cease-fire violations by azeris

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Dec 11 2021

Investigative Committee: Staff left combat positions and fled as a result of which adversary invaded Armenia territory

15:39, 11.12.2021

YEREVAN. – A number of Armenia servicemen in charge on duty on November 16 have been arrested, whereas one soldier showed exceptional courage. This is noted in a statement issued Saturday by the Investigative Committee of Armenia.

As per this statement, on November 16, the Azerbaijani army units attacked three Armenian military positions located in the Kilisali-border Ishkhanasar section of Syunik Province, during which the head of the Armenian military position involved in the combat duty, a senior, and two observers violated the rules of combat duty.

In particular, the servicemen of the combat duty positions tried to negotiate with the Azerbaijani servicemen who had invaded the territory of the combat position, and who tried to capture the personnel on combat duty. The personnel of these positions left them and fled, as a result of which the servicemen of the Azerbaijani army invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia—the combat positions, which came under the control of the adversary, and the 24 servicemen who fled the combat positions were captured by the adversary. The dead bodies of three of them—Gurgen Sargsyan, Artur Martirosyan—and Davit Amiryan—who were killed, were handed over to the Armenian side on November 17 and 20, seven Armenian servicemen—including the abovementioned four servicemen—were returned by Azerbaijan on November 26 and December 4, whereas the whereabouts of 14 servicemen is still unknown.

On December 6, the serviceman in charge of the mentioned combat position, a senior, a junior sergeant, and two observers were arrested on suspicion of violating the rules of combat duty or military service. On December 8 and 9, criminal charges were brought against them, a petition was filed with the court to remand them in custody, and the court granted this petition.

In addition, it turned out that the deputy commander of the military unit's battalion in terms of moral and psychological support had violated the rules of combat duty. The servicemen of the Azerbaijani army invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia—a combat position, the 13 Armenian servicemen remaining at this combat position were captured by the adversary, and the combat position came under the control of the adversary. The dead bodies of captured soldiers Taron Sahakyan and Arsen Gasparyan were handed over to the Armenian side on November 17 and 19, respectively, four other servicemen were returned to the Armenian side by Azerbaijan on December 4, whereas the whereabouts of the other seven servicemen are still unknown. .

On December 6, a major was detained, a criminal charged was brought against him, a petition was filed with the court to remand him in custody, but this petition was denied. This court decision has been forwarded to the prosecutor, with a request to consider an appeal.

Criminal charges have been brought against the acting commander of the defense battalion of the same military unit and the observer of the combat position, and they have been remanded in custody.

The investigation continues.

The body conducting the proceedings considers it necessary to also present to the public the exploits of the Armenian position guards who stood out with their exceptional courage while performing their duties during the mentioned military operations. In particular, on November 16, Private Gurgen Sargsyan, a contract soldier on duty in the mentioned military position located in the Kilisali-border Ishkhanasar section of Syunik Province, did not surrender to the adversary during the attack and capture attempt by the adversary forces, showed fighting spirit, exceptional courage, and killed himself by detonating a hand grenade.

https://news.am/eng/news/676993.html

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

Dec 13 2021

Syrian mercenaries offer new testimonies from Karabakh war

December 13, 2021 - 17:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Syrian mercenaries recruited by Turkey and Azerbaijan to fight against the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have raised the fact that Baku has not paid them for their "work", over one year after the completion of hostilities.

According to a reportage from the Public TV of Armenia, part of those deployed in the region were used as cannon fodder while those who managed to survive have not been paid.

"We fought with the Turkish state in Karabakh. We have people who were injured and people who were killed. Sultan Suleiman Shah, Abo Amsha stole our rights, and stole the salaries of the injured and dead, and people are dying from hunger," one mercenary is filmed saying.

In the war against Artsakh (Karabakh), Turkey supported Azerbaijan militarily, also by transferring terrorist mercenaries from the Middle East to fight against Karabakh. Armenia was the first to report on Turkey's deployment of thousands of Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan. International media publications followed suit, as did reactions from France, Russia, Iran and Syria. The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army has already unveiled footage from the interrogation of two such terrorists captured on the front.
https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/297328/Syrian_mercenaries_offer_new_testimonies_from_Karabakh_war

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.com

PHOTO: Turkish Interior Minister shakes hands and smiles with SULTAN MURAD commander who sent mercenaries to Karabakh

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13:09, 20 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. A photo surfaced online showing the Turkish Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu shaking hands with the commander of the Sultan Murad division Fahim Issa.

