstrated goodwill and acted in compliance with many international resolutions, the conflict would have been resolved long ago.”

Azerbaijan and Armenia previously fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the late 1980s and early 1990s as they transitioned into independent countries amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The war, which ended with a fragile peace treaty in 1994, is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, including more than a thousand civilians.

Armenia says it was Azerbaijan that reopened the conflict by launching a major offensive on September 27, while Baku says it was forced to respond to provocations by the other side.

Source : Al Jazeera and News agencies

Posters supporting Armenia seen in different parts of Jerusalem

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 3 2020
Posters supporting Armenia seen in different parts of Jerusalem

Posters supporting Armenia can be seen in different parts of Jerusalem today, blogger Alexander Lapshin says on Facebook.

He emphasizes that in most cases it is not Armenians posting the messages, but Jews sympathetic to Armenia.

“In many Israeli social media groups, people ask where to buy an Armenian flag to hang on their balconies. I repeat that this is written not by Armenians, but by ordinary Israeli Jews,” Lapshin writes.

He also notes that the Israeli Defense Ministry is now under tremendous pressure to stop supplying weapons to Baku.

Today in Jerusalem there are posters in support of Armenia everywhere. And I want to say that in most cases these are not Armenians…

Gepostet von Aleksander Lapshin am Samstag, 3. Oktober 2020

https://en.armradio.am/2020/10/03/posters-supporting-armenia-seen-in-different-parts-of-jerusalem/

Pakistani Fighters Supporting Azerbaijan In Ground Ops Cannot Be Ruled Out: Armenian Defence Minister

George Mamian
The Eurasian Times
Oct 3 2020

 October 3, 2020

By EurAsian Times Desk

While a low-intensity war in the Nagorno-Karabakh entered its 7th day, new speculation made by the Armenian foreign minister in an interview with an Indian news channel has taken everyone aback.

“We can’t exclude the possibility” of Pakistani nationals on-ground supporting Azerbaijan, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Avet Adonts said.

Considering that both Turkey and Pakistan have pledged their diplomatic and military support to the Azeris officially, and the general trends among these countries’ operations make it highly probable.

The Armenian minister recalled that Pakistani fighters were present on-ground during the earlier 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war too. “We can’t exclude this possibility, taking into account, they used to act in the same way at the beginning of the 90s during the large-scale war in Nagorno-Karabakh. With ceasefire agreement in 1994, these guys were there, of Pakistani origin,” he said.

“It would not be a surprise for us if they will be present this time as well,” the official remarked.

Pakistan and Armenia have always shared troubled relations. Pakistan is the only country in the world that does not recognize Armenia as a state and has overtly supported Azerbaijan in its acts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

As Islamabad is a “close friend” of Ankara, it has always supported the Turkish opinion on matters, and in this case too, supported Turkey when it openly declared its open support towards Azerbaijan. Additionally, Pakistan has always supported Turkey on its stance that the Armenian Genocide did not occur.

The Armenian minister, on being asked about the presence of Turkish-backed Syrian militants in the Artsakh, termed it a “very obvious” thing.

“Not only Jihadis but mercenaries from Northern Part of Syria too. They have arrived in Azerbaijan, via Turkey and Ankara was very instrumental in the recruitment process. The number is very different, starting with 1000, ending with 5000. It is very very obvious, proven that they are there, there to fight against Nagorno Karabakh people,” he added.

The Armenian government had also released figures of about 4000 Syrian militants arriving in the area quoting their intelligence sources earlier.

“Many media are reporting, Pakistani fighters have left Pakistan, and again via Turkey, they have reached Azerbaijan to join the mercenaries operating in Azerbaijan. It won’t be a surprise for us. Practically it will be proven very soon,” Adonts stated.

https://eurasiantimes.com/pakistan-fighters-supporting-baku-cannot-be-ruled-out-in-armenia-azerbaijan-war-armenian-defence-minister/






​Serious peace talks possible when terrorists and Turkey leave this region – Armenian PM

Lilit Nahapetian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 3 2020
 
 
 
Serious peace talks possible when terrorists and Turkey leave this region – Armenian PM
 
 
 
Serious talk of a peaceful resolution will be possible when the terrorists and Turkey leave this region together with their goals, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with France24.
 
“Civilization cannot but prevail and the will to live, the people with right to live cannot but prevail. There is no doubt that the Armenian people, which have been living on planet earth for several thousands of years, have the will to live,” the Prime Minister stated.
 
Reporter – Perhaps you would like to say something to the people of Azerbaijan, who also have their will to live.
 
Asked what he would tell the people of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister said: “There is only thing I can say to the people of Azerbaijan. Ask yourselves to what extent you know the truth about your own people, about your own government, about their wealth, about their transactions and about their objectives.”
 
