cease-fire violations by azeris

[Yervant1]

Greek City Times

Oct 4 2020

Why are Greeks sending Snickers with messages attached to Armenian soldiers on the front lines? (PHOTOS)by PAUL ANTONOPOULOS

There is a custom emerging on the frontlines of Artsakh that may first appear to be unusual, but very heart warming, which must be boosting the morale of Armenian soldiers on the front lines fighting against the Turkish-sponsored Azerbaijani invasion attempt.

Soldiers are asking for Snickers because it is a form of childhood currency where you would use the chocolate bars to make bets instead of using real money.

Armenian soldiers are asking for Snickers so they can use it as currency to make bets with each other whether their strikes against Azerbaijani soldiers and Syrian terrorists were successful or not.

However, girls around Armenia are now sending Snicker bars and writing notes on them to send to front line Armenian soldiers.

Seeing this on social media, Greeks and many other people around the world, including Serbians, Russians, South Americans and others, were moved by this and also wanted to send Snickers bars with messages attached to front line Armenian soldiers.

With coordination from Narine, a local to Yerevan, people from around the world sent their messages to her so they could be attached to Snickers bars to be given to Armenian soldiers.

Athenian women wrote to the Armenian soldiers, who are yet to receive the messages and chocolate bars, “we admire you for your courage,” “stay strong Armenian hero,” and one even giving her Twitter handle to whichever soldier will receive her message.

Athenian men sent messages as well, including “don’t forget [you] have the Greeks support,” “stray strong, stray proud, stay alive!” and “strength and honor brothers.”

“One man from Serbia also wrote that “there won’t be another genocide […] the Serbs are with you, brothers!”

Messages have also come from across the world, including Russia, London and Sweden.

Olga’s message to an Armenian soldier was “After the war, I hope you come to Thessaloniki to eat my mums Pontian food.”

Two Serbian women also sent messages that are suggestive, with one being on the R-18+ side.

Hadi from Lebanon wrote “Historically we suffered from the same Ottoman genocides. Today we fight back as one against neo-ottomans and their offshoots. Stay strong,” while Mikel, an ethnic Greek from Albania wrote: “You are with God and you are fighting against evil for [the] liberation of your country. We are in agreement and in spirit with you. We pray for you. God bless you in this holy war.”

Several members of the Nova Resistencia political organization in Brazil sent messages of solidarity and encouragement, with their leader, Raphael Machado, writing: “Brazilian patriots are with you! You fight for all of us against the enemies of mankind! Victory to Armenia.”

Messages also came from as far as Australia, with one Indian living in Sydney saying “Artsakh will be the graveyard of [Aliyev] & Erdogan. Aprir Hayastan! [Long Live Armenia!].”

More messages came from Greece, with Nikitas from Athens writing “all [of] us Greeks are with you in this fight and I would like you to never forget that.”

Finally, messages also arrived from Chile, Argentina and Brazil, with a joint message from Renato, Felipe and Diego in Chile saying “solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Armenia. [We] wish you victory over Azeri-Turkish aggression. [Artsakh] strong!”

See photos of these chocolatae bars with the messages at

https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/05/why-are-greeks-sending-snickers-with-messages-attached-to-armenian-soldiers-on-the-front-lines-photos/

[Yervant1]

Jerusalem Post

Oct 4 2020

What is Turkey’s agenda using Syrian fighters globally?

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN OCTOBER 3, 2020 16:10

Turkey’s approach to the mercenarization of war was to take Syrians who wanted to fight the Assad regime and recast them as part of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army.

Evidence continues to build of the war crimes of Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria, and now the deployment of other Turkish-backed groups to Libya and Azerbaijan. UN and human rights groups have documented the abuses in Afrin and Tel Abyad by the groups Turkey supports and helped recruit from Syrians. At the same time thousands were sent to Libya beginning in January 2020. Now hundreds have been sent to Azerbaijan to fight Armenians, reports assert.

What is actually happening here? Turkey’s use of Syrian rebels to go fight its foreign wars is unusual internationally. Most countries do not recruit people from third countries to fight their wars. However, in the past decades the use of military contractors and groups alleged to be “mercenaries” has increased. These include contractors employed by Western powers and in the Gulf, as well as contractors hired by Russia to serve in Syria, Libya and Africa. Turkey’s approach is more complex because it began by using Syrians to ostensibly fight in their own country.

Turkey’s approach to the mercenarization of war was to take Syrians who wanted to fight the Assad regime and recast them as part of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, later rebranded the Syrian National Army. However this “national” force was not so national, it was made up of a variety of groups and they were often empowered by Ankara to commit abuses against Kurds, Christians and other minorities, such as Yazidis. Their language was extremist and far-right and often consisted of chants against “infidels,” hatred that is the kind of ideology that underpinned ISIS and other groups. However others argue that what motivated the young men was not religious extremism, but rather money.

This leads to questions about what exactly Turkey has done in creating these legions of shock troops that it used against Kurds in Afrin in 2018 and then again in 2019. The group Ahrar al-Sharqiya that murdered Kurdish activist, the young unarmed woman Hevrin Khalaf, appeared to do so at the behest of Ankara. Do military contractors usually seek out unarmed women to murder them? Not usually. Do mercenaries loot, the way these groups are known for looting? Yes. But do they kidnap and trade in women the way groups such as that Hamza division were accused of doing in Afrin?

This leads to questions about what to make of the plethora of Turkish-backed groups such as Hamza, Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, Sultan Murad and the Suleimani Shah brigade. The groups that went to Libya, between 3,800 and 17,000 of them, included a mix of fighters. Middle East Eye claimed the Suquour al-Sham and Faylaq al-Sham sent men, and The Guardian also highlighted Faylaq al-Sham. More came from the Sultan Murad Turkmen unit, and others Jaish al-Islam. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said members of the Al-Mutassim Brigade went.

The men who went to Syria include Turkmen units and the Hamza brigade. Some the fighters served in other units prior to joining and going. Members of the Suleiman Shah unit are also alleged to have been sent.

The network of groups that Ankara has used in Syria’s Afrin and Tel Abyad, in Libya and now in Nagorna-Karabakh now are not just a one-time use or unprecedented decision due to necessity, but a cynical and calculated abuse of Syrians of Syrians. Turkey has targeted Syrians who are poor and vulnerable for recruitment. It is unusual for a NATO member to go to refugees and try to recruit them to die in foreign conflicts. Ankara has done this because of international impunity.

The question it raises is why Ankara hasn’t created a more organized method of recruitment and continues to outsource and rely on various units. It doesn’t know what traditional colonial powers did, using Turkish officers and Syrian fighters, like some British colonial units were staffed with. Some have pointed to Ottoman history as an example of Turkey recruiting foreign units, sometimes terms Bashi-bazouk. The Ottomans recruited other units from foreigners, including Janissaries. However the relationship to the Syrians does not appear to be the same. It appears more that Ankara wants to export them to distract them from Ankara’s failures to do much in Syria, getting rid of a large group of armed men who could chafe under Ankara’s rule and who often fight each other.

A way to view Turkey’s use of these fighters is through the prism of the Palestinians. After the 1948 war many millions of Palestinians became refugees and some joined units backed by foreign countries. These Fedayeen fought in many conflicts. They were not usually sent to fight other wars, but they created an armed mass of men that did fight in various roles on sides of conflict, ostensibly against Israel.

Has Turkey created a Frankenstein with these fighters, or a Foreign Legion? Is it feeding off of Ottoman era and colonial history for examples or modern examples of contractors and mercenaries. Clearly the use of the fighters to channel them from fighting the war against the Syrian regime that the fighters wanted, to sending them abroad is a new phenomenon. It is mostly based on lure of pay with some religious propaganda of fighting imagined enemies or “jihad” mixed in. This blend of religious-ethnic-economic incentives is interesting, but it is primarily Turkey that operationalized the abuse of Syrians by sending them to far away places and betraying their fight in Syria to get them to fight Kurds, Libyans and Armenians. The question is whether Turkey will create permanent units, the way Iran has with foreign proxies, or hope that these units dissolve themselves and disappear.

https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/what-is-turkeyss-agenda-using-syrian-fighters-globally-644372/amp?fbclid=IwAR1YmgA0S002arO_C6sG5Ss_8buGUQhQdlSNSb0fABJvyWbWZckQ9qoeYe8

[Yervant1]

RT - Russia Today

Oct 4 2020

Armenia asks European Court of Human Rights to take action over Turkish role in Azerbaijan’s 'attacks on civilians'

Armenia submitted a request to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan. Intensifying violence over Nagorno-Karabakh claimed civilian lives on both sides on Sunday.