American journalist Lindsey Snell posted the photo on Twitter and said that it was taken in al-Rai, Syria. The town known for being a recruitment center of mercenaries.

“Sultan Murad sent mercenaries to Karabakh and Libya. Their recruitment of minors led the US to put Turkey on a list of "countries that deploy child soldiers,”” Snell tweeted, referring to the latest US State Department report on Turkey using child soldiers.

Turkey recruited and sent Syrian mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. Despite Ankara denying this, the Armenian authorities have presented numerous evidence proving the participation of the Syrian mercenaries from the Azeri side.

The Russian foreign intelligence service had also gathered information on Sultan Murad’s participation in the Karabakh war.

The President of France Emmanuel Macron also said that his intelligence agencies have information that Turkey is sending mercenaries to Azerbaijan to fight against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh.

Earlier in 2021, the Armenian authorities said that the investigation has revealed that Azerbaijan pre-planned the war back in June 2020 and recruited more than 2000 Syrian mercenaries and deployed them via Turkey. Azeri authorities transferred payments namely to the Suleyman Shah and Sultan Murad terror groups.

Audio recordings of the Sultan Murad fighters in Nagorno Karabakh were intercepted during the war.

Two Syrian mercenaries captured by the Armenian forces were subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1071182.html?fbclid=IwAR2_xT0A93SRvszYnsUOaHcrKxjUtCz7OiVtpE-Ag0AyJC2hUNZEu2OqCmw

[Yervant1]

Just one drone?

PRAVDA, Russia

Dec 22 2021

Russia's Tor-M2KM system shot down Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 drone

22.12.2021 19:26

Incidents

Russia's Tor-M2KM air defense complex has turned Turkey's Bayraktar combat drone into a pile of debris. The drone wreckage could be identified only by the preserved inscription.

Turkish officials earlier said that Russian Tor complexes were completely ineffective against Bayraktar combat drones. It now appears that Turkey was wrong as a Tor system successfully shot down a Bayraktar UAV, which tried to enter closed airspace. The Tor rocket hit the drone with precision, having smashed it into pieces.

The Military Informant Telegram channel published the photos of the downed Bayraktar. It was clarified, however, that the incident took place about a year ago. The drone was shot down by Armenian military men. Noteworthy, Turkey and Azerbaijan did not announce any losses among its UAVs during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Tor missile system is a low to medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for destroying airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, precision guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles and short-range ballistic anti-munitions. The system is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 Gauntlet. Tor was also the first air defence system in the world designed from the start to shoot down precision guided weapons like the AGM-86 ALCM day and night, in bad weather and under jamming conditions.

https://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/149937-russia_turkey_bayraktar/

 

[Yervant1]

PanArmenian, Armenia

Dec 22 2021

Karabakh slams world praising Azerbaijan for returning Armenian PoWs

December 22, 2021 - 15:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) State Minister Artak Beglaryan has slammed world leaders praising Azerbaijan for releasing Armenian captives.

Beglaryan reminded in a tweet that it is a requirement of international law and that Azerbaijan's continues keeping many Armenian captives hostage.

According to him, if leaders praise "good will" of a criminal instead of punishing him, they encourage deviant behavior.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar has repatriated 10 Armenian prisoners of war from Azerbaijan. European Council President Charles Michel lauded the move as an "important humanitarian gesture".
https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/297518/Karabakh_slams_world_praising_Azerbaijan_for_returning_Armenian_PoWs

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Dec 23 2021

Azerbaijan which destroys monuments is attempting to conceal its vandalism

11:12, 23.12.2021

Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has always been proud of the religious and cultural monuments in its territory, considering them part of its historical and cultural heritage. The people of Artsakh are also concerned about the preservation of Russian religious and cultural heritage monuments. This is noted in the statement disseminated by the Embassy of Armenia in Greece. The statement continues as follows, in particular:

It is noteworthy that the state budget of the Artsakh Republic envisages expenditures for the preservation and restoration of historical and cultural monuments every year, as the domain of preservation, study, and use of historical and cultural monuments is one of the most important and special domains of the history and culture of the Artsakh Republic.

