cease-fire violations by azeris

[Yervant1]

The Indian Express

Oct 10 2020

In midst of Nagorno-Karabakh clashes, Indians are backing Armenia, on the ground, and online Despite the Indian government’s cautious stance regarding the conflict, many Indian nationals have not hesitated in backing Armenia, even if they don’t have any particular association with the country.

Since fighting broke out on September 27 between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank began noticing Indian social media accounts expressing support for Armenia with hashtags like #IndiasupportArmenia, #IndiaStandsWithArmenia and #indianswitharmenia. On the opposite side, reflecting Turkey and Pakistan’s support for Azerbaijan in the three-decades long conflict, were Pakistani and Turkish accounts pushing their own hashtags.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, says Achal Malhotra, who served as India’s Ambassador to Armenia and Georgia between 2009 and 2012. The two countries have historical ties. The earliest presence of Armenians in India can be traced to the late 8th century and for years Kolkata has been home to the country’s Indian-Armenian community. Historians attribute much of the city’s development, and the establishment of some of its most iconic educational institutions to the Armenian community, and that is only scratching the surface of the community’s contributions.

As expected terrorist #Erdogan want to help other terror supporter #Azerbaijan .#AzerbaijanIsNotAlone terror states are with it.
What to expect from Turkey. Remember it’s responsible for #ArmenianGenocide .#Armenia don’t worry, civilised world is with u.#IndiaSupportArmenia https://t.co/RACDXboIAe

— LALIT SHARMA (@LALITSHARMAHP) September 27, 2020

Soon after fighting started in Nagorno-Karabakh, Pakistan openly extended support to Azerbaijan, with its foreign affairs ministry saying: “Pakistan stands with the brotherly nation of Azerbaijan and supports its right of self-defence.” Hence trending hashtags in support of Azerbaijan from Pakistani social media accounts are not unusual, say long-time watchers of the region. “Azerbaijan has been very nasty to us on the Kashmir issue,” says Malhotra, unwinding the complexity of diplomatic relations between New Delhi, Baku, Islamabad and Ankara and where they fit into this conflict in a region so far away.

#PakistanwithAzerbaijan https://t.co/vdNbq9Mvol

— Agha zaki (@huussainiii) September 27, 2020

“Although we have built Indo-Armenian relations over the years and now thanks to Erdoğan, it has gotten the attention that it did,” says Karen Mkrtchyan, a member of Bright Armenia, a political party founded in 2015. He points to Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its historically poor relations with Armenia, primarily due to Ankara’s lack of acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. “Erdoğan’s anti-India stance regarding Kashmir has made people focus on negative historical antecedents. So this has led people to come out in support of Armenia, who may have just learned about the country,” explains Mkrtchyan of Indians rallying behind Armenia, not just on social media, but also on the ground.

Three days after fighting broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh, 21-year-old Sanjay Yadav, a student at Armenia’s St. Tereza’s Medical University, took six friends to Yerevan’s Republic Square to donate food and water for Armenian soldiers on the frontlines and to stand in solidarity with the country. “Armenia is our second home. We live well here and we have good friends. We have good relations with the Armenians,” he says. “We are doing this as a humanitarian gesture.”

When people who were displaced from Karabakh started coming into Yerevan, Yadav and his friends stepped in to help with providing food, like others in the Indian community. “They are homeless; their homes have been destroyed there. All Indians are like this. No matter where we are, we help people in need,” he says. “We are doing whatever little we can for them.”

Although there official figures are not available, Parvez Ali Khan, 47, who runs Indian Mehak Restaurant and Bar in the capital, and has been providing packages of cooked food to displaced people, believes that in the capital alone, there must be around 100 Indian families. Approximately 4,000 Indian students are studying medicine in universities across Armenia, he says, although many had left when the Indian government started operations of Vande Bharat flights to help citizens overseas return home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Pro-Armenia sentiments are strong among Indians living in that country. “If you live in a country for a long time, you become a part of it,” explains 48-year-old Pragnesh Shah, a diamond manufacturer. “The Indians who live here feel they are a part of Armenia.” Before Shah first moved to Yerevan from his hometown Surat, Gujarat in 2014, he hadn’t known that Armenia was a country. “I used to say, ‘send the diamonds to Lori’,” he explains, referring to one of Armenia’s most prominent diamond-cutting plants.

Back then he would associate the company’s name with that of the country. Six years on, Shah knows Armenia better than most Indians living there, and is deeply involved with the activities of the Indian community. “Armenians are very peaceful people and they can die for their country. Indians only think about their motherland on January 26 (Republic Day) and August 15 (Independence Day), but they think about their motherland all the time,” he says.

