Category: News

The large-scale offensive operations unleashed by ‪Azerbaijan‬ against Nagorno-‪‎Karabakh‬ in recent day not only violate the Ceasefire Agreement, signed by the latter in 1994, and the Trilateral Agreement on theconsolidation of ceasefire regime signed 1995, but are also accompanied with gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the Armenian Foreign Ministry says.

On 8 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan met with Defense Minister of the Republic of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan.

Issues related to the wide-scale combat operations launched by Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic were discussed during the meeting.

The intelocutors noted the significance of further widening and deepening of  close cooperation as a pivotal factor of securing defense capacity of Armenia and Artsakh as well as maintaining stability in the region.

NKR Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan partook in the meeting.

Iran hopes that ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh will allow to start negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusma.

“We are very happy to see an end to hostilities right now and cessation of hostilities or a ceasefire,” Zarif said. “We hope this would be the prelude to serious negotiations in order to resolve this issue. Our region requires cooperation between everybody,” he added.

“We believe Armenia as a neighbor and Azerbaijan as a close friend of Iran need to have good relations and we hope, we support all efforts aimed at resolving this problem,” the foreign minister noted.

He reminded that after the most recent outbreak of hostilities Iranian President Hassan Rouhani “called both presidents calling for an end to hostilities.”

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The protest was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada (AYF Canada) and the Armen Garo Student Union.

Participants of the rally strongly condemned the recent Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno Karabakh and called on the Canadian government to denounce Azerbaijan’s belligerent policy.

“Our message to Azerbaijan is clear: Armenians from all over the world will speak out for the people of the free, independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. The transgressions of this violent and criminal dictatorship will not go unnoticed,” AYF Canada said in a Facebook post.

It’s impossible to demand solutions from the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia’s Permanent Represnetative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich has said, RIA Novosti reports.

According to him, it’s up to Yerevan and Baku to make decisions on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

“It’s necessary to understand that the Minsk Group was created as a mechanism to help the parties reach agreements. It’s impossible to demand solutions from the Minsk Group without the conflicting parties reaching agreements,” Lukashevich said.

“Ultimately, everything should be decided by Yerevan and Baku, and everyone, including the OSCE, is trying to help the parties,” he said.

At a meeting in Moscow today, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia continued the discussions on the escalation of situation in the Karabakh conflict zone.

Edward Nalbandian underlined that “the large-scale military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan have struck a serious blow to the negotiation process on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group. According to him, urgent practical steps are needed for stabilizing the situation.

Sergey Lavrov noted, in turn, that from the very start of the escalation Russia has been taking efforts to cease the fire. He said the use of force in the Karabakh conflict zone is unacceptable and attached importance to the maintenance of the agreement on ceasefire. He emphasized the need to exclude the reoccurrence of the situation, and stressed the importance of creating conditions for the continuation of the negotiation process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The Armenian and Russian Foreign Minister stressed the importance of implementation of the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group towards the reinforcement of the ceasefire regime.

Sergey Lavrov informed Edward Nalbandian about the results of the Russian-Azerbaijani talks in Baku.

The Ministers referred to issues on Armenian-Russian and international agenda. They discussed the situation in the Middle East, protection of minorities, especially Christians, the efforts of the international community in the fight against terrorism.

President Serzh Sargsyan received today the Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) Board Tigran Sarkissian.

The President expressed concern with the destructive approaches of the some of the EEU partners and underscored that Armenia’s approaches have not changed and that our country will continue to undertake constructive steps emanating from our economic interests and aimed at the development of the Union.

The interlocutors discussed also issues related to the priorities of the EEU development, exchanged views on the economic relations with third countries and integration unions.

The search for the bodies of the soldiers killed since April 2 continues, and the process will require another 2-3 days, Spokesman for the NKR President David Babayan told Public Radio of Armenia.

He added that the search works are carried out with the immediate participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC).

Babayan said the parties respect the ““period of silence” agreed today, and added there’s no shooting in the areas, where the search works are under way.

Another Azerbaijani attacking drone was shot down in Artsakh at about 23:00 yesterday, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.