The Russian Holy Mother of God Church is located in Gevorgavan precinct of the Martuni region of the Artsakh Republic. The church was built more than 100 years ago by immigrants from Russia. It is made of limestone, yellowish in appearance. It has two entrances, which open from the west and north sides. There are more than two dozen windows. The parishioners of the church were Russian settlers. In 1989, the restoration work of the church began, which was interrupted due to the [military] aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, during which the church again suffered great damage. Before the start of the war in 2020, the government of the Artsakh Republic was working on a project to restore the church and was looking for a sponsor to start the restoration work.

Thus, the propaganda material disseminated by an Anastasia Lavrina and the Azerbaijani Embassy in Greece in Greek translation about the Armenian side’s alleged "encroachments" on the Russian Orthodox religious heritage in the territory of the Artsakh Republic is another provocative, groundless, and false disinformation. It aims to spread hatred towards Armenians and try to drive a wedge in the relations between Armenia and its relatives. The country [i.e., Azerbaijan] that deliberately destroys cultural monuments is trying to cover up, with baseless accusations, the numerous cases of vandalism committed by it.

Despite the rulings of the International Court of Justice, Azerbaijani officials continue to spread targeted racial hatred [against Armenians] and do not take any steps to stop the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage.

https://news.am/eng/news/678882.html

[Yervant1]

WORLD CRUNCH

Dec 27 2021

A Visit To Shusha, A Ghost City Marked By Culture And Ethnic Cleansing

The capture of the city sealed last year's Azerbaijani victory against the Armenians — the latest change of control after a century of war and ethnic cleansing.

Jordi Joan Baños

December 27, 2021

LA VANGUARDIA

English edition • Worldcrunch

 

SHUSHA — Shusha is a city without women. It is also a city without children or the elderly. It has been like this for over a year since the battle in 2020 that violently converted it into a city without Armenians. In the same way, during the preceding 27 years, it had been converted into a city without Azerbaijanis.

Actually, it is difficult to see Shusha as a city. Ultimately, it ceased to be one a century ago, after the first attempt at ethnic cleansing — in that case of Armenians. Shusha has not raised its head again. Partially standing as a ghost town, its now small-town streets lead to squares flanked by the large hollow public buildings that seem to belong — more than to another era — to another civilization.

Today, the simulation of life is provided by the Azerbaijani police patrols and their military barracks, as well as the occasional bricklayer. At least three supermarkets, well-stocked with tobacco, and a brand new restaurant have been opened for them. A four-star hotel has also been inaugurated in record time, although not for them, but for visitors on business.

Presidential visit

On the day of this correspondent's visit, the president of Azerbaijan appeared unannounced, interested in meeting with several former presidents and former prime ministers, flown in from the Baku Global Forum to which they had been invited. They had landed an hour away, at the optical illusion of Fuzuli International Airport. Where nine months ago there were no foundations, there is now a modern airport. It has the essentials, except passengers, since there are no candidates for miles and miles of this human-made wasteland.

Ilham Aliyev, the man at the top of the vertical power of the Azerbaijani petrostate, does not appear by chance in Shusha, the most precious trophy of last year's war. But we, the journalists, not only aren't able to see him but we aren't allowed to leave the lobby for an hour, "for security reasons", reducing by half the time available to visit this martyr and martyrizing city.

Fortunately, we have already gone through the experience of being immobilized as pedestrians on a Baku sidewalk, before the passing of the swift caravan of the hierarch.

Geopolitical tensions

Last year's war ended as soon as the Azerbaijani forces, preceded by Turkish and Israeli drones, managed to take over Shusha. This symbolic city is perched some 1,500 meters above sea level. From there you can see Stepanakert, the capital of the secessionist Republic of Artsakh, six hundred meters lower and just five kilometers to the north.

Just before reaching Shusha, the road takes a detour towards Stepanakert, now under the control of the Russian army. An imaginary capital that keeps fresh in its memory the attacks in 1992 against the civilian Armenian population, when up to 150 shells hit the city every day and its people had to survive underground. The president of Armenia, former journalist Nikol Pashinyan, had no choice but to sign an armistice that reversed 70% of all of the Armenian territorial conquests made three decades ago.