Days after Armenia declared martial law and initiated total military mobilisation, while walking down Yerevan’s streets, Shah says he has been seeing large numbers of Armenians gathered in public spaces, either in line to register to serve in the army or to collect donations for soldiers. “Not everyone is going to fight, but they are doing something to help. Young people, old people are sitting with collection boxes in public places.”

Although just a few thousand in number, residents say that the Indian community in Armenia have also been doing their bit to help. The Yerevan branch of the Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO, an organisation that works to develop India-Armenia cultural relations, has been at the forefront of these initiatives, and has been helping to collect supplies to donate to the Red Cross to be forwarded to Karabakh.

Dipali Shah has been making batches of magaj, a dry Gujarati sweet made of gram flour, ghee and sugar, to be sent to Armenian soldiers. (Photo credit: Pragnesh Shah)

While Shah has been assisting with collection efforts in the community, his wife Dipali has been contributing in her own way, making large batches of magaj, a dry Gujarati sweet made of gram flour, ghee and sugar, to be sent to the soldiers. “The Armenians love Indian food. I knew they liked magaj and I had made it before for Armenian friends. So that is why I made it for the soldiers. (Magaj) gives energy,” she explains.

It isn’t only Indians in Armenia who want to help; many of Shah’s friends and acquaintances in India, particularly those who have previously visited or lived in Armenia for any length of time, have been asking how they can support the country. “I have a friend who taught Hindi for three years in Armenia who donated. A yoga teacher who stayed for six months also donated funds.” As his Facebook Messenger inbox began flooding with queries on how people in India could help, Shah directed them to the Hayastan All Armenian Fund, an organisation that coordinates projects and initiatives in support of Armenia. “We have a Facebook group of Indians and Armenians and someone wrote that she was feeling bad about what was happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. An Armenian suggested that she donate to this fund.”

Through the Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO, the Indian community has also been working on starting a fundraiser for Armenia for people who want to contribute from India. The Indian community’s support is nothing new, Shah says. “Back in 2016, when the Four-Day War happened, I’ve seen similar scenes in Yerevan.”

Four years ago when fighting started between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Abhishek Somvanshi was in Stepanakert, the de facto capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. “All of a sudden one day, war broke out.” When Somvanshi, 37, had first arrived from India, his employer, a multinational engineering company, appointed him country head and posted him in Karabakh, where he was the only Indian. “Skirmishes would happen on the border, but people always said war would never happen. On normal days, Stepanakert is a beautiful city, with mostly Armenians living there.”

Although tanks and soldiers in Stepanakert have always been a common sight, he believes that the ongoing situation is more severe. Now a resident of Yerevan, Somvanshi still has friends and colleagues who live in Stepanakert and he can only watch the city’s devastation through photographs and videos that they send to him. “That beautiful city has been destroyed. Locals who are good friends of mine have said that the city has changed,” Somvanshi says.

On October 2, Azerbaijani forces began to hit Stepanakert, emptying streets, forcing shops and cafes to close and compelling people to stay indoors. An Amnesty International report said analysis of footage showed that Azerbaijani forces were using Israeli-made cluster bombs in Karabakh that are particularly dangerous for civilians. Updated figures were not immediately available, but the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh authorities had reported that 19 civilians, including one child, had been killed as of October 4. Most recently, the Holy Savior Cathedral, also called Ghazanchetsots, a 132-year-old Armenian Apostolic cathedral, was also heavily damaged due to shelling by Azerbaijan forces.

BREAKING: We just got back from the church in #Shushi 20 kilometer from #Stepanakert. The church got hit some hours ago, terrible destruction inside. Thank god, the kids plus parents who were in the basement hiding didnt got injured. #KarabakhWar @BILD pic.twitter.com/SalupTprqP

— Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) October 8, 2020

 

“My colleague who is in Stepanakert right now said it had seemed as if large fireworks had been set off,” Somvanshi says, of the first day when the city was shelled. This time, the circumstances are visibly different, he says, more serious than what they were in 2016.

“It is qualitatively different this time,” agrees Malhotra. He believes this is in part because the conflict has been attracting thousands of Islamist radicals who are fighting against Armenian forces. On October 6, Reuters reported Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, saying that people whom he described as mercenaries and terrorists from the Middle East were arriving to fight in the conflict.

According to Reuters, Naryshkin had specifically named the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, active in Syria, along with the Firqat al-Hamza, the Sultan Murad Division, and other unnamed extremist Kurdish groups. Following accusations from Syria’s Assad that Turkey was sending mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan in the conflict, Ankara had issued a denial.

While some Indian nationals both in India and Armenia, have openly expressed their support for Yerevan and Nagorno-Karabakh, Malhotra believes the Ministry of External Affairs has “taken a very calculative, balanced, neutral view”, regarding the conflict. “India is concerned over this situation which threatens regional peace and security. We reiterate the need for the sides to cease hostilities immediately, keep restraint and take all possible steps to maintain peace at the border,” the External Affairs ministry had said in its statement.