“I think that the people of Azerbaijan are hostage to a dictatorial government. Armenians have always been a convenient enemy image for Aliyev’s dictatorial rule. For him to be able, with that, to bypass the problems of democracy, freedom, human rights, and freedom of _expression_,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.
 

Crisis in the Caucasus: how Nagorno-Karabakh poses a challenge for NATO

Emma Jilavian
New Statesman
Oct 3 2020
Crisis in the Caucasus: how Nagorno-Karabakh poses a challenge for Nato

The flare-up demonstrates what some will characterise as the obsolescence of Cold War era military alliances.

By Ido Vock

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a longstanding dispute over a mountainous sliver of land between Armenia and Azerbaijan, has been simmering for over 30 years, since before the fall of the Soviet Union. But this week’s flare-up in the South Caucasus between Armenian forces and Azerbaijan is likely the most violent since the war of the 1990s, which killed tens of thousands and saw ethnic cleansing committed by both sides. As evidence mounts of direct Turkish involvement – a new development – so too are the risks of a sharp escalation that could draw in more regional powers.

The conflict has its origins in the Stalin era, when the South Caucasus – today, the independent countries of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan – was part of the Soviet Union. The borders of Azerbaijan were drawn to include majority-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, which didn’t much matter while both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part of the same state. When the USSR collapsed, however, Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence. Armenian forces and Azerbaijan fought a brutal war over the territory which ended in Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory, gaining de facto independence as the Armenian-sponsored Republic of Artsakh. Negotiations to solve the conflict have never made much progress and there are frequent skirmishes between the two sides. 

The renewed conflict is a tragedy for civilians on both sides, including Armenian civilians settled in Nagorno-Karabakh who bear no responsibility for the political situation in their statelet, and Azeris expelled during the 1990s who dream of returning to lands they had lived in for generations. Regardless of the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh (inherited from arbitrary Soviet-era administrative divisions), any attempts to disrupt the uneasy status quo antebellum other than through negotiations will harm tens of thousands of civilians living in the territory.

There is some evidence that this latest bout of fighting was planned by Baku, as Eurasianet reports. Azerbaijan has been offered unequivocal support from Turkey, a regional power many times larger than the two Caucasian rivals combined. Ankara is providing political backing to the Turkic Azerbaijan and, according to some reports, organised the transfer of Syrian mercenaries to the Caucasus to fight Armenia. The Armenian Ministry of Defence even claimed on Tuesday (29 September) that a Turkish fighter jet had shot down an Armenian plane inside Armenian airspace, though this should be treated with some scepticism. Still, Turkey’s newfound assertiveness in the conflict, possibly spurred by its recent adventurism in Syria and Libya, threatens to internationalise what had for 30 years been a fairly localised land dispute, Vahe Gevorgyan, an advisor to the Armenian Foreign Minister, told the New Statesman. 

This latest flare-up also demonstrates what many will characterise as the obsolescence of the Cold War era military alliances. For perhaps the first time in recent history, western European countries such as France have begun offering cautious political support to the same side of a military conflict as Russia and Iran (both allied with Armenia) against the ally of a Nato member (Turkey).

The conflict could end in the absurdity of aligning Nato members with different sides, or even Nato members against each other – though not for the first time, as the ongoing stand-off between Turkey and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean reminds us. Yet again, a conflict in Nato’s back yard positions Turkey against much of western Europe. The US, meanwhile, is consumed with a debasing presidential election campaign and has been largely absent, a state of affairs which is unlikely to change with the country’s commander-in-chief now taken ill with coronavirus. “It is not at all a coincidence that fighting broke out just a month before the US presidential election,” said Carey Cavanaugh, a former co-chair of the Minsk Group, the international body charged with resolving the conflict peacefully. “We can see that with the American response, which has not been swift or very strong.”

Emmanuel Macron was widely criticised for terming Nato “brain dead” in an interview last year. Macron’s reasoning was that there was no coordination of strategic decision-making between the US and its Nato allies, in addition to “uncoordinated aggressive action” by Turkey. Who, looking at the debacle in Nagorno-Karabakh, could claim that Macron’s logic has not held up?

As Gevorgyan put it: “The division between East and West is not there. The old world no longer exists.”

Azerbaijan Used "Unmanned" Bi-planes to Locate Armenian Air Defence

Jirair Kafian
Defense World
Oct 3 2020

Azerbaijan is flying “unmanned” An-2 biplanes as decoys to locate Armenian air defence and artillery position.

The bi-planes fly towards Armenian positions forcing their ground troops to open fire thus exposing them to Azeri raids by drones and ground artillery, topcor.ru reported Friday.

The pilots of the An-2 bi-planes parachute out soon after pointing the aircraft at Armenian positions. The plane’s control are secured with belts to ensure it maintains course.