Earlier, in Stepanakert, they had expelled 10% of the population from the city, all Azeris, just as in Shusha they had driven out 10% of the city's population — the Armenians. The surprising Armenian takeover of Shusha in 1992 was the beginning of the end of that war. Almost thirty years later, the outcome is diametrically opposite, because the correlation of forces has also changed, due to demographic changes, the power of oil and the international alliances that it implies.

It is also thanks to Russia's support of Azerbaijan. Like in Georgia or Ukraine before, Moscow punishes with territorial losses the former Soviet republics that lurch in the direction of Washington. For Pashinyan's Armenia, it was a cold shower and a realization of its place in the world.

Airport and mosques first

Fuzuli airport, built by Turkish companies and co-inaugurated by Erdogan, still does not sell tickets, although it has a VIP lounge. In the same vein of starting at the top, the first thing that has been restored in Shusha are the mosques.

The renovation of the Great Mosque — Shiite — has been easy because it had been restored as an Iranian-Armenian cultural center a few months before the start of the last war, with the support of Tehran. The Armenian cathedral, they say, is also now under construction, although there is no time to see it. The surrounding Armenian neighborhood was razed to the ground that deadly 1920.

Russian poet Osip Mandelstam visited the site a decade later and came out terrified by what he called the "40,000 lifeless windows" of Shusha. They were still in ruins for another 30 years, when the U.S.S.R. passed the steamrollers through, after giving up on restoring the many facades that were left standing.

The dream of returning

But ghosts continue to roam the place, they say, and the wounds have never truly healed. Although the Soviet age restored coexistence with an iron fist, the ruins of the Armenian quarter were swept away.

Meanwhile, thousands of displaced Azeris now dream of returning, even if most buildings remain hardly standing like skeletons. These include the great institutions of the Russian imperial era, when Shusha was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the Caucasus, with four Armenians for every six Azeris or, as it was said then, Tatars.

Now Armenians, who had reigned here for almost three decades, have also disappeared from the city — a population made up of a small portion of former residents and many more displaced Armenians from elsewhere. A new clean slate done with meticulous viciousness, like the one that has erased Kurdish presence from the public space of Afrin in Syria.

There the walls of Shusha begin

Now it is the displaced Azeris who await their return, after three decades of overcrowding, many of them between Baku and Sumgait. If before huge blocks of flats were left behind with holes in them, now there is an almost Balkan desire to make a clean sweep.

Like a flying saucer on the edge of the abyss, looted but almost unscathed, remains the mansion with a swimming pool that Roma midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is Armenian, built for himself in a demonstration of cosmic faith in the strength of the Republic of Artsakh. He never imagined that one day he would be a stone's throw away from the front line of the Azerbaijani army.

There the walls of Shusha begin, complementing the gorge that — on the opposite side, on the edge of the green Jidir esplanade — makes it almost impregnable. In Baku, after thirty years, there are still many Azeris who dream of having a picnic in what was once a place of recreation of the capital of the ancient Karabakh Khanate, an important part of their folklore.

Embers of hatred

One year after the 44-day war, many of Mandelstam's 40,000 lifeless windows are still there, and through them the sky is still visible.

At the victory parade in Baku at the end of last year, flags of Turkey, but also of Pakistan, fluttered alongside that of Azerbaijan. Faced with this alignment, New Delhi has made a move, with the first visit of an Indian foreign minister to Armenia last month. Everything indicates that the route of the alternative corridor with which India wants to get its products to Europe will pass through Armenia and Georgia, rather than through Azerbaijan, circulating from the Iranian port of Chabahar to the Black Sea.