Despite the Indian government’s cautious stance regarding the conflict, many Indian nationals have not hesitated in backing Armenia, even if they don’t have any particular association with the country. For Indians living there, however, it is really a matter of supporting the place they now call home. “We have been living here for so many years, so I wanted to do something for them. You keep hearing of someone who has died or been affected (due to the recent fighting),” Somvanshi says. “All Indians are doing something to help Armenia, but some are just not visible.”

Shah says he still wants to do more for the country. With his wife, he has plans to visit supermarkets over the next few days to buy more essentials that they can send as donations for Armenia’s soldiers. “It is a country that you can’t help but love.”

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/in-midst-of-nagorno-karabakh-clashes-indians-are-backing-armenia-on-the-ground-and-online-6719264/

[Yervant1]

Public Radio of Armenia

Oct 10 2020

Armenian youth rally in Paris, demand recognition of Artsakh

Several hundred young Armenians from Paris and surrounding areas blocked traffic in the famous Place de l’Etoile at around 8 p.m. Friday, October 9, freelance journalist Jean Eckian reports.

They waved the flags of Armenian and Artsakh, shouting “Turkey assassin!,” “Aliyev assassin” and asking for the recognition of Artsakh.

The security forces intervened shortly before 9 p.m. to unblock traffic.

on Thursday, October 8, about 2,000 demonstrators blasted Turkey in front of its Embassy in Paris.

New demonstration is expected Tuesday, October 13 in front of the National Assembly of France.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/10/10/armenian-youth-rally-in-paris-demand-recognition-of-artsakh/

[Yervant1]

CBC, Canada

Oct 10 2020

Canada tells Turkey to stay out of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said today he told his Turkish counterpart that Ankara should “stay out” of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Social Sharing

Levon Sevunts · Radio Canada International · Posted: Oct 09, 2020 6:22 PM ET | Last Updated: October 10

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said today he told his Turkish counterpart that Ankara should "stay out" of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Speaking to reporters on Friday prior to embarking on a week-long European tour to discuss the ongoing bloodshed in Nagorno-Karabakh and tensions between Greece and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, Champagne said he had a "firm conversation" with Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"The message was very clear that external parties should stay out because it's already a very complex situation," Champagne said.

"We deplore the loss of life and we need to make sure that no one is fuelling the conflict. Quite the opposite, the international community needs to be united in calling the parties back to the negotiating table, [to] respect the ceasefire and protect civilians."

The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began Sept. 27 and marked the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a Russian-backed ceasefire in 1994.

In this image taken from a video provided by ArmNews TV, people carry out an injured man from the Holy Savior Cathedral after the church was shelled by Azerbaijan's artillery outside Stepanakert in the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on Oct. 8, 2020. (ArmNews TV via AP)

Armenia said it's open to holding a ceasefire. Azerbaijan has made a potential truce conditional on the Armenian forces' withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing that the failure of international efforts to negotiate a settlement left it with no choice but to try to reclaim its lands by force.

Champagne said he asked his Turkish counterpart to use his influence to convince Azerbaijan to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions.

Champagne said Cavusoglu agreed with him "that there is no military solution to this conflict."

But in a televised address to the nation on Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev dismissed such statements, saying that nearly three decades of international talks "haven't yielded an inch of progress, we haven't been given back an inch of the occupied lands."

"Mediators and leaders of some international organizations have stated that there is no military solution to the conflict," Aliyev said. "I have disagreed with the thesis, and I have been right. The conflict is now being settled by military means and political means will come next."

Champagne said he "deplores" any suggestion that force is the best way to resolve the conflict.

"We're calling on the parties to respect the ceasefire, to protect civilians, to cease the hostilities," Champagne said. "Conflicts are resolved around the negotiating table, not on the battlefield."

Last week, Champagne suspended the export of sophisticated Canadian drone technology to Turkey in response to allegations that it is being used by the Azerbaijani military against Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey has denied transferring arms or military personnel or jihadist mercenaries to Azerbaijan, though Cavusoglu has pledged to be at Azerbaijan's side both "on the battlefield and at the negotiating table."

Disarmament group Project Ploughshares has argued that Canadian exports of drone technology to Turkey breach not only Canadian legislation but also its international commitments under the UN Arms Trade Treaty.

"We will continue to have a very thorough investigation because Canada has one of the most robust export regimes in the world," Champagne said. "And I intend to respect not only the letter of the law but the spirit."

A packed itinerary

Champagne said he will travel to Greece, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania for a series of meetings with the political leadership of these countries, as well as top European Union and NATO officials.

Champagne said the first stop on his whirlwind tour of Europe will be Greece, where he will meet with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Affairs Minister Nikos Dendias.

