14:10, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS. The NGOs representing the interests of forcibly displaced Armenians from Nakhijevan have issued a statement in response to the false narrative circulated by certain Azerbaijani circles alleging that Nakhijevan is blockaded by Armenia.

Below is the full statement:

“The false narrative circulated by certain Azerbaijani circles claiming that Nakhijevan is blockaded by the Republic of Armenia aims to conceal the fact that Azerbaijan itself has been blockading Armenia since the beginning of the 1990s, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev having numerously announced its intentional nature.

The policy of blockade has been the priority of Azerbaijan itself for the past 30 years. With this purpose, not only has Azerbaijan blocked the Armenia-Azerbaijan railway which functioned in Soviet years, which included the Ijevan-Ghazakh, Meghri-Horadiz, Meghri-Ordubad, Yeraskh-Sadarak directions, all automobile highways linking Armenia-Azerbaijan, but has also consistently pushed Armenia out of economic projects of regional significance. In the 1990s, Azerbaijan also shut down the gas pipeline spanning from Azerbaijan to Armenia, causing an energy crisis for Armenia.

Nakhijevan cannot be blockaded by Armenia for the simple reason that it is not an enclave within the borders of a state, but has the opportunity to interact with Azerbaijan and the outside world by land through Iran and Turkey. Besides the land connection, an uninterrupted air communication functions between Nakhijevan and Azerbaijan, also through the airspace of the Republic of Armenia in at least the past three years. The interruption of communication of Nakhijevan and the rest of the Azerbaijan Republic is due to the Azerbaijani policy of blockading the Republic of Armenia. The fact that the connection routes are blocked not by Armenia but by Azerbaijan is proven with the fact that from January 2023 alone 1,407 transit flights from Azerbaijan to Nakhijevan and in the opposite direction were carried out through Armenian airspace.

The Armenian side has attached great importance and numerously expressed readiness in the issue of unblocking regional connection routes. Moreover, a government draft decision on amending the 2011, May 12, N 703 government decision has been in circulation since August 18, 2022, regarding the opening of three checkpoints on the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border and unblocking of regional communications, which Azerbaijan has been opposing by not agreeing to open the respective checkpoints on its territory. In case of the Azerbaijani government’s consent, Nakhijevan would have automobile connection with Azerbaijan through the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

On December 14, 2021, during the meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Council Charles Michel, an agreement was reached on the unblocking of railway infrastructures and restoration of railway. Azerbaijan later abandoned this agreement.

We also note that due to the closed borders and Azerbaijan’s Armenophobic policy the Armenians of Nakhijevan are deprived of their right of return to their ancestral settlements.”

 15:03, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. On August 15, the Azerbaijani military opened gunfire at the EU monitors and their vehicle in the direction of Verin Shorzha, in Gegharkunik Province, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia said in a statement.

The EU monitors on patrol came under small arms fire by Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the ministry said.

No one was hurt in the shooting.

“On August 15, at around 12:20 p.m., Azerbaijani AF units discharged fire from firearms targeting the EU observers patrolling in the vicinity of Verin Shorzha and their vehicle. There are no casualties,” reads a statement issued by the defense ministry.

 16:56, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, 15 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 15 August, USD exchange rate up by 0.05 drams to 386.66 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.37 drams to 422.70 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.13 drams to 3.94 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.29 drams to 491.25 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 146.72 drams to 23666.29 drams. Silver price up by 0.47 drams to 282.50 drams.

 17:11, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. A video posted online shows the moment when Azerbaijani forces opened fire in the direction of EU monitors and their vehicles in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province.

On August 15, the Azerbaijani military opened gunfire at the EU monitors and their vehicle in the direction of Verin Shorzha, in Gegharkunik Province, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia earlier said in a statement.

The EU monitors on patrol came under small arms fire by Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the ministry said.

No one was hurt in the shooting.

“On August 15, at around 12:20 p.m., Azerbaijani AF units discharged fire from firearms targeting the EU observers patrolling in the vicinity of Verin Shorzha and their vehicle. There are no casualties,” reads a statement issued by the defense ministry.

The EU monitoring mission (EUMA) initially denied in a statement on social media the Armenian Defense Ministry’s statement on the shooting, but then removed the denial after the video was posted online.

 17:21, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. United States Congressman Adam Schiff has called on U.S. President Joe Biden to personally call Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and urge him to end the blockade of Lachin Corridor.

In a letter, the Congressman called on President Biden to warn Aliyev that there will be consequences, including the implementation of sanctions, visa restrictions, and cutting off U.S. foreign assistance, should the blockade continue.

Below is the Congressman’s full letter addressed to President Biden.

“Dear President Biden,

Since I wrote to you on June 8 expressing my deep concern over Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to the outside world, the crisis has deteriorated significantly and demands your personal and immediate attention.

