10:51,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Russian peacekeepers have delivered humanitarian aid to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Saturday.

In total, as of this moment the Russian peacekeepers have delivered to Stepanakert over 50 tons of goods, including food reserves and other essential products, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

826 civilians, including 440 children, who are unable to return to their homes, are sheltered at the peacekeeping base.

 10:59,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mirjana Spoljaric Egger have met in New York City and discussed humanitarian issues, including issues concerning Nagorno-Karabakh, TASS reported citing the Russian foreign ministry.

“During the meeting, issues of humanitarian activities in key regional directions were discussed, including the Ukrainian crisis, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan, Afghanistan and Syria,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

 11:04,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian internet dimension has been under heavy cyberattacks since September 10, the Armenian National Security Service said Saturday.

It said that a significant increase in cyberattacks has been recorded.

“Release of disinformation and data breach attempts were recorded, as well as other malicious activity containing information security risks. The information systems of state and local-self government bodies of Armenia, as well as other structures of strategic significance have been targeted. Taking this into consideration, we call for vigilance and strict adherence to the basic rules of media literacy, while information about computer incidents can be reported to the Government Computer Emergency Response Center at ,” the NSS said.

 11:06,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Residents of Krkzhan settlement, a suburb of Stepanakert City in Nagorno-Karabakh, have fled the town because of high security risks, former State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Artak Beglaryan said on X.

“Azerbaijani forces closely approached this suburb of Stepanakert and even entered the first houses. The ceasefire violation of September 21 occurred here. Entire Krkzhan is empty because of security high risks,” Beglaryan said.

 11:24,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. A United States Congressional delegation led by Senator Gary Peters (Democrat, State of Michigan) has arrived in Armenia, the US Embassy announced in a press release.

During the September 22-25 visit, Senator Peters will have meetings with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan and others, to discuss the Armenian-American relations and the impact of Azerbaijan’s latest military operations on the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Senator Peters will also visit the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan to lay a wreath. He will also travel to Syunik Province to meet with local officials and discuss security and humanitarian challenges.

 12:13,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. On September 22, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna on the margins of the 78^th session of the UN General Assembly in New York City.

As a follow-up to the previous discussions and the September 21 UNSC emergency meeting, Mirzoyan and Colonna discussed the situation resulting from the Azerbaijani aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, the foreign ministry said in a readout.

The overall security situation in the South Caucasus, partnership as part of international organizations and the Armenia-EU partnership agenda were also discussed.

 12:21,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The United States Congressional delegation led by Senator Gary Peters, together with United States Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien, visited on September 23 the headquarters of the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA), EUMA announced in a post on X.

‘We aim to calm down the tensions at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border areas,’ said HoM Markus Ritter at the briefing at EUMA Headquarters with Senator Gary Peters accompanied by the US Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien. EUMA has a pleasure to host the U.S. delegation during their visit to Armenia,” EUMA said in a post on X.

 12:39,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan has signed a decree on appointing Vahagn Afyan as the new Armenian Ambassador to India, replacing Yuri Babakhanyan.

The appointment was made at the advice of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Babakhanyan has been relieved of duties as ambassador to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

 12:50,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Former ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, in an Op-Ed published by the Washington Post, has warned that Azerbaijan’s ambitions extend beyond Nagorno-Karabakh and the world has the responsibility to stop what is happening before its very eyes: the Armenian genocide of 2023.

Below is the full Op-Ed published by the Washington Post.

“In 2021, President Biden recognized the 1915 removal of Armenians from their lands in Anatolia, in today’s Turkey, as genocide. The United States had been silent on the issue for more than a century, and its silence had grievous consequences.

“Today, Armenians need global leaders, including Biden, to stop a new genocide — one that started this past winter and is now evolving into a more brutal phase.

“On Tuesday, after a months-long blockade and military buildup along the border of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s military launched an attack. Within a day, Azerbaijani forces quickly overwhelmed local defenses, killing more than 200 people, including civilians. In short order, a shaky cease-fire was announced.

“In return for stopping the bombing, Azerbaijan demanded the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh’s top leaders and the disarmament of all the armed forces of the Karabakh authorities.

“As Azerbaijan’s victory became more apparent, scores of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian civilians gathered around the airport in Stepanakert (the enclave’s biggest city) looking to flee their ancestral lands.

“They have every right to fear the next steps Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev might take. Since December 2022, Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. On Feb. 22, the International Court of Justice, after hearing arguments from both sides, ruled that the blockade produced a “real and imminent risk” to the “health and life” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population.