"This is going to be a very important bilateral visit," Champagne said. "I'm told that the last one occurred some 20 years ago."

The two sides will be discussing the dispute between Turkey and Greece over maritime rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, he said.

"Canada has been engaged since the beginning, engaging with other partners through NATO in particular to try to see how we can de-escalate," Champagne said.

Then it's off to Vienna for a series of meetings at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), headquartered in the Austrian capital.

The OSCE plays an important role in the search for a negotiated solution to the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through its Minsk Group mechanism, Champagne said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference in Brussels Jan. 6, 2020. (Virginia Mayo/The Associated Press)

In Vienna, Champagne will also meet with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg. Then, Canada's top diplomat will be flying to Brussels for a series of meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Discussions with Stoltenberg will focus on the security situation in Europe and around the world, Champagne said.

While in Brussels, Champagne will meet with the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

Champagne is also planning to meet Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes before moving on to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, where he will hold a "mini-summit" with his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Canada has refused to recognize Alexander Lukashenko's claim that he won Belarus's election. (Maxim Guchek, BelTA/Pool Photo via The Associated Press)

While in Vilnius, Minister Champagne will also be meeting with Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the disputed Aug. 9 presidential election in Belarus and the violent crackdown by President Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed a landslide win in the polls.

Canada has refused to recognize Lukashenko's victory and his subsequent inauguration and has slapped sanctions on him, his eldest son and 12 other Belarusian officials Canada accuses of being involved in rigging the election results and ordering the violent crackdown on tens of thousands of protesters.

Champagne will leave for Europe on Sunday and return back to Canada on Saturday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nagorno-karabakh-canada-turkey-champagne-1.5758068

[MosJan]

there was no ceasefire

[Yervant1]

Fake sultan can't afford ceasefire, he doesn't want the dead soldiers and erDOGan's ISIS terrorist's piles of feces come home to spoil his fake victory claims. Nothing new here tyrant lost again and will lose, doesn't matter how many times he tries.

[Yervant1]

This article says it all, as to why Artsakh can't afford to lose the war. If we do lose, GENOCIDE will be the outcome, can't trust the enemy!

Indian Express

Oct 10 2020

Among those lining up to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian youth with a strong Kolkata connect If Armenia’s youth has chosen to go to the frontlines, the diaspora has been fighting online, using social media platforms to generate awareness of the conflict in the South Caucasus.

Varos Boyajyan’s family waits with the mobile phone nearby, hoping to hear from the family’s eldest son, who has been deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh since fighting started two weeks ago between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Eight days ago, 24-year-old Boyajyan, who spent his formative years in Kolkata, went to the local military office in Yerevan to volunteer in the Armenian military, so that he could do something for his country just like his older brother.

The latest fighting between the two countries over the disputed region has prompted dozens of Armenian army reservists and volunteers between the ages of 20 and 60 to wait in long lines outside army offices to sign up for deployment, with those who have been selected, boarding buses headed towards the Nagorno-Karabakh border.

“My brother was just enjoying life in Armenia. Suddenly this situation happened,” he says. “He just woke up one morning and said he was going to go (to the army). My parents were shocked, but he just wore his clothes and left.”

Boyajyan’s brother went to register on the third day of fighting and was immediately enlisted for active duty. “He calls once a day. Today he called and said he was fine. But we can see the situation for ourselves.” Boyajyan had completed his mandatory 24-month military service in July last year, and by law, can only volunteer to serve in the army since he was discharged recently. “I am waiting for orders to join.”

The entrance to the 199-year-old Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy in Kolkata. (Express Photo: Neha Banka)

Boyajyan studied at the 199-year-old Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy in Kolkata, one of the most important centers for primary education for the Armenian diaspora. He completed his high school education at La Martiniere in the city, another institution that many Armenians turn to for their final school years. In 2017, immediately after he returned to Yerevan from Kolkata, Boyajyan joined the military.

The earliest presence of Armenians in India can be traced to the late 8th century, and over the years, assimilation led to the development of a unique Indian-Armenian community. Although this community was largely centered around Kolkata for centuries, over the past three decades, their numbers have dwindled, with many relocating to Armenia, the US, Australia and the UK. Today, the Armenian College in Kolkata is one of the most important centers for primary education for the Armenian diaspora and the approximately 200 students who are enrolled in the institution, along with the city’s Armenian church, are preserving the community’s heritage, traditions and culture.

Read | In midst of Nagorno-Karabakh clashes, Indians are backing Armenia, on the ground, and online

“Everyone must defend their motherland. If I don’t defend my homeland, who will do it? I’m just defending my brothers and sisters—there is no other explanation,” he says.

This latest fighting has been the worst since the 1991-1994 war that killed approximately 30,000 people and had ended with a ceasefire that has been violated several times. On October 10, however, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire.