Armenia wants the ECHR to apply so-called “interim measures” against Ankara over its “diverse assistance” to Azerbaijani's attacks against the civilian population and targets in Armenia and disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. That's according to the office of Armenia's representative to the ECHR.

The interim measures can be applied by the court when there are fears that human lives are being threatened, or any kind of ill-treatment, such as torture for example, is being used.

Shortly after hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out last Sunday, Armenia alleged that Turkey had sent equipment to Azerbaijani forces, as well as supported mercenaries from Syria to join their offensive against the Armenian-populated enclave. Ankara denied having provided any material support to Azerbaijan, but confirmed it would not hesitate to do so if asked.

Meanwhile, President Macron of France previously said that his country has “credible” information that Syrian militants arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh through Turkey. Russia's Foreign Ministry voiced such concerns as well.

Last week, Armenia lodged a similar request to ECHR against Azerbaijan, demanding it “cease military attacks on civilian settlements.”

As hostilities intensified this Sunday, both Baku and authorities of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic reported civilian casualties.

https://www.rt.com/rtmobile/news/latest/502513/html?dark_mode=0&font_scale=0.500000&indent_left=5&indent_right=5&indent_top=340&hide=section%2Ctitle%2Cdate%2Ccover&fbclid=IwAR2qQRM8-VqKc4nfI9fZGYKARRH7yGbPZPM5S0xzSoCboJOAjA5p57voBvI

[Yervant1]

Public Radio of Armenia

Oct 4 2020

Aliyev in information blockade in own country – Armenia MoD representative

Fighting along the frontline continues, the northern and southern directions remain the main hotspots, official representative of the Armenian Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a press conference today.

He said 400 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed within the past 24 hours, 700 others were wounded, 13 units of military equipment, three plane and 1 drone were destroyed.

Hovhannisyan said a number of false reports were disseminated over the day on the highest level – by the level of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and his family.

“We saw how they were congratulating themselves on conquering Mataghis, but today we published video showing their troops running away from Mataghis under the firing of the Armenian forces,” Hovhannisyan said.

The same false information was disseminated today with regard to Jabrail.

“We have all grounds to assume that Aliyev is in information blockade in his own country. The commanded-in-chief does not get precise information about the situation․ Therefore, he is in command of the situation,” Hovhannisyan said.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/10/04/aliyev-in-information-blockade-in-own-country-armenia-mod-representative/

[Yervant1]

Colorado Politics

Oct 4 2020

Gov. Jared Polis speaks up for Armenians at war; peace rally planned in Denver

• Oct 4, 2020

• Joey Bunch, Colorado Politics

Gov. Jared Polis spoke up Saturday to support Armenians under fire as decades-long tensions escalated to fighting last Sunday.

At its heart, the conflict is over rights to what Armenians see as ancestral homeland, though technically in Azerbaijan.

Armenia alleges a Turkish F016 shot down one of its military planes Tuesday, killing the pilot, over the southern Caucasus mountains in the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabak. Dozens have been killed in fighting that started last Sunday. The conflict also raises tensions between NATO allies France and Turkey, with potential involvement from Russia, as the region moves deeper into war.

Colorado is home to a diaspora of about 3,000, though one politically engaged at the state Capitol.

"In this difficult and challenging time Colorado shows solidarity with the Armenian people, both in the enclave in Armenia, in the United States and in Colorado," Polis said in a video he posted on his Facebook page Saturday afternoon . "I want to thank the Armenia community for really coming together around protecting the lives of Armenians across the world."

Colorado’s Armenian community is planning a rally for peace at 4 p.m. Sunday on the west steps of the state Capitol in Denver.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat from Aurora and a decorated combat veteran, tweeted about the conflict earlier this week, as well.

"I condemn the Azeri attacks on Artsakh & call for an immediate end to the violence. Also, Turkey must halt all support & enabling of the Azeri offensive," he tweeted last Monday. "The U.S. must work with our partners in the Minsk Group to develop a ceasefire that provides for lasting peace in the region."

Armenia said Friday it is ready to discuss a cease-fire in the region within Azerbaijan but controlled by local ethnic forces backed by Armenia. Cease-fire calls have come from around the globe.

The Minsk Group is led by the U.S., Russia and France. It was created by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1992 to help resolve conflicts in the region.

Leaders convened Thursday and issued a joint statement urging an immediate cease to fighting to resume negotiations."

In a statement to the Associated Press late Friday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, “The Minsk Group, in its many statements, underlined the unacceptability of the status quo. However, acting regardless of this, Armenia aims to strengthen the status quo regime based on occupation. ... All responsibility for the current situation lies on the military-political leadership of Armenia.”

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/quick-hits/gov-jared-polis-speaks-up-for-armenians-at-war-peace-rally-planned-in-denver/article_b5fdb550-05b3-11eb-970c-8fad8d45e449.html

[Yervant1]

New Europe

Oct 4 2020

Karabakh, even if Baku wins, will lose

By New Europe

The European political newspaper

The Azerbaijan-Armenia local conflict may well become a regional war involving more countries in the Caspian region. Indeed, besides Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey, Russia and Turkmenistan may get into the picture next.

Turkey is facing bigger than ever domestic economic problems as well as a progressive international isolation from the major western powers, the USA and the EU, plus Russia. In the last decade, in order to maintain power at any cost, the Turkish President Recep Erdogan, established an authoritarian regime progressively turning into a dictatorship, which destroyed the economy and sunk the country into economic scandals involving mostly the inner circle of the president’s family. To divert public opinion from the real problems, Erdogan engaged in external wars, in Syria, Libya and now Armenia while he staged a potential war against Greece and Cyprus claiming drilling rights in certain areas of the Aegean Sea which by the existing international agreements do not belong to Turkey. The oxymoron is that the way oil prices developed after the virus pandemic, offshore drilling is (and because of the rapid development of alternative energy sources and natural gas) economically unfeasible while it is marginally feasible to keep operating the existing ones (Kashagan, etc.).

We should note that Turkey has expanded the Military’s Footprint with bases in the following countries. Albania, 20 to 250 troops in Vlorë naval base, with 2 frigates. Azerbaijan, buildings and structures in Gizil Sherg military town, and one terminal building located in the airfield in Hacı Zeynalabdin settlement. Iraq, a base with 2000 personnel. Turkey has more than 20 military and intelligence bases in two provinces of Erbil and Dohuk of Iraqi Kurdistan. Libya, airbases at al-Watiya, Mitiga and Misrata, in addition to Zwara. Northern Cyprus, a total of 30.000 armed forces of the Republic of Turkey are currently in active duty Cyprus Turkish Peace Force Command. Qatar, a base with 5000 personnel. Somalia, camp TURKSOM with 200 personnel (could increase to over 1000). Syria, bases in Al-Bab, Al-Rai, Akhtarin and Jarablus with at least 5000 personnel. New bases were followed at Atme and Darat Izza.

However, under the nightmare of collapse and the ghost of Fethullah Gülen looming over his head, Erdogan must invent external enemies, as the only way to secure power. Under the circumstances, Washington is moderately critical because Turkey is still a major member of NATO. Certainly, if the USA ever decides to abolish NATO, it will not let others take the initiative. USDOD will do it.

The EU while its territories are directly threatened by Turkey is keeping also a moderately critical, however firm, stance under the pressure of Germany. Indeed, some five million Muslims live in Germany who were never integrated into the German society. They are all well organized, under Ankara’s control, with thousands of Mosques, Islamic cultural centers, schools and ghettoes and the German government has neither the power nor the determination to oppose the permanent Turkish blackmail.

