Category: News

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is far from stable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

“The situation is certainly far from stable,” Peskov said. “That’s why it is impossible to stop at what has already been achieved, and no one is going to do this,” he added.

Talking about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in general, “a setback has occurred,” Peskov said. “Very good progress was made before the resumption of heated clashes. Now, unfortunately, a setback occurred, and there’s a lot of catching up that will need to be done,” he concluded.

Moscow will continue its efforts to assist the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s peaceful settlement, Peskov went on to say.

“Certainly, this time again very prompt and major efforts have been exerted with a view to stopping the fire,” he said. “These Russia’s efforts have been welcomed by the parties concerned. Of course, Moscow will continue its consistent policy.”

NKR Defense Minister, Lieutenant-General Levon Mnatsakanyan had a meeting with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu. Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk was present at the meeting.

The Defense Minister referred to the recent developments along the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan and presented undeniable proofs of Azerbaijani military aggression, particularly the inhumane crimes committed against the civilian population.

The Co-Chairs, in turn, reiterated the importance of solving the issue through peaceful negotiations and discussed the future steps to be implemented in that direction.

Thirty-six Armenian soldiers have been killed since the start of large-scale military actions launched by Azerbaijan the night of April 2, Colonel Victor Arustamyan, Head of the operative department of the NKR Defense Army, told a press conference today.

The rival continue violating the ceasefire today, as a result of which a Defense Army soldier was wounded.

A drone of the Azerbaijani armed forces was shot down, Col. Arustamyan said.

As for the missing, he said search works continue. The Defense Army has provided completed data to the International Committee of the Red Cross..

 

Almost all the agreements on the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh are “on the table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday after talks with his Azerbaijani and Iranian counterparts Elmar Mammadyarov and Javad Zarif, TASS reports.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin pays personal attention to this issue, we regularly meet at the level of ministers with counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Lavrov said.

“I agree that almost all the components of agreements are already on the table,” he said, adding that “in fact, we are very close (to reaching them).”

Lavrov said the talks in Baku with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his meeting with Armenia’s Eduard Nalbandyan on Friday focus on these efforts.

He stressed that Russia is interested more than any other foreign partner that the conflict is resolved as soon as possible. “It is in our common interest to reach settlement.”

Russia’s top diplomat also urged measures to prevent new outbreaks of violence and called for stepping up efforts for political settlement.

Azerbaijani forces actively fired in the direction of the Armenian Army divisions and settlements near the city of Vardenis, Armenia from 10:30 to 23:00 on April 6.

Besides artillery weapons, the rival used machine guns and 60 mm mortars.

The Armenian Armed Forces did their best not to violate the agreement on ceasefire.

Azerbaijan distorts the essence of the Karabakh conflict, presenting it as a territorial dispute, NKR President Bako Sahakyan told a press a conference in Stepanakert.

“We are struggling for our Motherland, not territories,” the President said.

Bako Sahakyan said it’s impossible to reach a final solution to the conflict without the official participation of Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiation process. He said it’s not connected with mistrust in Armenia, which represents Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiations.

“Armenia has a strategic docmenet, which clearly mentions that it is the guarantor of Nagorno Karabakh’s security,” Bako Sahakyan said. He added, however, that there is no conflict in the world that could be solved without the participation of the main role-player.

“Inititiually there was no conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it was a conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Armenia was later artificially dragged into it,” Bako Sahakyan said.

“I am grateful to the global community for the relative peace that lasted until April 2, but I have expressed my dissatisfaction that the format of the negotiations is flawed and it is not allowing to achieve real progress in the settlement process,” Sahakyan said.

The President added that “he would like to see interest in Artsakh not only during military actions, but also in peacetime. “We have chosen the path of determining our future, committed to the principles of democracy. We want to be a full-fledged participant of the international community,” Bako Sahakyan said.

The delegation led by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

The Russian Prime Minister laid flowers at the eternal fire and respected the memory of the victims with a minute of silence.

Dmitry Medvedev later visited the Memory Alley and watered the fir tree he planted in 2008.

 

President Serzh Sargsyan, who is in Germany on official visit, met today with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Noting that his visit to Germany is taking place in the period when Azerbaijan has seriously challenged security of Nagorno Karabakh as well as of Armenia, the President of Armenia spoke in detail about the existing tense situation, which resulted from the violation by Azerbaijan of the ceasefire and unprecedented escalation of the situation, and the latest developments.

“The very fact that at this difficult moment I am here is more than just a testimony to the importance which Armenia attaches to the bilateral relations as well as to Germany’s role as the country presiding in the OSCE,” said the President of Armenia. He underscored that since the OSCE Co-Chairs are entrusted with the resolution of the NK problem, expectations from the OSCE are great. The President said that steps aimed at the establishment of peace are anticipated, and after the re-establishment of the ceasefire regime of 1994 it will be necessary to implement mechanisms which are aimed at the strict adherence to its terms.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany reiterated his appeal to the parties of the conflict regarding the situation and underscored once again that the NK conflict has no military solution; the parties must manifest political will and return to the negotiations conducted in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Minister Steinmeier stressed the importance of the implementation in the area of the conflict of the confidence building measures as well as the resumption of the monitoring in the Line of Contact by the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman—in-Office.

At the meeting, the parties stressed also the importance of the establishment of the mechanisms for the investigation of the ceasefire violations. With this regard, President Sargsyan viewed as important the extension of the mandate of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman—in-Office and amplification of the capacities of his Office.

The President of Armenia and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany discussed the dynamically developing agenda of the interstate bilateral relations, and preset opportunities for developing cooperation in a number of areas.

 

 

 

“The military actions launched by Azerbaijan unprecedented not only after the 1994 ceasefire, but also in comparison with the first Artsakh War because of several factors,” Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said at the government sitting today.

“The actions were unprecedented first of all for the density of firing, the types of the weapons and military equipment used, the number of troops involved and the great number of losses,” the Minister said. He added that the number of Azerbaijani casualties considerably exceed those of the Armenian side.

He also emphasized the high combat readiness of the conflicting parties, and the fact of terrorists fighting on the Azerbaijani side at different sections of the line of contact and their aggressive actions.

The Armenian Defense Minister said, however, that Azerbaijan achieved nothing as a result and turned town the Azeri reports of having conquered several Armenian settlements. “Talish and Nor Seysulan villages are under Karabakh control,” he said.

The Minister said the agreement on ceasefire has been reached on the level of the General Staffs of the armed forces of the two parties.

Seyran Ohanyan added that the actions of the Azerbaijani side, including torture and decapitation, amount to war crime.