Finally, on November 15, the Armenian prime minister Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of crossing the ceasefire lines and dismissed its defense minister. A week earlier, there had been the first Armenian civilian casualty by the Azerbaijani army shooting on the line of control. A relative of the deceased then tried to take revenge at an Azeri checkpoint, even before Baku recognized the death of seven of its soldiers and Yerevan, later, that of six of its own. The last war is over, but the embers of hatred have not been quenched.

https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/armenia-azerbaijan-shusha/particle-6

[MosJan]

Հայերեն
Late Azerbaijani general's mother says son killed by army chief of staff
Late Azerbaijani general's mother says son killed by army chief of staff
January 3, 2022 - 15:15 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The mother of the late Major General of the Azerbaijan Army, Polad Hashimov, has claimed that his son was killed by current army chief of staff Karim Veliyev, according to video footage published by exiled Azerbaijani blogger and activist Mirzali Mahammad.

Hashimov was an Azerbaijani major general who served as the Deputy Commander and the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Corps.

According to the country's Defense Ministry, he was killed in clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in July 2020.

[MosJan]

Azerbaijani soldier kills three comrades, flees the scene
January 3, 2022 - 12:36 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A soldier of the Azerbaijani State Border Service shot an officer and two non-commissioned officers dead and fled the scene on Sunday, January 2, the country's Prosecutor General's Office reports, according to Haqqin.az.

The incident happened at a military post in Sanasar (Kubatlu, which came under Azerbaijan's control during the 44-day war against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in fall 2020.

The soldier is still at large, with authorities taking measures to discovered him.

[MosJan]

Karabakh denies opening fire on Azerbaijani civilians as "absolute lie"
Karabakh denies opening fire on Azerbaijani civilians as
December 30, 2021 - 16:14 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - The Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) has denied reports alleging that the Armenian troops have opened fire on employees of an Azerbaijani telecommunications service provider.

"Information disseminated by Azerbaijani media outlets, alleging the the Defense Army units fired on the employees of the Azerbaijani company Bakcell on December 29, as a result of which one Azerbaijani person was allegedly injured, is an absolute lie," the Defense Army said.

[MosJan]

https://hetq.am/ru/article/131468


In the wake of war crimes of Azerbaijan: what weapons the enemy fired at the cathedral in Shushi

 

 

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

News.am, Armenia

Jan 9 2022

Azerbaijanis demand Armenian soldier change his faith by taking away his cross, Ombudsman says

00:30, 09.01.2022

New forms of torture against Armenian prisoners testify to the fact that Azerbaijan has further exacerbated its policy of hostility after the war, the Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook.

“For example, there is a known case when Azerbaijani servicemen demanded that an Armenian soldier renounce Christianity and convert to Islam, that is, to change his faith. After the Armenian soldier refused to obey, his legs were burned, severely beaten and humiliated. We have not recorded anything like this before.

"In another case, Azerbaijanis burned a part of the body of a captured soldier with a lighter, on which they noticed a tattoo in the form of a cross and severely beat him.

"Everyone who had a cross with them was either taken away or destroyed. When our prisoners demanded the return of the crosses, they were severely beaten and ridiculed, mocking religion.

"These cases are a direct consequence of the policy of patronage of Armenophobia and the hostility of the Azerbaijani authorities towards the Armenians.

"They prove that: after the war, this policy only strengthened even more, its roots became even deeper.

"Moreover, even the accent has changed. Religiousness is also violated along with ethnicity.

"P.S. These cases were recorded after the recent special report of the Armenian Human Rights Defender on torture of prisoners in Azerbaijan. I especially warn all those who decide to refute this publication that there is reliable objective evidence, which, however, I do not disclose, so as not to turn these people into "targets." I am publishing this information so that both our and the international community know about the real situation, about what violations of rights are taking place at the moment," he wrote.

https://news.am/eng/news/681133.html

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.com

Civilian car parked outside kindergarten in Artsakh set ablaze by Azeri gunfire

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15:30, 10 January, 2022

STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. A civilian vehicle in Artsakh caught fire after being hit by gunfire from Azerbaijani side, the Ministry of Defense of Artsakh said.

It denied Azerbaijani media reports which accused the Artsakh military in opening fire at Azerbaijani positions. The Artsakh Defense Ministry said these reports are fake news and disinformation.