Since December 2022, the people of Artsakh have been living under Azerbaijan’s illegal blockade with devastating effects, with 120,000 individuals denied access to food, water, medical supplies and services, gas and consistent electricity. While previously the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was able to provide limited deliveries of essential food and medicine and facilitate transport in medical emergencies, Azerbaijan weeks ago cut off access to even the ICRC. As ICRC stated, “Tens of thousands of people rely on humanitarian aid reaching them through these routes. With this lifeline cut off, the population is completely isolated and the toll on civilians is escalating rapidly. There is no question that the situation is now a “dire humanitarian crisis,” as stated by a group of UN experts on August 7.

The population of Artsakh is in urgent need of assistance, including those most vulnerable – pregnant women, children, and the elderly and disabled. Life-saving medications and baby formula are almost gone. Health authorities in Artsakh have reported a surge in the disease incidence and death rate related to malnutrition, lack of medicines, and lack of emergency medical services/transport. For example, the level of anemia among pregnant women has reached approximately 90 percent and incidents of fainting due to malnutrition have become widely reported. The grave consequence is that innocent civilians are increasingly suffering from malnutrition and facing the imminent threat of starvation in accordance with Aliyev’s deliberate and strategic design. At this very moment, a convoy of trucks carrying 400 tons of humanitarian aid is blocked by Azerbaijan and not allowed to enter Artsakh. These actions are in clear violation of international law and the 2020 trilateral ceasefire statement. The August 7 statement by UN experts called for Azerbaijan “to uphold its international obligations to respect and protect human rights, including the right to food, health, education and life,” and I join them in that call.

Though the U.S. government, the European Union, UN experts, and Russia have condemned the blockade and called for the corridor to be opened to regular traffic, Azerbaijan has ignored such statements for months. The U.S. Department of State and USAID have tried to use diplomacy to put an end to Aliyev’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, but the time for statements and such calls has clearly long passed. The United States must take concrete actions and immediately use other tools to press Azerbaijan to return to compliance with international law and order. I therefore urge you to take the following steps:

• Convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the crisis in Artsakh while the United States holds the presidency.This situation aligns with our country’s intention to focus this session on combating food insecurity and defending human rights and is an urgent matter demanding UNSC attention. UN Secretary-General Guterres voiced deep concern over the ongoing blockade and “the deteriorating situation on the ground” via an August 2 statement, and he and UN special rapporteurs have called for action. It is time for the UNSC to engage. I agree, as the Armenian government stated in an August 12 letter, that “the UN Security Council, as a principal body responsible for maintaining international peace and security, to prevent mass atrocities including war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide,” must convene a meeting on this crisis as soon as possible.
• Direct the U.S. Mission to the UN to lead a UN Security Council resolution calling on Azerbaijan to immediately comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice, providing for the deployment of a team of UN experts to Artsakh to gather information and produce an independent report on the human rights and humanitarian situation, and sanction Azerbaijan for its flagrant violations of international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Direct USAID and the Department of Defense to assess options for the United States to assist in the delivery of aid to Artsakhby land or airlift to prevent the very real threat of starvation and avoid the preventable deaths of innocent civilians.
• Personally call Aliyevand urge him to lift the blockade. Warn him that there will be consequences, including the implementation of sanctions, visa restrictions, and cutting off U.S. foreign assistance, should the blockade continue. Many of us in Congress believe that Azerbaijan should have been cut off from U.S aid a long time ago.

I stand ready to provide any support to your Administration’s efforts to address this crisis, including facilitating a meeting between your administration and national Armenian community stakeholders who can share first – hand accounts of the catastrophic situation in Artsakh.

This inhumane and evil campaign to destroy a people is hauntingly familiar to Armenians, whose ancestors suffered the horror of the Armenian Genocide 108 years ago. In an expert opinion report released August 7, former International Criminal Court prosecutor and international legal expert Luis Moreno Ocampo concluded, “There is a reasonable basis to believe that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.” He stated, “The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II , (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” There are no crematories, and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.”

We have pledged “never again,” Mr. President, but today the people of Artsakh face the real threat of ethnic cleansing and genocide at the hands of an autocratic Azerbaijani regime. On April 24, 2023, when Armenians around the world were commemorating the 108th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, you powerfully stated, “Here and around the world, the Armenian people have met the evil of hate with hope. They rebuilt their communities. They nurtured their families and preserved their culture. They strengthened our nation. They also told their stories – and those of their ancestors – to remember and to ensure that genocide like the one that happened 108 years ago is never again repeated. Today, let us renew this pledge. Let us recommit to speaking  out against hate, standing up for human rights, and preventing atrocities.” Mr. President, you have been on the right side of history, have spoken truth to power, and now is the time to uphold this pledge and stand with the people of Artsakh and stop another Armenian Genocide from occurring.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I stand ready to work with your Administration in support of the people of Artsakh.”