As Turkey, despite the mild wording, was forced by the bloc to downgrade the belligerent tones against Greece and Cyprus, two EU member states, and get into talks, in order to maintain the momentum, Erdogan instructed Ilham Aliyev, the leader of Azerbaijan, to declare war to Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, an area of Azerbaijan near the border with Armenia, inhabited exclusively by Armenians. In 1988, a liberation guerrilla war started in the area, when Karabakh demanded from Moscow to be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The conflict escalated into full flagged war in 1990 and, in view of the dismemberment of the Soviet Union which took place officially on December 26, 1991, two weeks before, on December 10, Nagorno Karabakh was self-declared Republic of Artsakh.

Azerbaijan is the most cooperative satellite of Turkey and is designed to have an important role in the future Turkish plans, which provide for the establishment of an Islamic Alliance. It is designed to be a kind of NATO of the Muslim world which will protect the interests of Muslims world-wide and its first target will be the Islamization of Europe.

Turkey has deeply penetrated in the Azerbaijan presidential administration which explains the various deals in sectors of oil gas and pipelines. In the same context, Erdogan instructed Aliyev to declare war to Artsakh and it is not coincidental that Armenian military are finding syringes and opioids in the pockets of killed Azeri soldiers’, a tactic commonly used by the Turkish army in Libya.

The Caspian region is a geographical area where still most serious Russian interests are deployed. Besides Iran, all other countries around the Caspian and beyond were Soviet Republics with deep rooted Russian interests. Therefore, if Azerbaijan wins, it will lose because Russia will take the opportunity to show everybody, who are the playmakers in the Caspian.

Russia was prohibited to fly over Turkey and Georgia to help Armenia, but this cannot stop Moscow from intervening and turn a border conflict into a regional war when it thinks it will be necessary. Also recently, Russia referred to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) or as known the Tashkent Treaty, signed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, that obliges them, if called by Armenia, to enter the conflict.

One of the long-standing open issues in the area is the claim of Turkmenistan on the Oil Rig outside Baku. The Oil Rig is located a few miles from Baku, facing Turkmenistan and according to Baku falls within the territorial waters of Azerbaijan. However, Ashgabat claims that as the Caspian is a lake, not sea, the Absheron peninsula which penetrates 37 miles into the lake, has no continental shelf rights therefore, the oil rig falls in the territorial waters of Turkmenistan. Given than the Russians control all international trade of Turkmen oil and gas it is not difficult to imagine what might happen in the case of an extended conflict in the Caspian.

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/karabakh-even-if-baku-wins-will-lose/

[Yervant1]

I guess the fake sultan is feeling the pain!

CIVILNET.AM

4 October, 2020 21:42

In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be through dialogue. However, he noted that negotiations need a foundation.

“We agree with the perspective that the problem with Armenia should be solved through dialogue, but there must be a basis for it. But to do this, the Armenian prime minister must announce his commitment to past agreements, according to which the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh have been recognized as occupied territories of Azerbaijan," he said in the interview with Al Arabiya TV.

He also noted that to be able to stop the hostilities, the Armenian Prime Minister must apologize for "calling the occupied Azerbaijani occupied territories Armenian [land]."

https://www.civilnet.am/news/2020/10/04/Aliyev-Hints-at-Dialogue-With-Preconditions/399060

 

[Yervant1]

MEDIA RELEASE

Geoffrey Robertson Calls on Australia to Support the Artsakh Rights to Self-Determination, Calls Out Azerbaijan and Turkey

http://www.anc.org.au/images/cms/1/news/robertson-graphic.png

LONDON: The Australian Newspaper has published an important op-ed by prominent Australian human rights barrister of the London-based Doughty Street Chambers, Mr. Geoffrey Robertson QC on Azerbaijan's Turkey-backed attacks against the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh.

Robertson calls out the regime of Azerbaijani petro-dictator Ilham Aliyev for his claim that the Armenian side instigated what is fast becoming a humanitarian disaster, with Baku using cluster munitions against the civilians in Artsakh's capital Stepanakert yesterday.

"He (Aliyev) denies being the aggressor, but this is not credible: he has everything to gain by it and Armenia has everything to lose, and no reason to commence battle. It has agreed to international calls for peace talks but Aliyev, bent on killing and conquest, has refused," Robertson wrote.

The high-profile former judge also poured cold water over Turkey's denial that it is directly involved in Azerbaijan's aggression, highlighting evidence that Ankara-backed Islamist Jihadist mercenaries have been deployed to bolster Aliyev's expansionist ambitions.

"Despite its denials, evidence from France and Russia and the British media proves that in the last month Turkish companies have recruited and paid fighters from Syria to join the Azeri forces – proof that Turkey and Azerbaijan planned their attack in advance," Robertson added.

The Defence Ministry in Yerevan has also uncovered evidence that Turkey's air force is directly attacking Armenian targets.

Robertson continued by demanding action from the United Nations Security Council.

"The Security Council should immediately refer the conflict to the International Criminal Court, which is now empowered to investigate the crime of aggression, which appears to have been committed by Aliyev with the support of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan," he said.

Azerbaijan's claims over the Nagorno Karabakh region, which its indigenous Armenians declare the Republic of Artsakh by referendum following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is their sovereign territory.

Robertson said: "Aliyev claims the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan but this rests on Stalin’s 1923 decision to make the region an oblast. This status it has not had for the last quarter of a century after its people voted for independence and won the war they fought for their right to self-determination."

He added: "International law allows what is termed the right of remedial secession, which has been accorded to East Timor, Kosovo and others and which should apply to Artsakh."

Robertson continued by calling on Australian to support the rights to self-determination of the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.

"It would be intolerable if Artsakh were to be invaded and its people killed or forced to flee. Yet this is the declared objective of Turkey," Robertson said.

"But the Armenians are a tough race, emerging from the genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks (who slaughtered more than a million of them in 1915-16). They have a diaspora that is powerful in the US and elsewhere (although the best-known Armenian is Kim Kardashian, Australia can boast Joe Hockey and Gladys Berejiklian)."

"They will not surrender Artsakh and nor should they. Australia should not hesitate in its support for them – not for the sake of Christianity but for democracy," Robertson concluded.

Armenian National Committee of Australia Executive Director, Haig Kayserian praised Robertson for "speaking truth to power".

"The Armenian-Australian community is frustrated by the false parity the international community and some media are trying to give to what are blatant attacks from the neo-Ottoman descendants of those who committed the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides of 1915," Kayserian said.

"Now we have one of the most credible defenders of human rights, Mr. Geoffrey Robertson telling them how it is, that the Republic of Artsakh deserves international recognition to ensure its rights to self-determination, and that Turkey and Azerbaijan are attacking those rights."

Kayserian added: "We are disappointed by the Australian Government's fence-sitting on this issue. Australian values call on our leaders to call crimes out by name, and this was an attack by Azerbaijan backed by Turkey, who have supported with high-level weaponry and the deployment of Islamist jihadists previously fighting in Syria.”

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Artsakh Air Defense units again shoot down Azeri warplane and UAV

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08:56, 2 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Air Defense units of the Artsakh Armed Forces shot down an Azerbaijani warplane and an unmanned aerial vehicle at 07:55 October 2 in the north-eastern direction of Artsakh, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said.

She said the combat operations are ongoing along the entire border of Artsakh.

“Enemy attempts to breach our defense lines in several sections have failed,” she said.

Azerbaijani armed forces launched a massive military attack on Artsakh on September 27. Since then, 11 civilians have been killed and more than 60 were wounded amid Azeri bombardments of towns and cities of Artsakh. Amid the ongoing Turkish-backed attack on Artsakh, the Azeri forces also began attacking Armenia, killing a civilian and bombing a passenger bus in the town of Vardenis.

A Turkish F-16 shot down an Armenian Armed Forces SU-25 jet in Armenian airspace on September 29.

Then, on October 1, the Azeri forces shelled the Shatvan village of Armenia, and attacked the Mets Masrik village with a combat drone, killing one civilian and wounding two others. Several Azeri recon drones breached the Armenian airspace and were shot down near Yerevan late on October 1.

The Artsakh military reported earlier that 103 of its servicemen have been killed in action since the attack began. More than 120 troops are wounded.