“What actually happened is that the Azerbaijani servicemen, who are deployed in positions adjacent to the village of Karmir Shuka in Martuni region, Artsakh, opened sporadic gunfire at the village, which resulted in a car owned by a civilian which was parked outside a kindergarten catching fire,” the Artsakh Defense Ministry said.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1072582.html?fbclid=IwAR0tD4xvvDXDVKp1uufwcMTSdV40cJRLh-68Ak9fnpnO64qV69JY_apogQk

[Yervant1]

SPUTNIK, Russia

Jan 11 2022

Yerevan Claims Azerbaijani Military Used Artillery, Drones During Shelling at Border

YEREVAN (Sputnik) - The Armenian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that the Azerbaijani military used artillery and drones during shelling at the border.

“On January 11, at 17.30 [13:30 GMT], units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces resumed shelling the Armenian positions deployed in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, using artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles. The Armenian side took adequate response measures. As of 18.30 [14:30 GMT], the shootout continues,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also said that three Armenian soldiers have been injured during the border shootout.

It noted that as of 13:00 GMT, the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was relatively stable and was under full control of the Armenian Armed Forces.

https://sputniknews.com/20220111/yerevan-claims-azerbaijani-military-used-artillery-drones-during-shelling-at-border-1092183822.html

[Yervant1]

 

i24 News

Jan 11 2022

 

Three soldiers killed in Azerbaijan, Armenia clashes

AFP

January 11, 2022, 09:02 PM

Azerbaijan's defense ministry says the soldier died due to a 'provocation' by Armenian troops

Azerbaijan and Armenia reported clashes on their volatile border Tuesday that killed one Azeri soldier and two Armenian troops in the latest skirmish following a 2020 war between the ex-Soviet rivals.

The two Caucasus countries clashed in late 2020 to control the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, leaving more than 6,000 dead in a matter of weeks.

Azerbaijan's defense ministry said the soldier died due to a "provocation" by Armenian troops and that "all responsibility for tension lies with the military-political leadership of Armenia.”

The ministry said its forces "suppressed" the enemy following the incident in the Kalbajar area on the border.

Armenia said later Tuesday that two of its soldiers were also killed, denouncing what it described as the Azeri army's "provocative actions.”

Yerevan earlier said Azerbaijan deployed drones and artillery against its troops in a region on its eastern border.

The Kalbajar district was one of several Armenia ceded to Azerbaijan as part of a ceasefire agreement brokered by Moscow.

The death follows claims from Armenian-supported separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this week that Azerbaijani forces opened fire in a village in the region, damaging a car parked near a school.

Defense officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Russian peacekeepers deployed to the disputed mountainous region were alerted to the firing, which Azerbaijan's defense ministry denied took place.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing war claimed around 30,000 lives. The conflict remained essentially frozen until the 2020 war.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/asia-pacific/1641927251-three-soldiers-killed-in-azerbaijan-armenia-clashes

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.com

Two Armenian servicemen killed as a result of Azerbaijani provocation

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21:46, 11 January, 2022

YEREVAN, 11 JANUARY, ARMENPRESS. On January 11, private serviceman Arthur Mkhitaryan (born in 2002) and junior sergeant Rudik Gharibyan (born in 2002) were killed as a result of a provocation carried out by Azerbaijani units in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Two more servicemen are wounded, their lives are not in danger.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the MoD Armenia, as of 21:00 the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1072715.html?fbclid=IwAR2x9m0gL_UaTladFP6tvkays79h0TAoFOzJp-5VcHu1I9QQr9ZLUwmz8sI

[Yervant1]

France 24

Jan 12 2022

Deadly clashes break out once more at Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Issued on: 12/01/2022 - 11:12

In this Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020 file photo, An ethnic Armenian soldier stands guard next to a Nagorno-Karabakh flag on a hill near Charektar in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. © AP - Sergei Grits

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Armenia said Wednesday that the number of its soldiers killed in border clashes with Azerbaijan had risen to three, in the most serious outbreak of fighting between the ex-Soviet adversaries in months.

Azerbaijan previously said one of its soldiers died in the fighting on Tuesday along the disputed and volatile border region, where tensions are still high in the wake of a war between the Caucasus nations in 2020.

Armenia's defence ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the body of an Armenian serviceman was discovered with fatal gunshot wounds in the vicinity where "intense skirmishes" had erupted on the previous day.

Two soldiers wounded in the fighting were in a stable condition, the defence ministry added.