“Rather than comply with the court’s binding order to end the blockade, Azerbaijan security forces doubled down in June, sealing off the enclave entirely, preventing even the transfer of food, medical supplies and other essentials. Since then, Aliyev has repeatedly ignored calls from the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. secretary of state to comply with the court’s ruling. He correctly understood that Azerbaijan would bear no serious costs from the international community for its actions.

“Azerbaijan’s defiance is ominous. In international law, the Genocide Convention of 1948 makes it clear that one way to commit the crime is by “deliberately inflicting on [a] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” (Article II c). By blocking the Lachin Corridor, Aliyev turned Nagorno-Karabakh into a vast concentration camp for 120,000 Armenians. This week’s military intervention added killing (Article II a) and causing serious bodily and mental harm (Article II b) to the ledger.

“What happens next? Because Nagorno-Karabakh authorities surrendered, the international community has urged Aliyev to guarantee the full rights of his Armenian citizens in the enclave. Aliyev’s government has said it is not committing ethnic cleansing and assured the world that “reintegration” will bring prosperity to the region.

“But this rhetoric rings hollow given what has already been done. And Azerbaijan’s ambitions extend beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. Since 2010, Aliyev has regularly talked about Armenia itself as “Western Azerbaijan,” echoing long-standing Azerbaijani claims that Armenia as a whole is an illegitimate state. As recently as December, he said that “present-day Armenia is our land.”

“The world must call the crime by its proper name. Resistance to using the term “genocide” has been a long-standing problem in international affairs. In April 1994, most U.N. Security Council members refused to label the mass killings in Rwanda as genocide. Little has changed in 30 years.

“The last time the U.N. Security Council discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Aliyev’s blockade was repeatedly called a “humanitarian situation,” and continued negotiations were proposed. One is reminded of the heroic intervention by the Czech ambassador, Karel Kovanda, during the U.N. debates on Rwanda: When most leaders backed negotiating a truce, he likened the idea to “persuading Hitler to reach a ceasefire with the Jews.”

“Today, as always, geopolitics explain the world’s reticence. Azerbaijan is an ally with the West against Iran; it provides energy to Europe and it spends millions on sophisticated Israeli weapons. But such exigencies must not get in the way of the world’s responsibility to stop what is happening before its very eyes: the Armenian genocide of 2023.

“Biden did the right thing in 2021. Today, he needs to help prevent history from repeating itself.”

 12:59,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. US Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr (D-NJ) has introduced bipartisan legislation with Reps. David Valadao (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) to protect Armenians and provide humanitarian assistance to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in response to the brutal and unjust actions taken by the Government of Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

The Bill, “Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act of 2023,” covers a spectrum of pertinent and swift actions that can be taken by the Administration in the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s illegal and unprovoked attacks on the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh, from calling on Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor to providing humanitarian assistance to imposing sanctions to ceasing waivers of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, as well as appropriating funding for future partnerships between the U.S. and Armenia. “President Aliyev’s genocidal campaign against the Armenian people of Artsakh has gone on too long, and it is past time the United States takes meaningful action to halt it. This legislation takes a major first step in addressing the atrocities committed by his regime and holding him and his cronies accountable for the death and destruction they have wrought. It would also provide the Armenian people impacted by the conflict with the assistance and security they need to live safely in their ancient homelands without fear of reprisal from the Azerbaijani government,” stated Congressman Pallone.

The Assembly’s Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan stated: “Since he has taken a page out of Putin’s playbook in Ukraine, Aliyev too must be held accountable for his ongoing targeting of civilians in Artsakh. We urge the Administration to sanction Azerbaijan for its genocidal actions.” The Bill further calls for $30 million to “provide humanitarian assistance to groups in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh impacted by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijan’s September 2022 attack on Armenia, and Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor.”

The Bill also contains language to provide $10 million in Foreign Military Financing assistance to Armenia to “support Armenia’s independence, joint training and exercises with the U.S., and train Armenian forces for future international peacekeeping operations.” Imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan regarding the Aliyev regime’s clear attempts at ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh is also specified, as well as the government’s “operations that instigated the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War; attacks on Armenia in September 2022; the blockade of the Lachin Corridor beginning in December 2022; attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.” Finally, the Bill highlights the importance of protecting the rights of the Armenian people in Nagorno-Karabakh and requests that the Secretary of State “shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a detailed strategy to ensure the durable security for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh” that incorporates the “rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh” as well as the “establishment of accountability measures to ensure the rights and security of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in the event that the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a peace agreement” as well as “support for the protection of Armenian cultural heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.”