Armenians sign up for the military in Yerevan, following clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. (Photo credit: Reuters)

In Etchmiadzin, approximately 18 km west from Yerevan, 21-year-old Tigran Hovsepyan registered on September 27 along with his brothers, with the oldest having already been deployed to the borders. “It is our sacred duty to protect our land and history. I am ready to give my life for this country, for Artsakh, for the Armenian people.”

Hovsepyan too has lived for close to a decade in Kolkata, studying at the Armenian College, and enlisted for conscription soon after his return from India. “I stayed on for an extra year in the army to serve,” he explains, describing non-combative roles that he undertook during his final year of service.

An undated photograph of Tigran Hovsepyan in Kolkata when he was a student at the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy. (Photo credit: Tigran Hovsepyan )

The recent fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh has stirred not only people in Armenia, but even those in the diaspora. “Nationalism surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh is very deep-rooted in Armenia. The first three presidents of mainland Armenia have origins there. Nagorno-Karabakh elicits nationalism, patriotism and Armenian brotherhood. Even women are signing up for enrollment,” says Achal Malhotra, who served as India’s Ambassador to Armenia and Georgia between 2009 and 2012.

Armenia’s population is approximately 3 million, but the diaspora may just be double that number, if not more. If Armenia’s youth has chosen to go to the frontlines, the diaspora has been fighting online, using social media platforms to generate awareness of the conflict in the South Caucasus, and has been contributing to fundraising efforts. Hashtags like #ArtsakhStrong, #StopAzerbaijaniAgression and #WeWillWin have been trending for days.

Not everyone has or can register to pick up arms, explains Karen Mkrtchyan, a member of Bright Armenia, a political party founded in 2015. When he returned to Armenia sometime in 2016 after living and studying in India for close to a decade, Mkrtchyan found he could not enlist for conscription due to problems with his eyesight.

But after the fighting started in Nagorno-Karabakh, he went to sign up at the local army office. “There is an organisation that provides voluntary training and they have an understanding with the military so that you can serve after training. They train you for four days on handling guns etc.,” Mkrtchyan, declining to name the organisation, citing national security. “You will be at the second or third line of defence, assisting wounded soldiers or getting rations. If you know how to drive, they’ll make you do that.”

Hovsepyan checks in with his local army office everyday to ask when he can go to serve, but has been told that new recruits are not necessary for now. Mkrtchyan has been getting similar responses from his local army office in Yerevan. “Literally everyone has signed up to help, but they aren’t being taken in at the moment. On the first day, half of my friends were gone. Everyone is ready to contribute. We are in war mode.”

Also read | Amid Nagorno-Karabakh clashes, an Indian restaurant is helping displaced Armenians

Armen Makarian, 32, has lived in India for most of his life, but his visits to Armenia have become more frequent over the past two years. For him now, the three-decade-long conflict is no longer one that is distant. Hours after clashes erupted in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia declared martial law and initiated total military mobilisation.

Makarian had just travelled from Kolkata to Yerevan in August when the fighting began. “Within two days, the government said this (conflict) was about our existence. It was a shock to everyone,” he says. When clashes last occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016, Makarian was in India, watching from afar. Now witnessing the conflict unfold in person has had a more severe impact, he says.

“I was travelling from Yerevan to Sisian and soldiers were digging the ground, building military posts on the highway. I saw many ambulances, police cars and soldiers helping the wounded. Young boys, 18-19 years old, were on buses going to the border. The police stopped us and checked our passports,” he says. “This was the first time I’ve seen something like this in my life.”

His wife had wanted to be with her family and Makarian had enlisted her cousin to help them drive from Yerevan down to Sisian. “His father is at the border,” Makarian says, recalling the conversation they had during the car-ride on the Yerevan-Meghri highway. “His father is almost 60 but he didn’t want his young son to die. All the older people are signing up to register in the army because they don’t want their sons to die.”

In the midst of the interview, a siren goes off and Makarian abruptly ends the call. He returns the call minutes later, explaining that the siren was a test run. The family has been living this way, on edge, ever since the fighting started. One morning, they woke up to find a government notice on their front door, with instructions for evacuation in case it is required. Makarian did not serve in the military and the military mobilisation and the country being on high alert has been an unusual experience for him. “I know at least people on the frontlines. Ten is a big number.”

A government notice pasted outside Armen Makarian’s home in Sisian, with instructions for evacuation. (Photo credit: Armen Makarian)

Sisian is a town located in southern Armenia and Makarian says many of its residents, young and old, have registered to volunteer in the army. “My wife asked why so many people from south Armenia go (to the army). I said it is because this is our home. If we don’t go, our children will.”

The sentiments of the Armenian diaspora have been nurtured in part due to the generational displacement and trauma that the Armenians have experienced. Some Armenians have attributed this national identity to the Armenian Genocide, even among people in the diaspora who have never lived or visited the country.