Both sides have accused the other of initiating "provocations" that sparked the exchange of fire that left one Azerbaijani soldiers and the three Armenian troops dead.

The deaths represent a serious threat to a ceasefire implemented with Russia's help in November 2020 that brought an end to six weeks of brutal warfare that claimed the lives of 6,000 people on both sides.Armenia said earlier that its military had been targeted by artillery and drones in its eastern border area, a claim Azerbaijan denied.

The war centred around control for Nagorno-Karabakh, a sparsely-populated and mountainous separatist region inside Azerbaijan that had been controlled for decades by Armenian fighters.

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Armenia handed back large areas that the breakaway region had controlled for decades, including Kalbajar, where Azerbaijan said its soldier had been killed in the recent escalation.

(AFP)

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220112-four-soldiers-killed-in-new-clashes-at-armenia-azerbaijan-border

[Yervant1]

Jan 12 2022

Four killed in renewed clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan

12 January 2022

ByAni AvetisyanandIsmi Aghayev

Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Photo: Armenian Public Radio.

Armenia reports three soldiers killed, two wounded, and Azerbaijan one soldier killed following fresh border clashes.

The fighting took place on the Gegharkunik-Kalbajar section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and began on 11 January.

Both countries accused the other side of opening fire first and breaching the ceasefire. The Armenian Ministry of Defence also accused Azerbaijan of using artillery and suicide drones.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has framed the incident as a ‘manifestation’ of the ‘continuous encroachments of Azerbaijan on the territorial integrity of Armenia’. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has blamed the ‘political-military leadership’ of Armenia for the ‘bloody provocation’.

According to the latest statement from the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry released on 12 January, the Armenian military fired upon Azerbaijani positions on the night of 11 January and the morning of 12 January with ‘small arms and large-calibre machine guns’. No further deaths or injuries were reported.

On 10 January, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that the Azerbaijani military fired at ‘civilians and civilian objects’ in the Martuni (Khojavend) region.

According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, 94 people, including one Russian peacekeeper, have been killed in Nagorno Karabakh and on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border since the 10 November 2020 ceasefire agreement that brought an end to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.

https://oc-media.org/four-killed-in-renewed-clashes-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan/

[Yervant1]

Public Radio of Armenia

Jan 12 2022

There can be no friendship with torturers: French MP quits Friendship Group with Azerbaijan

January 12, 2022, 09:36

Member of the French National Assembly Dino Cinieri has quit the France-Azerbaijan Friendship group.

“As the Armenians celebrate Christmas and the great hope that this feast of peace brings, I see with horror that Azerbaijan is martyring and torturing Armenian soldiers and civilians in the worst possible way,” the MP said in a statement as he announced the decision.

Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan earlier reported new cases of torture of Armenian soldiers. In one case the Azerbaijani servicemen demanded that an Armenian soldier renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. After the Armenian soldier refused to obey, his legs were burned, he was severely beaten and humiliated.

In another case, Azerbaijanis burned the cross-shaped tattoo on the body of a captured soldier with a lighter.

“These barbaric practices are unbearable and unworthy of a member country of the Council of Europe and of a regime that sits within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.,” he added.

Mr. Cinieri noted that “by invading Artsakh on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan wanted us to believe that it was a simple territorial issue.”

“I decide to resign from the France-Azerbaijan Friendship group, so as not to endorse hateful practices which clearly reveal a desire to destroy a people, its culture and its faith. 106 years after the genocide that aimed to exterminate the Armenians, history repeats itself. There can be no friendship with torturers,” Dino Cinieri stated.

 

https://en.armradio.am/2022/01/12/there-can-be-no-friendship-with-torturers-french-mp-quits-frienshship-group-with-azerbaijan/

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NEWS.am

Armenia - Jan 12 2022

Ombudsman: Azerbaijan is launching provocations in Armenia territories where it earlier invaded

15:34, 12.01.2022

YEREVAN. – The Office of the Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia has received calls from the residents of Kut, Norabak, Verin and Nerkin Shorzha villages of Gegharkunik Province, in connection with Azerbaijan’s provocation yesterday on the border with Armenia, ombudsman Arman Tatoyan told a press conference Wednesday.

"We are in touch with everyone. Residents heard the sound of artillery," the ombudsman added.