On October 1 the authorities said that Azeri forces lost nearly 1300 servicemen since the beginning of the attack. The Azeri military also suffered huge losses of equipment – 95 UAVs, 12 gunships, 181 tanks and armored equipment, 5 warplanes, 2 Smerch and 3 TOS1A heavy artillery systems.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1029926.html?fbclid=IwAR3rHL5R6r-sCw-bo9J2OIUNEhfYd5me0okuKA67ieWdCUUO-UfVap4FpH0

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Armenpress.am

Artsakh finds Israeli-made radio on killed adversary soldier,Arabic-language communication retrieved

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11:21, 2 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 2, ARMENPRESS. An Azerbaijani armed forces soldier who was killed in action amid the attack on Artsakh had an Israeli-made Tadiran radio set, the Artsakh Deputy Commander of the Defense Army Artur Sargsyan said at a news conference.

“Decryption of the device revealed that the groups fighting in the mentioned directions are commanded mostly in Arabic language,” he said.

Amid numerous reports of Turkey sending Syrian jihadists and mercenaries to Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed on October 1 that France has confirmed intelligence that more than 300 ISIS-affiliated militants were recruited and transferred through Turkey to the NK conflict zone.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1029942.html?fbclid=IwAR3hzuZ-YUvAe4NgH8AzWgiD4iA5VxtbymWDhweTF83utgbWvutj0mRWnrU

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Armenpress.am

Macron to demand explanations from Erdogan over sending Islamists to Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone

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12:38, 2 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 2, ARMENPRESS. French President Emmanuel Macron said on October 2 that he would hold a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the transfer of Syrian militants through Turkey to Azerbaijan.

“I will call President Erdogan in the next several days because I believe that France, as a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group, must demand explanations around this issue,” Macron said.

Macron said he held a phone conversation on October 1 with Russian President Vladimir Putin to exchange information about the situation in Nagorno Karabakh. “I believe I can say the Russian party is assessing the situation in the same way. I also think that poses a threat to the security of Russia and the whole region,” Macron noted, describing the situation as unacceptable, according to Sputnik News.

France 24 reported that Macron also slammed Turkey for “crossing the red line” by transferring the jihadist militants to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone.

“I call on all NATO member states to take note of the behavior of a NATO member state [Turkey],” the French leader added.

Earlier President of France Emmanuel Macron announced that more than 300 Syrian Islamist militants have been transferred through Turkey’s Gaziantep into the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone and are involved from the Azerbaijani side in the military operations. He said France possesses confirmed information, and has even identified the foreign fighters.

Earlier the Pentagon had also confirmed the information that Turkey transferred mercenaries to Azerbaijan.

The BBC had even managed to speak to one of these mercenaries, who said that they have been tricked into going to Azerbaijan for 2000 dollars a month and they didn’t know they would be involved in military operations.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1029951.html?fbclid=IwAR1-Uyd5d9mwty2hMimFJRb1vxDb4LBGDVh_eCvLRLvhBUCHY0BB9c3SlfQ

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Armenpress.am

Armenian defense ministry released images of Azeri T-90 wreckage

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13:45, 2 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Defense has released images of the wreckage of an Azerbaijani T-90 tank.

“And here comes the T-90. Our guys hit it pretty easily. Unfortunately I couldn’t get closer because we were being shot at,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan said, posting the photos.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1029968.html?fbclid=IwAR0vsSbOYbHCyNOBumpKJHCr0xXt8rpBjaXI2l4ZR688q6RLCnG8O8p3ydM

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Armenpress.am

Azerbaijani casualties pass 3000 according to intelligence data – Artsakh presidential spox

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03:04, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. According to the intelligence data, the number of Azerbaijani soldiers killed in the attack on Artsakh is over 3000, Artsakh presidential spokesperson Vahram Poghosyan said on Facebook.

“A large part of the bodies is in the neutral zone, and no action is taken in practice for removing them”, he said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030086.htmlm?fbclid=IwAR0SkhaF7fXeILjdI6RAW8JUkoHhsyYBA0J4VDkq1ULYgueGFo4puIigbwg

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Armenpress.am

‘Today our future is being determined’: President of Artsakh addresses special forces

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10:18, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan met with servicemen of the Defense Army’s special units at night before heading to the frontline.

The President post a video from the meeting with the special units on his Facebook account.

“No one can defeat our soldiers, and this is not just an emotional recording. We will defend our united Homeland with honor”, he said.

In his remarks the President of Artsakh stated that “today our future, the Armenian people’s right to live in this country are determined”.

“We live the most crucial time of the centuries. We live in a critical period of having or not having a Homeland. The future of not only Artsakh, Armenia, but also the Armenian people depends on each of us. I want you all to carry out your service and continue living in this Homeland as dignified sons. Be sure, we will win. We faced a more difficult time in the 90s. That time we succeeded, today as well we will succeed. Today our children’s right to live in a free country is being determined. We have a mission before our nation and generations”, the Artsakh President said.

He informed that earlier he met with the Yazidi brothers, they are also in the frontline. Harutyunyan said the international community has also united because it understands the great evil which has started in the region.

Earlier today Arayik Harutyunyan informed that he is heading to the frontline to carry out his fight.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030098.htmln?fbclid=IwAR10byl2O56eY9lT-GOjgZ5qffmtknGoVK7bPJOfmr6m6Ui6kFGK-urT9ts

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Armenpress.am

There is clear evidence of Azerbaijan’s full responsibility for escalation of conflict – OAS chief

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15:10, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. During the last five years the Organization of American States has followed closely the unilateral arms race of Azerbaijan, that escalation was undoubtedly the preparation for this armed aggression against Nagorno Karabakh. There is clear evidence of Azerbaijan’s full responsibility regarding the escalation of the conflict, Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro said in his letter addressed to Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States Elin Suleymanov.

The OAS Secretary General said he is writing this letter in response to the Ambassador’s reaction to the Organization’s declaration regarding recent military attacks on Nagorno Karabakh.

“During the last five years we have followed closely the unilateral arms race of your country; it was a matter of deep concern because that escalation was undoubtedly the preparation for this armed aggression launched by Azerbaijan. There is clear evidence of your full responsibility regarding the aggression and the escalation of the conflict. A statement was made by France with evidence that Turkey sent 300 ISIS-affiliated Islamists to join Azeri military in the conflict”, Mr. Almagro said in his letter.

He added that the United States Defense Department has confirmed the presence of hundreds of Syrian mercenaries from Turkey to support Azerbaijan. “Additionally, in the recent meeting at the summit of the Twenty-Seven in Brussels, European leaders have denounced any external interference. The proof related to the participation of the Turkish air force in the conflict is absolutely condemnable”, he said.

The OAS Secretary General noted that Armenia has already expressed their willingness to accept a negotiation. “It is now your responsibility towards international peace and stability to accept the same”, he stated.

Luis Almagro emphasized that the statement which the Ambassador referenced in his letter was issued by the General Secretariat of the Organization of America States which he has the honor to lead, and stated its strong condemnation of military aggression, especially those attacks directed towards civilians, and called for cessation of hostilities.

“The core message of self-determination – a principle that you have decided to ignore-the peaceful resolution of conflicts-another principle that you have decided to ignore-and promotion of peace and stability contained in the declaration is absolutely compatible with the values and activities of the OAS.

What I do consider incompatible with the principles of self-determination and peace and stability, are both the recent military attacks against civilians in Nagorno Karabakh and the foreign variables intervening and threatening a negotiation process”, he said.

He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has reported that civilian infrastructure is being targeted in Nagorno Karabakh. “According to the Armenian government, these criminal attacks against civilians were carried out by your country alongside Turkish military specialists. As we stated in our declaration on September 27, 2020, the practice of attacking civilians as military targets must be banished and constitutes a complete violation of most basic rules governing armed conflict”, Almagro said.

The OAS stands by its declaration regarding the recent military aggression in Nagorno Karabakh and reiterates the need to reactivate the negotiation process led by the authorities of the OSCE Minsk Group. “We believe that this conflict can only be solved through a negotiation process based on international law and the principles established in the Helsinki Accords”, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro said, in the end offering his condolences to the victims of both sides.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030143.htmln?fbclid=IwAR2wtpOx0mG0Y4_8zV632isYu16IX6aHtMXpprAbJzpz2W2Nm92HOJaalck

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Armenpress.am

‘Military-political leadership of Azerbaijan will pay a high price’ – Armenia MFA

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15:33, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement over the recent developments in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone.