A photo of Varos Boyajyan in northern Nagorno-Karabakh where he served during his military conscription between 2017 to 2019. (Photo credit: Varos Boyajyan)

Although international travel has become challenging due to the coronavirus outbreak, social media posts and sources indicate that many in the diaspora have been wanting to travel to Armenia to fight for and support their motherland. “It doesn’t matter where Armenians are in the world. We will come together for our country. Even people who can’t register or travel are protesting against Azerbaijan in their own way. Nobody is forcing us,” Boyajyan says. “What else can we do?”

An undated photograph of Tigran Hovsepyan in Martuni Province, Nagorno-Karabakh, during his conscription. (Photo credit: Tigran Hovsepyan)

When Hovsepyan had been conscripted, he had served in Martuni Province in Nagorno-Karabakh. After the clashes started, he began scouring images and videos of the region where he had once served. “I am not able to recognise the place,” he says of the destruction. “If they allow me, I would like to go back there and serve.”

Deployment in the Martuni Province is difficult, but Hovsepyan says he still wants to go back. “The Armenian military is a tough place to be. But for me it was good. The Armenian College has made me tough,” he says with a laugh.

People lining up to defend their country was expected; many Armenians say that it is a question of their very existence. Makarian says: “This is not the first time we have survived this kind of thing. We have survived genocide. If we lose, we will praise our soldiers. But of course, we want to survive.”

“All parents are afraid for their children, but we don’t go, they’ll come for our parents,” says Boyajyan.

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/kolkata-armenian-youth-joins-army-to-fight-in-nagorno-karabakh6719621/

 

[Yervant1]

Pakistan is in this war, only for religious reasons.

Eurasian Times

Oct 10 2020

Pakistan Armed Forces Fully Behind Azerbaijan Over Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict – Army Chief

 

October 10, 2020

By Anadolu Agency

AA

Pakistan Army chief said on Friday that his forces fully support Azerbaijan’s position in the Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Alizada met with Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen. Nadeem Raza at the Joint Staff headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to discuss matters of bilateral interest and regional security, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — the Pakistan army’s media wing.

The military forces chief reaffirmed the brotherly relationship between the two countries and said it is built on strong foundations.

“CJCSC [Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee] said that Pakistan Armed Forces fully support Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in line with the several unanimously adopted United Nations Security Council resolutions,” according to ISPR.

The ambassador thanked Raza for Pakistan’s support for the just cause of Azerbaijan.

“Pleased to call on General Nadeem Raza, the Chairman JCSC of Pakistan & discuss the ways of further strengthening bilateral #military relations between our brotherly countries,” he tweeted following the meeting.

Last week, Pakistani Foreign Ministry refuted Indian media reports that Pakistan is fighting alongside Azerbaijani forces against Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh and termed the reports “irresponsible, speculative, and baseless.”

The ministry also said it supports Azerbaijan’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh, which is in line with the several unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolutions.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

https://eurasiantimes.com/pakistan-army-full-behind-azerbaijan/

 

[Yervant1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The governments of Artsakh and Armenia report that Azerbaijan has repeatedly violated the agreement reached in Moscow that was to take effect today October 10th, while Turkey’s Erdogan continues to oppose the ceasefire.

Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched a rocket attack at civilian targets in Stepanakert and shelled the city of Hadrut in Artsakh. There are reports of active fighting in Hadrut. In addition, Azerbaijan also launched drone strikes on the towns of Yeritsvank (Arstakh) and Artsvanik (Armenia), killing two people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yervant1]

It defies logic, as to why Israel still arms azerbaijan and covers for turkey! Oil you might say, there are other markets!!!!!! Today turkick sword is after Armenians and Kurds tomorrow it could be your turn who knows?

Jerusalem Post

Oct 10 2020

Turkey’s online social media army increasingly slams UAE and Israel

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN OCTOBER 10, 2020 15:49

Since June, the army of social media accounts that cheer Turkey’s invasions and threats against Israel, the UAE, Greece, Armenia and other countries appears to have grown again.

Any journalist or commentator who is critical of Turkey’s foreign policy or who appears to cover groups such as Kurds has gotten used to the last few years of being subjected to social media abuse, particularly on Twitter, by pro-Turkish accounts. Most of these accounts appear to be fake and have only a few dozen or hundreds of followers and tend to all re-tweet the same information, usually speeches of the president of Turkey or militarist slogans.

In June more than 7,000 Twitter accounts were linked to Turkey’s ruling party. However, since then the army of social media accounts that cheer Turkey’s invasions and threats against Israel, the UAE, Greece, Armenia and other countries appears to have grown again. Evidence for the number of these accounts including the systematic harassment of reporters who follow Turkey, dissidents from Turkey and anyone who is critical of the president of Turkey or the recent involvement of Ankara in the war against Armenia.

