Category: 2021

Jamil Babayev, a soldier in the urgent military service of the Azerbaijani army, voluntarily left the psychiatric ward of the Ganja city hospital, Haqqin.az reported, citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s press service.

“A criminal case has been filed against Babayev, an investigation is underway. The Ministry of Defense states that, presumably, the Azeri soldier crossed into an area under the control of Russian peacekeepers,” the source added.

Earlier it was reported that Jamil Babayev was detained in an apartment in Martakert, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

The aforesaid statement by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, however, raises questions rather than providing explanations.

The sections of the 21-kilometer Goris-Kapan road which were outside the territory of Soviet Armenia on USSR maps were closed off by the Azerbaijanis on the grounds that an incident had taken place [there] last night, and that people from the Armenian side had entered and stabbed Azerbaijani border guards. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday stated this in the National Assembly of Armenia—and referring to the Goris-Kapan interstate motorway’s closure by Azerbaijanis since Wednesday night.

“We officially say that the information about the stabbing does not correspond to reality,” he added.

According to the PM, an attempt is also made to spread rumors that the Armenian government has done something behind its people’s backs.

“On December 19, I delivered a message and spoke about the problems in the Goris-Kapan section. I have said that the undisrupted running of some of our roads may become difficult, but they are solvable, and we are making efforts towards them, including through having a tripartite document. You will ask: ‘Did we have a tripartite document?’ No, we did not have. But what has happened contradicts, as it is written in the December 19, 2020 statement by the Ministry of Defense, the agreement reached between Armenia and Russia. And that agreement has been secured. A trilateral statement about the preparation of which I have said was not signed. This is the whole issue,” the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan announced that the alternative road Kapan-Aghvan is being asphalted. “We are asphalting it at a great pace. There is a normal, dirt road. I mean, Syunik Province, of course, is not cut off from Armenia,” he added.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, they had predicted that such situations could occur. “We have agreed in a way to regulate the transport traffic,” he said.

Negotiations on reopening the Goris-Kapan motorway have resumed Thursday at around 3pm. Kamo Avanesyan, Deputy Governor of Syunik Province of Armenia, told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“There were negotiations in the morning, then they stopped, then they resumed in the afternoon. Trilateral [i.e., Armenian-Russian-Azerbaijani] negotiations are underway. We are waiting for a positive result so that the issue is resolved today, the road is [re]opened. It will be clear by 6pm,” Avanesyan said, noting that the Azerbaijani side, however, first refused to meet with the Armenian side, but then agreed.

As reported earlier, the Azerbaijani soldiers have blocked a section of the Goris-Kapan motorway as of 11pm Wednesday, and they refuse to reopen it. About four dozen cars on this road section were evacuated at night. At the moment, the Kapan-Goris motorway is closed near Vorotan.

And the Office of the Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia reported that at around 12:20pm on Thursday, the Azerbaijani servicemen have closed off as well the road leading from Goris city to Vorotan village in Syunik Province.

Azerbaijan claims that its soldier had gotten lost, but there is reason to believe that this soldier had come to Martakert, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) for other purposes, according to WarGonzo.

In particular, according to sources, this soldier had a smartphone with a large number of photos and videos which show the location of various facilities of the Russian peacekeeping forces and the movement of Russian equipment.

In addition, exactly one day ago, according to WarGonzo reporters, another “upsetting incident” took place in the Lisagor area, with the involvement of an Azerbaijani, the details of which, however, are not reported.

The impression is that the Azerbaijani MP’s statement about Artsakh, the Azerbaijani soldiers’ closure of the Goris-Kapan motorway in Armenia, the incident with Azerbaijani soldier in Martakert, and the situation in the Lisagor region are part of Azerbaijan’s strategy towards Artsakh to destabilize the region, WarGonzo writes in its Telegram channel.

If Armenia had not surrendered, we would have suffered great losses. The statement came from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a ceremony to provide the families of the veterans of the recent war with apartments and cars, Azerbaijani media reported.

“On the night of November 10, [2020] Armenia signed the act of capitulation, and the war ended. For us, the end of the war was absolutely reasonable. If the war continued, we would have suffered more losses. We could have faced difficulties in liberating Kelbajar and Lachin. The natural climate of this region, the mountains could have become a problem for us. Also, winter was approaching,” the Azerbaijani leader said.

Amid blocking road by Azerbaijani military personnel, serious restrictions arose for the population of the villages to access to food and medical services, the Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook.

In connection with the criminal actions of the Azerbaijani military personnel, the free movement of the civilian population – children, women, elderly people – in the villages is seriously limited.

In the villages, there are serious restrictions on access to food, basic necessities and medical services, people are in real danger.

The border guards of the Armenian NSS play an irreplaceable role in ensuring the safety of the civilian population in the villages and providing them with assistance.

All these facts were confirmed by signals and checks carried out by the central office in Yerevan and regional offices in Syunik of the Office of the Human Rights Defender.

Azerbaijani servicemen must immediately unblock the road, stop massive violations of the rights of people and civilians, he noted.