Armenpress presents the MFA’s statement:

“In contempt of the persistent calls of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and the entire international community on the immediate cessation of hostilities, Azerbaijan and Turkey jointly continue large-scale hostilities with the aim of resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict by military means.

To this end, Azerbaijan has put forward its entire military capacities, reinforced by Turkish military assistance, which includes also foreign terrorists fighters transferred from other conflict zones in the Middle East. The civilian settlements and civilian population on the entire territory of Artsakh are being subjected to systematic and massive attacks, resulting in human casualties and destruction.

These actions aim at depriving the people of Artsakh of their historical homeland by perpetrating mass atrocities.

The Republic of Armenia, as the guarantor of the security of the people of Artsakh, will take all the necessary means and steps to prevent those mass atrocities.

The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan will pay a high price for committing such grave crimes against the Armenians of Artsakh, for importing terrorists to the region and for undermining the regional security”.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030147.htmlb?fbclid=IwAR2wtpOx0mG0Y4_8zV632isYu16IX6aHtMXpprAbJzpz2W2Nm92HOJaalck

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Armenpress.am

‘We need to have countries start to recognize the Republic of Artsakh’ – Serj Tankian

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16:52, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. World famous rock musician, soloist of System of a Down group Serj Tankian highlighted the necessity of the recognition of the Republic of Artsakh by countries.

“We need to have countries start to recognize the Republic of Artsakh to protect the civilians of Artsakh from the lawless and reckless acts of terror by Azerbaijan and Turkey”, Tankian said on Facebook.

Earlier today Artsakh’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement, calling on the international community to recognize the independence of the Republic of Artsakh for ensuring the Artsakh citizens’ right to life and peaceful development.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030155.htmln?fbclid=IwAR1amMQ1A6Nippy0W82BzmBLTW69gt14HaS5Pe_8YiKCNLD0JX3f-wLv7qg

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Armenpress.am

Defense Ministry of Armenia sums up losses of Azerbaijan

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23:39, 3 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Armenia presented the total manpower and military equipment losses of Azerbaijan.

Manpower - 2745

UAV – 123

Helicopters – 14

Aircrafts – 14

Armored vehicles – 355

Smerch system - 4

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1030214.htmln?fbclid=IwAR2biUAodND0unrThDhy_x-eBC72I_j_hwlD0npGP2xwGuB85FhVtyrRPPY

[Yervant1]

International Institute for Peace

Oct 5 2020

WAR IN THE CAUCASUS: A PERSPECTIVE FROM ARMENIA

Mher D. Sahakyan

Major Regional War in the South Caucasus: Erdogan’s Geopolitical Ambitious

On July 20, 2020, in an article published at IIP Peace Blog we warned that the unresolved situation of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) issue can escalate into a major regional war if Turkey continues to back Azerbaijan and provoke it to solve the problem through military operations.

In the early morning of September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan launched airstrikes and a large-scale offensive against Artsakh. The capital of Artsakh, Stepanakert, and main settlements are still under heavy bombardment. This time Turkey is also involved, it supplies Azerbaijan with Bayraktar Tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and, as the Armenian Ministry of Defence informed, Turkish F-16 fighters are also taking part in military operations. Additionally, as French President Emanuel Macron stated on October 1, 2020, during the EU Council meeting, Turkey sent jihadist terrorists from Syria to Azerbaijan and they also participate in military operations against Artsakh. This information was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well. Armenian military forces are also taking part in the defense of Artsakh, as Armenia is a guarantor of security of Artsakh and currently it sees its national security challenged due to the Turkish involvement and presence of terrorists. The confirmation of these concerns was that the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem launched missiles and air strikes against the internationally recognized territory of Armenia. The settlements of Armenian Gegharkunik region appeared under bombardment. As a result, several civilians died. Armenians understand Turkish engagement in the conflict as Erdogan’s attempts to complete Armenian genocide and to turn the South Caucasus into another base of international jihadists controlled by him, which will destabilize also the North Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Chinese Xinjiang.

On October 1, 2020, The US, France and Russia as Co-chair countries of the Minsk group “condemned in the strongest terms the recent escalation of violence along the Line of Contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.” The leaders of three states called “for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces” and urged the conflicting parties to restart negotiations without preconditions. The EU also welcomed this statement and "urged the parties to recommit to a lasting ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict". In turn, Turkish president Erdogan announced that for him the statement of Putin, Macron and Trump has “no value” and Turkey will continue to fully support Azerbaijani military actions, which Ankara “regard as ‘two states one nation’”. In sum, Turkey is not interested in stabilization of the situation in the South Caucasus, pursuing, in accordance with its national interest, the following goals:

1. Turkey uses this opportunity for weaking its historical adversary Armenia with the hands of Azerbaijan, without taking into consideration the fact, that Azerbaijani people are paying a high price. In the battle field, Azerbaijan lost more than 1200 soldiers, 181 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, 12 helicopters, 4 fighter aircraft, 90 UAV, 3 TOS-1 Heavy Flamethrower System, 2 Smerch heavy multiple rocket launcher, etc.

2. It tries to extirpate democracy in Armenia, as Turkey and Azerbaijan, being autocratic dictatorships, fear that the democratic revolution in Armenia, which happened in 2018, will spillover into their states and the EU’s position will be strengthened in the region, challenging political systems of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

3. Ankara also weakens positions of Russia in the South Caucasus, which will lose its influence in the region irretrievably, if its last ally - Armenia, is defeated. With this step Turkey also discredits the Russia-lead Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, as other Russian allies are also following what is happening. If Russia continues to stay aloof, they will try to find other partners and mechanisms for solving their security and economic issues. By destroying Armenia, Turkey tries to open its way to Central Asia. If establishing presence of radical jihadists in the South Caucasus is successful, Turkey will be able to export radical religious ideologies to the North Caucasus, which can become a serious headache for Russia, as it was during the 1990s.

4. Getting ground close to the northern borders of Iran, Turkey will be able to press its regional main competitor Tehran and organize anti-Iranian operations in northern provinces of Iran, with the help of “imported” foreign jihadists in Azerbaijan, against whom Iran struggles in Syria and Iraq.

5. If this scenario runs successfully, Turkey will try to control main routes of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt, namely China-Central Asia-Western Asia Economic Corridor, and raise its influence in Central Asia. This region is bordering China’s province Xinjiang, where Ankara will try to get more leverage to destabilize the situation in its favor. With these steps Turkey will destroy security architecture of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and will create its own, outing from these regions China and Russia.

Actually, Erdogan’s warlike behavior is coming from last developments. When Turkey destabilized the situation in Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Europe, Syria and Libya, the international community did not take necessary steps to stop him, because of colliding interests of the West, Russia, EU, Egypt, China, Iran, Greece and other major players. Now Erdogan is sure that he will not be punished, so he organizes his own military unites of jihadist terrorists, who are located in Syria and Libya, and uses them for his own geopolitical ambitious.

Conflicting Parties and Their Aims: Artsakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Jihadists

For the Artsakhi people it is a war for their existence and right of self-determination.

Armenia supports Artsakh as it cannot just watch from the side how Azerbaijan, Turkey and jihadist terrorists annihilate self-ruled Artsakh, which has a population of merely 200.000. The other reason is that Armenia understands that it has its own responsibility for improving regional security and defending democratic values. However, Armenia implements it having heavy casualties among its military personal and civilian population.

Azerbaijan tries to reconquer Artsakh, which has not been part of Azerbaijan before establishment and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Of course, during the negotiations on Artsakh issue both principles – self-determination and territorial integrity – are on the table, but when Baku tries to solve problem only with the help of military operations, it automatically answers the question, why its territorial integrity cannot be recovered without taking into consideration the principle of self-determination, for which it has only one argument, that the Soviet Union granted Artsakh to Azerbaijan without considering the fact, that the main population of Artsakh are Armenians, who represent another civilization and have nothing to share with the Turkish-Azerbaijani civilization. By bombing civilian population early in the morning without warning, Azerbaijan proved once again the accusation of Artsakhi side, that in the 80s and 90s the war begun because of national cleansing organized by Baku.