Earlier, press secretary of the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Vahram Poghosyan, announced the destruction of the Azerbaijani aircraft by their military. Later, Armenia confirmed shooting down an An-2 plane and added that pilot of the aircraft was missing.

Nagorno-Karabakh has lost 48 soldiers since the beginning of the war. On September 28, Yerevan announced the advance of Azerbaijani troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. On the same day, the attacked side revealed destruction of a dozen tanks of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. 

Azeri AN-2 shot down by Nagrano-Karabkh forces: Unconfirmed video

An incident was reported on October 1 when an Azeri An-2 biplane was shot  down  by Nagorno-Karabakh missile system. However, the body of the pilot was not  found near the wreckage leading to suspicion that the aircraft may have been unmanned.

YouTube videos of the incident show a blurry image of a slow-flying airplane being shot by a missile. From the footage the aircraft cannot be identified.

However, reports in the Russian media  said the press secretary of the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Vahram Poghosyan, announced the destruction of the Azerbaijani (AN-2) aircraft by the republic’s military. Later, the press secretary of the Armenian defense department Shushan Stepanyan confirmed that the attacked combat aircraft was an An-2.

Apparently, Azerbaijanis use An-2 in an “unmanned” mode. The steering wheel of the aircraft is secured with belts, and the pilot himself makes a parachute jump at a safe distance from the place of hostilities, Topcor.ru reported.



Turkish missile found in Armenia’s Vardenis

Mary Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 3 2020

A Turkish missile has been found in Kut village of Vardenis, Armenia.

Official representative of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan has shared the photo of the rocket on social media.

Heavy fighting over Karabakh after main city shelled

Elizabeth Jabejian
France 24 2020
Oct 3 2020

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces were engaged in fierce clashes Saturday as fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified after its main city came under heavy shelling.

The leader of the breakaway province said he was heading to the front and that the “final battle” for the region had begun, seven days after new fighting erupted in the decades-old dispute.

Armenia’s defence ministry said Karabakh’s separatist forces had repelled a “massive attack” by Azerbaijan in one area of the frontline and had launched a counter-offensive.

“Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks,” defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said its forces had “captured new footholds” and that the Armenians had “suffered serious losses in manpower and military hardware”.

The clashes came after the regional capital Stepanakert came under artillery and rocket fire on Friday. AFP journalists in the city heard more explosions on Saturday morning.

Residents hid in shelters and on Saturday were clearing up wreckage and sweeping up the shattered glass windows of their homes and shops.

“This is a great sorrow for our community, for our people,” Nelson Adamyan, a 65-year-old electrician, told AFP outside his damaged residential building.

“But we will stand for our freedom, we will always be free.”

At least one person was reported killed in the shelling.

Both sides have been accused of hitting civilian areas, with Azerbaijan saying Saturday that Armenian artillery had shelled 19 of its settlements overnight.

The new fighting erupted last Sunday and mounting international calls for a halt to the hostilities and a return to negotiations over the dispute have gone unanswered.

The leader of the breakaway province, Arayik Harutyunyan, said he was headed to join the “intensive fighting” on the frontline.

The “nation and motherland are under threat,” he told reporters in Stepanakert.

“The time has come for the entire nation to become a powerful army. This is our final battle, which we will certainly win.”

– Call for recognition –

Both sides have repeatedly claimed to be inflicting heavy losses.

The Armenian side has reported 158 military deaths and said 14 civilians have been killed. Azerbaijan has reported 19 civilian deaths but has not confirmed any fatalities among its troops.

Russia, the United States and France — whose leaders co-chair a mediation group that has failed to bring about a political resolution to the conflict — called on the warring sides this week to immediately agree a ceasefire.

Armenia said Friday it was “ready to engage” with mediators but Azerbaijan — which considers Karabakh under Armenian occupation — has said Armenian forces must fully withdraw before a ceasefire can be brokered.

Karabakh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan amid the collapse of the Soviet Union sparked a war in the early 1990s that claimed 30,000 lives.

Talks to resolve the conflict have made little progress since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

The breakaway province is not recognised as independent by any country — including Armenia — and Karabakh’s foreign ministry said Saturday that only receiving official status from world leaders could resolve the military flare-up.

International recognition, it said, would “ensure the right to life and peaceful development” of its residents and “is the only way towards peace and security in the region.”

The fighting has threatened to balloon into a regional conflict drawing in powerful players Russia and Turkey.

Armenia is in a military alliance of former Soviet countries that is led by Moscow, which maintains a military base there, while NATO member Turkey has signalled its full support for Azerbaijan’s military operations.

A British-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported at least 28 Syrian rebel fighters had been killed in clashes, claiming there were more than 850 such combatants.

https://www.france24.com/en/20201003-heavy-fighting-over-karabakh-after-main-city-shelled