The accounts have certain commonalities. Most include images from Turkey’s history, including sultans such as Abdul Hamid II or sometimes symbols linked to far-right groups in Turkey such as the Grey Wolves. The accounts almost always include Turkish flags as symbols in their accounts, similar to right wing pro-Trump Twitter users who use the American flag in their tweets and profiles on social media. A new trend in Ankara’s troll army is that the users will include Azerbajani flags and other countries that they see as allies. These are other Muslim countries, such as Libya that have a similar crescent flag as Turkey. They don’t seem to use the Malaysian flag because the flag includes the stripes similar to the US flag.

The pro-Ankara social media harassment campaign has also begun to target accounts in the UAE that support Israel-UAE relations or that are critical of Turkey. For instance a recent post by a popular account in the UAE received dozens of apparently coordinated replies by the pro-Turkey army. One said “we’re coming for you.” Another wrote “there is a saying in the world, strong like a Turk.” Another included just a photo of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the word “Reis.” One, with a Pakistani flag as a symbol, replied simply “Ottoman empire.” Another wrote “your turn will come too, you should be afraid.” A fourth account simply posted the Turkish, Pakistani and Azerbaijan flag. Other accounts said the UAE is an “American puppet” and one seemingly more creative one posted a photo of a hot pepper with a Turkish flag. However the terminology “your turn will come” was common. Some wrote this phrase in Turkish or in English and with the Turkish flag at the end. References to the Ottoman Empire were also common.

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It does not seem reasonable to conclude that so many people all replied to this one tweet with similar replies and nationalist flags. Ankara is operating a sophisticated social media operation. The operation has become more extreme over time. Where once it supported the ruling party, it has increasingly targeted any critics abroad, including journalists. This includes direct threats, such as saying that critics are “terrorists” and they will be executed with “MAM-L” missiles, the kind that the Turkish Bayraktar drone carries.

Ankara combines harassment of critics online with use of social media to highlight the effective of social media to showcase Turkish drone strikes. These images are apparently designed to help drone sales as Ankara has become one of the world leaders in armed drone production and has used its Bayraktars in Syria, Libya and, in the hands of Azerbaijan, against Armenia. It has recently said it will sell them to Ukraine. So far Ankara has avoided the criticism that the US received for drone strikes, including accusations of extrajudicial killings when its drones have targeted Kurdish unarmed female activists in Syria.

Reports indicate that since 2014 Twitter has also suspended accounts at the request of the Turkish government. An article at the Committee to Protect Journalists notes that Turkey’s regime “silences journalists online, one removal request at a time.” It noted that a Turkish journalist was silenced in Turkey, one of the 1.5 million tweets belonging to journalists and media outlets censored under Twitters “country withheld content” policy. Ankara uses legal demands to get content removed or make it so people in Turkey can’t see it. Basically anything that is critical of Turkey or its ruling party may be targeted. Turkey is a member of NATO but has become one of the more repressive countries in the world in recent years, sentencing people to long prison terms for critiquing the government on Twitter, removing 60 mayors from the opposition HDP party and seizing assets of critical journalists. The country is the largest jailor of journalists.

Censoring tweets, getting accounts removed and harassing critics online are methods that appear to be deployed in an increasingly aggressive manner. This combines using the tools of the West’s freedom of _expression_ against the West by getting western-based social media companies to remove content of critics but continue to host the pro-government propaganda media of Ankara. For instance, while Twitter labels Russian and Chinese media as state-affiliated media, it doesn’t label Turkey’s state-backed TRT or other media.

Ankara’s social media army appears to move to back whichever foreign policy the government is about to unleash each week, so that one week it will turn to support claims in the Mediterranean, or bashing Egypt and Libyan fighters, to then attacking Armenia or Israel or the UAE. Opposition to Israel and the UAE are key to Ankara’s new foreign policy and it appears the social media campaign of “your turn will come” or “we are coming for you” is part of that. IN recent months Turkey’s presidential office has said it will “liberate” Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and said that “Jerusalem is ours.” Israeli officials have warned that Turkey is destabilizing the region, hosting Hamas, and growing in its threats.

https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/turkeys-online-social-media-army-increasingly-slams-uae-and-israel-645241/amp?fbclid=IwAR2HKhAzRxlpJwEMkF_Ir4_acXysCnVHAVpXqDw9WkqwcuIvamXVZH3ArXI

 

[Yervant1]

Greek City Times

Oct 10 2020

Northern Greek municipality raises Armenian flag & condemns Turkish-Azeri aggression against Artsakh
by GUEST BLOGGER

The Armenians may complain that allied countries have not done the right thing in the face of the attacks Turkish-sponsored Azerbaijan and Syrian jihadist mercenary attacks against Artsakh, or more commonly known as Nagorno-Karabakh, but in Greece day by day the voice of support from both citizens and institutions are increasing, Ethnos reported.