As it was mentioned, Turkey tries to use this momentum for strengthening its geopolitical positions and for exporting its own way of autocratic dictatorship where radical religious ideology plays an important role.

Most of jihadists participate in operations against Artsakh and Armenia for ideological reasons, as they feel civilizational and religious connection with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Some of them fight on the Azerbaijani side for around $ 1500 a month. This is not the first time when Azerbaijan involves foreign mercenaries in Artaskh conflict. In the beginning of the 90s terrorist groups from Chechnya and Afghanistan were also used by Baku against Armenians of Artsakh. As Shamil Basayev mentioned he and other mujaheds arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in jihad against Armenians.

Conclusion and Policy Recommendations

Actually, now the border of civilizations is being decided in the war, where on one side are Artsakh and Armenia and on the other side Azerbaijan and Turkey, which due to the above mentioned facts involve jihadists in this conflict. It is already not a war between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, it is a conflict where interests of many regional and non-regional actors are colliding. The international community must react to these developments in a much more strict manner and stop the war in the South Caucasus, which can become another center of international terrorism, if sides which involve jihadists from the Middle East are not punished in accordance with the international law. By the mediation of the EU, Russia, US and other constructive players, Azerbaijan, Artsakh and Armenia must be back to principles of Ceasefire Agreement Signed in Bishkek, which Stepanakert, Baku and Yerevan signed in May, 1994.

1. As Co-chair countries of the Minsk group, France, US and Russia must press Turkey to stop its provocative involvement in the Artsakh issue, they must minimize Ankara’s role.

2. The EU must impose sanctions on parties, which bring Middle Eastern terrorists to the South Caucasus, because of which jihadists can stand real threat for energy and transport infrastructure of the region. Their appearance in the South Caucasus can stand a reason, that several hundred thousand of people will flee from the region to Europe.

3. Russia must behave much more decisively as escalation of situation in the South Caucasus will have an impact on the North Caucasus and Central Asia as well. It will destroy economic and security architecture in these regions, where Russia has influence.

4. China also must be concerned and focused on peaceful solution of this conflict, as jihadists’ presence in the region will threaten Belt and Road Initiative. Strengthening its position in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, Turkey will be able to press Beijing using Xinjiang’s problem as a bargaining chip for getting more benefits. Thus, China needs to take concrete actions for pressing and stopping Turkish advancement to the East.

 

02.10.2020, Yerevan, Armenia

Dr. Mher Sahakyan is founder and director of the “China-Eurasia” Council for Political and Strategic Research, he holds a doctorate in IR from China’s Nanjing University. He is the author of the book China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Armenia. Mher is a member of the British Association for Chinese Studies. Sahakyan is a lecturer at Russian-Armenian University and a visiting lecturer at the International Scientific Educational Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

https://www.iipvienna.com/new-blog/2020/10/5/war-in-the-caucasus-a-perspective-from-armenia?fbclid=IwAR14rrX5pNk7jmnmlxMekGY9k2sQ7nrMmusaS_fjGPsIwzaHheeRLYdD1uM

 

[Yervant1]

Washington Post

Oct 3 2020

Erdogan’s reckless intervention is fueling fighting in Azerbaijan and Armenia

Opinion by Editorial Board

October 3, 2020 at 8:00 AM EDT

THE COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union touched off a string of border wars in Eurasia, the bloodiest of which centered on Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous, Armenian-populated enclave inside Azerbaijan. After Armenian forces drove the Azeris out of the region and captured adjacent territories, a 1994 cease-fire created one of the “frozen conflicts” that haunt the post-Soviet space. In the past week, after years of quiet, the fighting has erupted again, with the explosive potential to renew carnage that killed tens of thousands, disrupt European energy supplies and draw in neighboring powers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/erdogans-reckless-intervention-is-fueling-fighting-in-azerbaijan-and-armenia/2020/10/02/328b05ea-0407-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html?outputType=amp&fbclid=IwAR0KrQ1dRSGsUqFtKy0sgE2ZPfVqyiey5_nYpZq7eBPaf_tnON4D_sdIkm0

[Yervant1]

HyperAllergic

Oct 3 2020

Archeologist Raises Alarms Over Azerbaijan’s Shelling of an Ancient City

An archeological site that was founded in the 1st-century BCE is threatened by the outbreak of violence by Azerbaijan against the Armenian region.

Simon MaghakyanOctober 3, 2020

Archaeologist Hamlet Petrosyan says a major Hellenistic and Armenian archaeological site, Tigranakert, has been shelled several times in Azerbaijan’s ongoing attack on Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), the unrecognized republic populated by indigenous Armenians that is fighting a battle for self-determination.

In an interview today, Petrosyan explains that he learned that Tigranakert, “the best-preserved city of the Hellenistic and Armenian civilizations” of the Caucasus “is in the area of intensive war activity” and “has been shelled several times.” Petrosyan, who heads the archaeological expedition in Tigranakert and is a department chair at the Yerevan State University, stated that “as of four days ago, the [onsite] museum has not been damaged.” Due to the ongoing fighting, the archeological team is finding it largely impossible to get regular assessments of the sites, though they maintain contacts with individuals who have infrequent access to the locations. Neither Armenian nor Azerbaijani militaries have released any information about either site.

The archeological team examining an early Christian architectural detail.

Situated in the de facto republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan considers part of its Soviet-era territorial inheritance, the site of Tigranakert is near the frontlines of the ongoing war that, according to media reports, Azerbaijan launched on September 27. The offensive was decried by a Washington Post editorial today that explains, “what seems clear is that Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler, Ilham Aliyev, has launched an offensive to regain the territories his country lost in the 1990s — and that he is doing so with the direct support of Turkey.” The Armenian side has been reporting Azerbaijan’s deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure in the region, including a shelling of Stepanakert’s electric station earlier today that left the Republic’s biggest city without power.

The archeological team working at the site of Tigranakert, also known as Tigranakert of Artsakh.

“The Tigranakert of Artsakh is one of the cities founded by Tigranes the Great in 95–55 BCE,” explained Petrosyan. The city has ancient fortifications that occupy seven hectares, surrounded by sophistically-planned urban districts of 70 hectares. According to him, Tigranakert was built to guard the eastern frontiers of ancient Armenia “to prevent invasions by [east-of-Kura] Caucasus tribes.”

While researchers initially expected Tigranakert to be a predominantly pagan and Hellenistic site, excavations have shown it to also be a major hub for Early Christianity. “The city was the center of the [region’s] first Christians, we have excavated the Early Christian square with two churches,” Petrosyan says. “Over 10 inscriptions have been discovered in Armenian and Greek, dating to the 5th and 7th centuries CE.”

A view of the on-site Tigranakert museum

Another historical site, Amaras, which is a major Early Christianity site, “is also in the war zone but has not been shelled,” according to Petrosyan. The site includes the foundation of a 4th-century church, established by the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic church, St. Gregory the Illuminator, and it appears to be spared for now. “Amaras also preserves the St. Grigoris [grandson of Gregory] mausoleum built in the late 5th century, which is one of the best-preserved monuments of early Christianity in the entire Caucasus region,” explained Petrosyan.

One of the reconstructed clay objects from the Tigranakert of Artsakh site

If the war continues then the preservation of Amaras, Tigranakert, and numerous other Armenian monuments is likely to be seriously impacted based on Azerbaijan’s history of cultural genocide. As a major investigative report published in Hyperallergic last year revealed, between the years of 1997–2006 the government of Azerbaijan systematically and covertly destroyed approximately 28,000 medieval Armenian monuments in Nakhichevan (Naxçıvan), another region of Azerbaijan which had an indigenous Armenian population until the last few decades. The Azerbaijani dictatorship has used its wealth, largely derived from its oil resources, to influence and silence organizations charged with preserving global heritage, including UNESCO. In 2017, a Guardian investigation found a cozy relationship between the organization and the autocratic government. They reported:

The revelation that her husband consulted for an Azeri company might prove awkward for Mitrev’s wife, Irina Bokova, who is the director general of Unesco. Bokova has bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. She also hosted a photo exhibition at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, entitled

Azerbaijan – A Land of Tolerance

. The Heydar Aliyev foundation organised the event.