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. said Monday that the U.N. Security Council will convene an emergency open meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday.

 17:37, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. The EU monitoring mission (EUMA) has confirmed that its monitors were present to what it described as a “shooting incident” in their area of responsibility.

“We confirm that EUMA patrol has been present to the shooting incident in our area of responsibility. No EUMA member was harmed,” EUMA said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

On August 15, the Azerbaijani military opened gunfire at the EU monitors and their vehicle in the direction of Verin Shorzha, in Gegharkunik Province, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia earlier said in a statement.

The EU monitors on patrol came under small arms fire by Azerbaijani Armed Forces, the ministry said.

“On August 15, at around 12:20 p.m., Azerbaijani AF units discharged fire from firearms targeting the EU observers patrolling in the vicinity of Verin Shorzha and their vehicle. There are no casualties,” reads a statement issued by the defense ministry.

The EU monitoring mission (EUMA) initially denied in a statement on social media the Armenian Defense Ministry’s statement on the shooting, but then removed the denial after a video was posted online, before eventually releasing a correcting statement confirming the shooting.

 18:26, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. On August 15, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a telephone conversation with Catherine Colonna, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France.

Minister Mirzoyan briefed French counterpart on the details of the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor, stressing that it may turn into a real humanitarian catastrophe in front of the eyes of the international community, the foreign ministry said in a readout.

Ararat Mirzoyan presented the severe conditions, including the acute shortage of food and medicine for the 120,000 population of Nagorno-Karabakh and especially for vulnerable groups. The imperative to ensure the full and uninterrupted functioning of the ICRC, the only humanitarian organization having access to Nagorno-Karabakh, through the Lachin corridor was emphasized.

Minister Mirzoyan touched upon the request of Armenia to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. He stressed that Azerbaijan does not implement multiple targeted statements and appeals by international partners and organizations and, by keeping the Lachin corridor blocked for 8 months, violates not only the statement of November 9, 2020, but also the Orders of the International Court of Justice of February 22 and July 6. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that the continuous deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh could jeopardize the efforts of Armenia and the international community aimed at establishing stable peace in the region. He stressed the need to use the existing mechanisms effectively and to take clear steps to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor.

 19:43, 15 August 2023

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. A man has died of starvation in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the ongoing Azeri blockade, the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan said in a statement.

According to the information received by the Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Defender’s Office and the research conducted by its Staff, a resident of Stepanakert, K. Hovhannisyan, born in 1983, died as a result of chronic malnutrition, protein and energy deficiency.

According to the conclusion of the forensic medical examination and the death certificate of K. Hovhannisyan, his death resulted from: “severe alimentary dystrophy (general exhaustion due to prolonged and incomplete intake of nutrients, edema, disorder of all forms of metabolism with organ changes and their functional disorders), cachexia, protein-energy deficiency, kwashiorkor (a specific severe type of eating disorder that develops with insufficient protein content in food, the development of the disease is promoted by severe living conditions, low standard of living), bilateral polysegmental pneumonia with a predominance of the croup element on the right, pulmonary edema, mixed metobolia, hypoxic encephalopathy, dystrophy of internal organs-kidneys, anemia, septic condition, right hydrothorax, chronic malnutrition”.

The catastrophic consequences of the ongoing 8-month-long blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan are more than noticeable and tangible in the public health sector, which primarily affect the health situation of the most vulnerable groups of the society – children, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases, people with disabilities and older persons, Stepanyan said.

The catastrophic food situation caused by the blockade and especially the 2-month-long complete siege, leading to the malnutrition of people and the threat of hunger, the lack of necessary medicines and the inability of the full functioning of the healthcare system create direct and undeniable threats to 120,000 population of Artsakh, he added.

 20:02, 15 August 2023

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. The Nagorno-Karabakh foreign ministry has said that the August 16 U.N. Security Council emergency meeting will be a “test for efficiency of international actors.”

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Wednesday in response to a call from Armenia. Permanent Representative of Armenia to the U.N., Mher Margaryan, in an August 11 letter addressed to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the current President of the U.N. Security Council, said that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are on the verge of a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the Azerbaijani blockade and called for an emergency meeting. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. said that the emergency open meeting will take place Wednesday afternoon.

“On Aug 16, UNSC will convene an emergency meeting to discuss deteriorating humanitarian situation caused by Artsakh Blockade imposed on the civilian population of Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijani authorities. This meeting is a test for efficiency of international actors,” the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

 20:12, 15 August 2023

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has released more disinformation, the Armenian Defense Ministry warned Tuesday evening.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan has again falsely accused Armenia of opening fire. 

“The statement issued by the MoD of Azerbaijan as if the units of the Armed Forces of Armenia fired against the Azerbaijani combat outposts located in the eastern part of the border on August 15, at around 6:05 p.m., is another disinformation,” reads the statement issued by the Armenian Defense Ministry.