Tatoyan stressed that Azerbaijan is launching aggressive actions in the Armenian territories which it invaded in May last year.

But the same time, the ombudsman noted that this invasion had taken place earlier, in October 2020, during the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war, in the direction of Tsav village near Kapan city of Syunik Province.

"Therefore, we need to talk about the Azerbaijanis’ invading the sovereign territory of Armenia, and globally, the need for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces, and not only about the 'May invasion,'" Tatoyan said.

The ombudsman reiterated that the presence of Azerbaijani military near Armenian villages has no legal basis, especially since they appeared there under the threat of a new war. He added that when the ombudsman speaks about this, the respective statements should not be distorted.

"Yesterday's actions are proof of that. They [i.e., the Azerbaijani military] are so close that the [Armenian] civilian population hears the sound of artillery. There is no time. Events are developing rapidly. The longer we delay, the more the rights of the [Armenian] residents will be violated," Arman Tatoyan concluded.

https://news.am/eng/news/681610.html

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panorama.am

Armenia - Jan 14 2022

Karabakh conflict not resolved: French MEP responds to Azerbaijani ambassador

French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defense of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, reacted harshly to a tweet of Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Rahman Mustafayev.

The Azeri diplomat shared on Twitter a statement made by President Ilham Aliyev that the OSCE Minsk Group “should not deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since it is resolved.”

“Mr. Ambassador, diplomacy consists first of all in respecting the country where one has the honor to serve,” Loiseau said in a tweet on Thursday.

“France is a co-chair country of the Minsk Group and you seem to disavow it. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not resolved and the ceasefire is not respected,” she underscored, adding three Armenian soldiers were killed in the latest border clashes.

Azerbaijan attacked Armenian positions in Gegharkunik Province on January 11, as a result of which three Armenian soldiers were killed and two others were wounded.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2022/01/14/Karabakh-conflict-French-MEP/2626479

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News.am

Armenia - Jan 20 2022

Azerbaijan not yet returned about 300 sheep of Armenia villager

17:29, 20.01.2022

The Azerbaijanis have not yet returned the sheep belonging to Surik Matevosyan, a resident of Armenia’s Tegh village, which they had made off with a week ago.

"We have transferred to them facts, photos which prove that the sheep are of Surik Matevosyan, but the Azerbaijanis say that there was no sheep with the shepherd. Negotiations are ongoing, and we still have high hopes that the sheep will be returned," he said.

Surik Matevosyan, 53, a shepherd of Tegh village, and about 300 of his sheep were abducted on January 13. But as a result of negotiations, they had handed Matevosyan over to the Russian peacekeepers a few hours later.

https://news.am/eng/news/683049.html

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Armenpress.com

“Armenia has no preconditions for delimitation” – Yerevan refutes Azerbaijani FM's claims

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10:58, 20 January, 2022

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov’s statement that “Yerevan’s preconditions for starting delimitation are unacceptable for Baku.”

Asked to comment, the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan told ARMENPRESS that Armenia doesn’t have any preconditions in the matter of delimitation, and that it’s about agreements.

ARMENPRESS – Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov, responding to Armenia’s proposals relating to the process of delimitation and demarcation, said that Yerevan’s preconditions for launching delimitation are unacceptable for Baku. How would you comment?

Vahan Hunanyan – I believe there is a misunderstanding regarding this issue. The Armenian side doesn’t have preconditions in the issue of delimitation. It’s about agreements. The November 26 Sochi statement of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the Presidents of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan notes that the sides have agreed to “take steps in the direction of increasing the level of security and stability on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and to move towards the formation of a trilateral commission for delimitation and demarcation. This agreement was reaffirmed and an agreement on starting a process of withdrawing troops was reached during the December 14 trilateral meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in Brussels in mediation of the President of the European Council. Thus, The Armenian side’s proposals aren’t about preconditions, but rather about realizing the agreements that were reached. The Republic of Armenia believes that the delimitation process must be launched swiftly in accordance to the abovementioned agreements.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1073466.html?fbclid=IwAR1yBMWCJaKquLlK710pH10B-xpdhIz_EPKbSClnZDc5yT3bvcBJu3YyFCs