Two years later, Azerbaijan hosted UNESCO’s 2019 session.

The recently unearthed mausoleum of Saint Grigoris, built in the 5th Century CE, at the Amaras Monastery in Martunti, Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (which is claimed by Azerbaijan to be part of its territory)

Azerbaijan’s 1997–2006 erasure in Nakhichevan also targeted the ancient city of Djulfa, once the world’s largest collection of medieval cross-stones. Even though last year’s Hyperallergic report received considerable international media coverage, an Azerbaijani diplomat told the Los Angeles Times that those monuments never existed and called the investigation “a figment of Armenia’s imagination.”

Azerbaijan does not allow ethnic Armenians, regardless of citizenship or passport, to enter Azerbaijan. Recently it also banned international journalists from entry to cover the conflict, igniting a warning to media from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

https://hyperallergic.com/592287/tigranakert-artsakh-nagorno-karabakh-war/?fbclid=IwAR23VoYZfbZvFm6tIVev21qLb7v-Qp6LVM3NxoZR9wl7br9DOHSw1H9T0yE

[Yervant1]

International Business Times

Oct 5 2020

Cities under fire as Armenia-Azerbaijan fighting intensifies

Russia, the United States and France have called for an immediate halt to the fighting.

By Herve Bar

October 5, 2020 04:05 BST

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged heavy rocket and artillery fire as fighting intensified over Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, with the breakaway region's capital and Azerbaijan's second-largest city hit.

Armenia said that Nagorno-Karabakh's main city Stepanakert, which has been under shelling since Friday, was hit again on Sunday and AFP journalists said there were regular explosions and clouds of black smoke rising in parts of the city.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said meanwhile that Armenian forces had shelled Ganja, a city of more than 330,000 in western Azerbaijan, with footage showing buildings in ruins.

On Sunday night, Hikmet Hajiyev, an adviser to President Ilham Aliyev, wrote on Twitter that Armenians launched "missile attacks against Azerbaijani civilians and civilian infrastructure" in the industrial city of Mingechavir and the Absheron district, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from capital Baku.

Stepping up its bellicose rhetoric, Karabakh's presidency threatened to "expand subsequent (military) actions to the entire territory of Azerbaijan".

Armenian worshippers attend a Sunday service in Yerevan's Saint Sarkis church Photo: AFP / -

Each side accused the other of targeting civilian areas, as the conflict widened a week after heavy fighting broke out in the decades-old dispute over the ethnic-Armenian region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have resisted international calls for a ceasefire and clashes have intensified in recent days, with both sides claiming victories on the front and saying they are inflicting heavy losses.

A police officer stands in front of an apartment building that was supposedly damaged by recent shelling Photo: AFP / -

In a fiery address to the nation, Azerbaijani President Aliyev set conditions for a halt to the fighting that would be near impossible for Armenia to accept.

He said that Armenian forces "must leave our territories, not in words but in deeds," provide a timetable for a full withdrawal, and recognise the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Yerevan rejected Aliyev's demands.

Graphic comparing military forces present in the region of Nagorny Karabakh and map of the conflict zone. Photo: AFP / Patricio ARANA

"Conditionality is not acceptable, (Aliyev) must renounce the use of force and engage constructively in negotiations without imposing maximalist positions," Armenian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Anna Nagdalyan, told AFP.

Sirens were sounding and explosions could be heard at regular intervals in Stepanakert, as residents took shelter, including several families in the basement of the city's Holy Mother of God Cathedral.

Armenia's foreign ministry said Stepanakert and other towns had been hit, accusing Azerbaijani forces of "the deliberate targeting of the civilian population".

A map of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan, locating bombings by both sides in recent days Photo: AFP / Simon MALFATTO

There were reports of dead and wounded civilians in Stepanakert and the historic town of Shusha.

Azerbaijan said Ganja was under shell fire, including from areas outside of Karabakh in Armenian territory, with at least one civilian killed.

Azerbaijan's ally Turkey accused Armenia of "targeting civilians" in Ganja and reiterated support for its fellow Turkic and Muslim country as "one nation, two states".

Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan warned that it would now consider "military facilities in Azerbaijan's big cities" as legitimate targets.

"I call on the residents of these cities to immediately leave," Harutyunyan said in a post on Facebook.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday condemned the reports of "indiscriminate shelling and other alleged unlawful attacks using explosive weaponry in cities, towns and other populated areas".

Azerbaijan claims to have taken control of a string of settlements in recent days as well as a strategically important plateau.

On Sunday Aliyev said his forces had retaken the town of Jabrayil, part of an area outside Karabakh seized by the separatists in the 1990s as a buffer zone, hailing it as an important victory. Armenia denied the claim.

Authorities in both countries have reported more than 250 dead since the fighting began, including 42 civilians.

Armenian separatist forces have reported more than 200 dead -- including 51 on Saturday -- while Azerbaijan has not released any figures on its military casualties.

Azerbaijan said Sunday that two civilians had been killed in shelling on the southern town of Beylagan, where a journalist working with AFP saw residents picking through the rubble of destroyed homes.

"I was baking bread when I heard explosions, I opened the door and saw that bombs were falling right into the yard," said one woman, showing journalists the blown-out windows and partially collapsed roof of her home.

In Armenia's majority-Christian capital Yerevan, residents gathered in churches for services Sunday to pray and light candles.

"I came to ask God for peace, for our country and our soldiers," Aytsemik Melikyan told AFP outside the Saint Sarkis Church.

Russia, the United States and France -- who co-chair a mediation group that has failed to find a political resolution to the conflict -- have called for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern over "the increase of casualties" among civilians in a call with his Armenian counterpart Sunday.

Talks to resolve the conflict have made little progress since a 1994 ceasefire agreement.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cities-under-fire-armenia-azerbaijan-fighting-intensifies-1684086?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=%2Fcities-under-fire-armenia-azerbaijan-fighting-intensifies-1684086&fbclid=IwAR2dsi3W5d2KQyylbTXlvagaUpYFUYDo8PiypegRzrfqaULSMSINC-jqejA

[Yervant1]

CTV News, Canada

Oct 5 2020

Food, flags and prayers: Armenians show support for Karabakh

Maxime Popov, AFPStaff

Published Monday, October 5, 2020 1:11PM EDTLast Updated Monday, October 5, 2020 1:12PM EDT

YEREVAN, ARMENIA -- On a street in Armenia's capital Yerevan, volunteers are carefully packaging food and blankets into boxes -- aid for refugees who fled Nagorno-Karabakh after clashes broke out just over a week ago.

As fighting has intensified in the mountainous region disputed for decades by Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan, so the Armenian flag and the near identical one of the breakaway region have adorned balconies, walls and shop windows in Yerevan.

The Karabakh flag uses the three colours of the Armenian one -- red, blue and orange -- with an additional white zig-zag pattern. Small workshops are busy sewing more flags across the city.

Armenian people and organizations have devised a host of different ways to show their support for Karabakh.

Among them is the Amur Tikunk initiative that provides both refugees and soldiers with food, water, clothing and blankets.

It also helps residents fleeing the fighting to reach Yerevan and finds accommodation for those who have lost their homes in the attacks.

"At first we started collecting all sorts of things to send to the front. Later refugees started coming in. Many families, children, sometimes without their parents," the project's coordinator Stepan Avakyan tells AFP, standing amid boxes of all sizes in front of a small children's park.

On Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the shelling from both sides on inhabited areas.

For a week, since the second day of fighting, up to 200 volunteers in Yerevan have been taking turns to work day and night.

"Every day more refugees arrive. We need to provide strong backup so those at the front do not have to worry about their families who have fled," says Avakyan, 34.

'NATIONAL PRAYER'

Billboards have replaced their usual advertisements with messages in support of the Armenian military, one of them showing a soldier firing artillery in a cloud of dust.

