Category: News

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Russia is taking efforts to maintain parity both in absolute terms and in the quantity and quality of the basic weapons systems it supplies, TASS reports.

Russia is committed to maintaining parity in the supply of military equipment to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the conditions of the intensified Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Alexander Fomin said in an interview with Izvestia daily published on Monday.

“Conflicts begin regardless of the fact that one side may be armed better than the other,” Fomin said. “However, it is necessary to seek parity, so Russia is taking efforts to maintain parity both in absolute terms and in the quantity and quality of the basic weapons systems.”

Fomin also said that the main purpose of military-technical cooperation is to preserve peace and stability in a given country, in a region and in the world in general. “Russia’s military-technical cooperation system is organized in such a way as to cause no harm, including to a particular region. We make all the decisions on the delivery of arms to one or another country invariably with taking into account such acute regional situations,” he added.

Photo: EPA

 

A teenage Afghan refugee armed with an axe and knife injured four people on a train in southern Germany before being shot dead by police, officials say, the BBC reports.

Three people in a group from Hong Kong were seriously hurt and one slightly injured in the attack in Wurzburg. Another 14 were treated for shock.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the attacker was killed as he tried to flee the scene.

The motive for the attack is not yet clear.

The South China Morning Post said it was believed the four injured were a 62-year-old man, his 58-year-old wife, their daughter, 27, and her boyfriend, 31. The 17-year-old son travelling with them was not hurt, it said.

A source told the paper the father and boyfriend had tried to protect the other members of the group.

Mr Herrmann said the attacker was a 17-year-old Afghan refugee who had been living in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt.

He told public broadcaster ARD that the teenager appeared to have travelled to Germany as an unaccompanied minor.

 

The Armenian law-enforcement bodies continue the intensive negotiations with members of the armed group with a view of organizing their surrender to the authorities without implementation of special actions, the National Security Service said in a statement.

The law-enforcement bodies are doing the utmost to keep the armed group from new bloodshed and have the necessary potential and capacity to fulfill their tasks.

The NSS urges everyone not to interfere with the solution of issues exceptionally in the authority of the competent bodies and not to prevent the proper and effective implementation of their actions, thus contributing the achievement of the desirable result.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 20 times at the line of contact with Karabakh forces last night, NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired more than 240 shots in the direction of Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from responding to the provocative actions of the rival and continued with the reliable protection of the military posts.

“We’re working on Nagorno-Karabakh,” US Secretary Of State John Kerry said in an interview with the Meet the Press on NBC.

“We’re still working on the issue of Ukraine and we still haven’t resolved the issue of Ukraine. And frankly, we’ve spent a good deal of time in the conversation with President Putin laying down the steps that we need to take to deal with Ukraine, also,” Kerry said, commenting on his recent trip to Russia.

“So we’re working on a number of different issues. We’re also working on Nagorno-Karabakh. But with respect to Syria, nothing in what we talked about is based on trust. I’m not sitting here naively trusting what the Russians may or may not do. What we have done is laid out a series of steps concretely,” the Secretray said.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is ready to reinstate the death penalty “if the people demand it”, following the recent coup attempt, the BBC reports.

He was addressing supporters outside his Istanbul residence who were chanting for capital punishment to be restored.

EU officials have warned that Turkey’s bid to join the bloc would be finished if Ankara restored the death penalty.

Mr Erdogan has overseen a crackdown since the coup attempt was quashed.

Thousands of police officers, military personnel and judges have been suspended or arrested. Turkey’s Western allies have expressed concern and urged President Erdogan to respond in a measured way.

But speaking to his supporters on Tuesday morning, the president said Turkey was “a democratic state run by the rule of law”.

He said he was ready to reinstate the death penalty if the Turkish people demanded it and parliament approved the legislation, adding: “You cannot put aside the people’s demands.”

“Today is there no capital punishment in America? In Russia? In China? In countries around the world? Only in European Union countries is there no capital punishment,” he said.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to become a member of the EU.

Azerbaijan on Tuesday shut down a private television channel over plans to broadcast an interview with Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of being behind the failed coup in Turkey, AFP reports.

Baku is an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has furiously pointed blame at his arch-enemy Gulen for the weekend’s botched military takeover. The US-based preacher denies any involvement.

Azerbaijan’s National Television and Radio Council said in a statement that it has “ordered temporary suspension of broadcasting by the ANS TV channel in order to avoid provocations aimed at damaging the strategic partnership between Turkey and Azerbaijan and to prevent obvious promotion of terrorism.”

Erdogan wants Washington to extradite Gulen to Turkey, but US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Ankara must produce evidence to support the extradition request.

The reclusive Muslim cleric lives in self-imposed exile in a mountain town in Pennsylvania. His Hizmet movement has a powerful presence in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary.

Standoff at the Armenian police station seized by gunmen early on Sunday enters the third day.

 

Former Turkish Ambassador to Germany Hüseyin Avni Karslioglu was injured in his leg after being hit by a helicopter in Ankara during the July 15 coup attempt, the reports.

He is reported to be in a good condition and is able to walk. He has now left hospital after receiving initial treatment.

Ankara’s ambassador in Berlin until recently, Karslioglu was recalled to the Turkish Foreign Ministry for a consultation after the German Parliament recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide on June 2.

Photo: EPA

 

More than 20 people in Germany have been injured after a man with an axe went on the rampage on a train, the BBC reports.

A police operation including a helicopter is under way in Heidingsfeld, a part of the city of Wurzburg in southern Germany.

Details are scant and contradictory at this stage but some local media are reporting 21 casualties.

Some of the victims’ injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

The German news agency DPA said police would not comment on reports in the German press that the suspect had been shot.

The train line between Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld and Ochsenfurt has been closed.