On Saturday evening, a "national prayer" gathered large crowds in churches across Armenia and in countries with large Armenian communities. The service led by Patriarch Karekin II was broadcast live by TV channels.

The next morning, dozens of worshippers, some in tears, gathered at the church of Saint Sarkis in the centre of the capital. They prayed and placed lit candles in front of religious icons.

"Today I came with a special purpose because the situation in the country is very critical and I came to ask God for peace, for our country and our soldiers," said one of the worshippers, Aytsemik Melikyan, 70.

"We come more often these days, we pray for our children, for peace in the country," Levik Avagyan said in front of the church. "Azerbaijani soldiers also have mothers and loved ones, let this war end as soon as possible".

Nagorno-Karabakh, mostly populated by Christian Armenians, broke away from majority Muslim Azerbaijan after the fall of the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s a war broke out that killed some 30,000 people.

The new fighting that started on September 27 is the worst since a ceasefire was reached in 1994 and there are concerns it could grow into an all-out war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In Armenia, a social media campaign has been launched to call on the international community to recognise the independence of Karabakh, in the hope that it will make Azerbaijan pull back.

No country, not even Armenia, has recognized the territory's independence.

On Sunday, dozens of people held a silent protest in Yerevan, calling for recognition of the region as independent.

"We are standing in silence because Armenian people really feel like they're being silenced," one of the protest's organisers, Marianna Hovhannisyan, told AFP.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/food-flags-and-prayers-armenians-show-support-for-karabakh-1.5133392#_gus&_gucid=&_gup=Facebook&_gsc=UgfIPmh

[Yervant1]

Washington Examiner

Oct 5 2020

Turkey ignores international community and escalates its role in Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict

by Tom Rogan, Commentary Writer |

| October 05, 2020 12:59 PM

Turkey is increasingly isolated as the international community pushes for an immediate ceasefire in the escalating war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The fighting began more than a week ago, after tensions over a contested territory spiraled into conflict.

But while the world is calling for peace, the Turkish leader is pushing his Azeri ally to escalate against Armenia. In a rare show of common support for a ceasefire, the French, U.S., and Russian foreign ministers will make a joint call for a ceasefire. The fact that Russia and the West are effectively on the same side here reflects the fact that no one, par Azerbaijan and Turkey, has interest in continued escalation. Russia fears the destabilization of its southern border. The west has grave concerns over rising civilian suffering. These worries have only grown as we've witnessed increasingly lethal strikes on civilian centers. Lacking effective intelligence and technical targeting capacities, the Armenian and Azeri militaries have resorted to lobbing missiles at each other and hoping for a hit. But it's clear that Azerbaijan has the upper hand. Its forces are advancing apace, and the Armenian military has lost operational cohesion.

That brings us back to Turkey. Ankara is actively supporting the Azeri war effort with the support of militia fighters and targeting intelligence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees this as a grand opportunity to further advance his delusion of a new Turkish empire which commands regional politics. But as the conflict becomes increasingly bitter, its nationalist-emotive quality also deepens. That complicates the agreement of a stable ceasefire.

We saw an example of this dynamic on Monday when President Ilham Aliyev addressed his people. With heavily nationalistic rhetoric, Aliyev warned that "for almost 30 years, Armenian executioners have occupied our land, destroyed all our historical, religious and cultural monuments. We will restore all cities. We will restore all our mosques destroyed by Armenians. Life will return to these areas. We have put an end to the attempts of Armenians to change our historical names and falsify history, as well as to erase the historical and cultural heritage of the Azeri people. The historical names of our settlements are being restored and will be restored."

The world should be concerned by this presentation of the conflict not simply as one over territory, but for the very identity and honor of the nation. Staking his political identity on the ideal of a purified national liberation, Aliyev shows that he has little interest in compromise. He believes that he can pummel Armenia into defeat. Turkey's encouragement of Azerbaijan is central to Aliyev's confidence. And just as Erdogan's government is pushing Azerbaijan to maintain the offensive, it's decrying external efforts for peace. Already despising French President Emmanuel Macron, who is now leading Western diplomatic efforts here, one of Erdogan's ministers this weekend compared Macron to Stalin. That criticism was in relation to Macron's recent call for improved Islamic integration with French civil society, but it reflects Erdogan's disinterest in yielding to international pressure.

The choice for the international community, then, is whether to accept the continued bloodletting or to leverage trade and economic relations with Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey in order to extract a ceasefire. If the West and Russia simultaneously threaten such pressure, Azerbaijan and Turkey will be forced to join the negotiating table.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/turkey-ignores-international-community-escalates-its-role-in-azerbaijan-armenia-conflict?fbclid=IwAR3YC63hoHr-MZ5elfon8L4VuuIsTM4V1kjk9FqU5IFky7Q1HFWsqdzb2Io

[Yervant1]

Jerusalem Post

Oct 5 2020

Israel may halt its weapons sale to Azerbaijan, Armenian ambassador says

Renewed hostilities broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan on September 27, over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF OCTOBER 5, 2020 21:03

Israel may halt commercial weapon sales to Azerbaijan, Armenian Ambassador to Israel Armen Smbatyan told the media, as fighting intensified for the ninth day between the two countries.

“In two or three days, they [israel] seem to be on the way to stopping the supply of weapons,” Smbatyan told the Armenian news site Factor. He added that he had received a verbal promise that this would occur.

Last week, Armenia recalled Smbatyan for consultations to protest the sale of Israeli made weapons, including drones, to Azerbaijan, which have been used against its forces.

The Foreign Ministry said it would not comment on Smbatyan’s words or on Jerusalem’s export policy with regard to defense matters.

Renewed hostilities broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan on September 27, over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Israel has strong ties with both counties and has sought to remain neutral in the conflict, but it receives 40% of its oil supply from Azerbaijan, making its ties with that country particularly important.

The commercial Israeli weapons sales to Azerbaijan have also made it hard for Jerusalem to maintain a position of neutrality, in a conflict that has threatened to involve the larger parties of Russia, which backs Armenia, and Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan.

Fuad Akhundov, head of sector for work with foreign media in the administration of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, told The Jerusalem Post that any reports that sales would be halted were “fake news” and he lauded the tight ties between his country and Israel.

“Israel is our partner,” as part of that partnership Azerbaijan had contracts with Israel to purchase military hardware, but that the contracts only dealt with hardware and did not involve greater involvement.

Akhundov confirmed Azerbaijan was using Israeli drones in its battle with Armenia, which he called the aggressor in the situation.

Azerbaijan, once provoked by Armenia, was simply reclaiming its territory and that its right to that land was supported by international law, Akhundov said.

“We are fighting not against the Armenian people,” he said.

It was his presumption that Armenia sought to involve both Russia and Turkey in the conflict, Akhundov said. Armenia has a military pact with Russia, through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), by which Moscow is bound to come to its aid in certain situations.

ARMENIA and Azerbaijan accused each other on Monday of attacking civilian areas on a ninth day of fighting, the deadliest in the south Caucasus region in more than 25 years.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the latest outbreak of war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain enclave that belongs to Azerbaijan under international law but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.

The fighting intensified over the weekend, and prospects for a ceasefire appeared remote after an uncompromising speech from Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday.

In a televised address to the nation, Aliyev said Azeri forces were advancing and retaking lands that they lost to ethnic Armenians in the early 1990s – though Armenia disputes these gains.

He demanded that Armenia set a timetable for withdrawing from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azeri territories, and said Azerbaijan would not cease military action until that happened.

“Azerbaijan has one condition, and that is the liberation of its territories,” he said. “Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan.”

Speaking immediately afterward, Armenian Defense Ministry official Artsrun Hovhannisyan said: “I don’t think that there is any risk for Yerevan [the Armenian capital], but anyway we are in war.”

The fighting has raised international concern about stability in the south Caucasus, where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets, and about the possibility that other regional powers – including Russia and Turkey – could be dragged in.

Reuters contributed to this report.

https://www.jpost.com/international/israel-may-halt-its-weapons-sale-to-azerbaijan-armenian-ambassador-says-644602?fbclid=IwAR0Wy4Alf3Af3rFjsuCPLkA3aM4k_G46tfeggiU6D1YJdySxF1vXEmEQY-w