An example is the Municipality of Neapolis Sykeon in Thessaloniki, which with its resolution, announced symbolic support not only to the friendly people of Armenia but also to the promotion and recognition of the Armenian genocide .

“Armenian Genocide” Street

For the past 24 hours, the Armenian flag has been waving next to the Greek flag at the entrance of the town hall, while among other mobilizations and initiatives, it was decided to name the city’s main street “Armenian Genocide.”

“It is our duty to support the friendly people of Armenia who, like the Greeks, have suffered from many of those who are attacking today. It is the least we have to do to give strength and courage to our brothers,” said the mayor Simos Danielidis.

At the same time, Danielidis and the municipal services were authorized to initiate the procedures for the renaming of the street in the municipality to “Armenian Genocide” street.

It should be noted that the mayor, head of the municipal delegation, also attended the protest rally that took place last Saturday at White Tower Square, from where he sent a message of support to the “brotherly people of Armenia”.

In detail, the resolution approved by the Municipal Council at its meeting on October 5, after a suggestion by the mayor as an extraordinary issue, states the following:

“The Municipal Council of Naples-Sykeon unequivocally condemns the attack launched by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the morning hours of September 27.

“Azerbaijani military forces launched a large-scale offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh / Artsakh, targeting civilians, including schools in the town of Stepanakert, with rockets, drones and helicopters. The attack has caused casualties to the civilian population.

“This is a very worrying escalation of the situation with potentially catastrophic consequences in the wider region, including the European Union. At this time, the Azeri army’s attacks cross the border and now target residential towns and villages, schools and civilians.

“For Greece, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has two important aspects. The first concerns the war itself, in an area that has been suffering since the beginning of the 20th century, and the final resolution of the long-standing crisis by peaceful means. Greece must take initiatives and actively work with supporters of a peaceful and final solution to the problem. Maintaining a disputed status by operating a de facto unrecognized independent state is not a solution but a source of conflict.”

The long statement would continue with the mayor saying:

“The second concerns Turkey’s involvement and its attempt to emerge as a regional, imperialist and hegemonic power. Aiming to reach its ‘strategic depth,’ Turkey provokes, engages in and fosters conflicts near or far from its borders. It does so in Syria, Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean and now in Nagorno-Karabakh. The exploitation of the long-standing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ties of friendship and alliance with the Azeris, and the effort to weaken and destabilize Armenia lead Recep Tayyip Erdogan to spark the conflict.

“When the voices and initiatives for the cessation of hostilities continue to grow, Turkey chooses its active military involvement. The wandering mercenaries-murderers of Erdogan moved to Nagorno-Karabakh today.

“This strategy of Turkey makes it dangerous and declares it an international turmoil that must finally be severely sanctioned by the international community, which unfortunately operates selectively according to the prevailing interests at the time.

“Instead of Turkey apologizing for the genocide it committed against the Armenian people, it is repeating today its criminal action against the Armenians. He is indifferent to the loss of human lives and launches murderous attacks on civilians.

The international community must, in addition to peaceful wishes, take practical action to de-escalate tensions, resume dialogue, and isolate Turkey.

The Municipal Council of the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykea:

• Condemns Azerbaijan’s military intervention in Nagorno-Karabakh;

• Condemns Turkey’s murderous stance against Armenians,

• Advocates for a permanent solution that respects the territorial sovereignty of the countries and the national identity of the peoples of the region,

“It stands with the Armenian people in the just struggle for independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and its international recognition.”

• Decides the hoisting of the Armenian flag at the town hall of Naples-Sykeon next to the Greek one,

• Authorizes the mayor Mr. Simos Danielidis, together with the Services, to take all the necessary actions for the renaming of streets in the municipality.”

https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/11/northern-greek-municipality-raises-armenian-flag-condemns-turkish-azeri-aggression-against-artsakh/

[Yervant1]

You got to love the Armenian spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will win!

EurasiaNet.org

Oct 10 2020

Armenians feel they are facing their fight alone While Armenians have been disappointed by the lack of a strong international response to the war with Azerbaijan, the isolation also has encouraged a sense of unity and solidarity. Ani Mejlumyan Oct 10, 2020

Two weeks into their most momentous war in a generation, Armenians feel like they are fighting for their lives – and that they are doing it alone.

The international community has stayed relatively unengaged during the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan, a fact that has frustrated Armenians – but also strengthened their sense of internal unity.

“Armenia is in a sense alone,” said Gayane Simonyan, a 29-year-old IT worker who has temporarily left her job to organize aid for refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, whose ethnic Armenian residents have been subject to a punishing bombing campaign from Azerbaijan, forcing tens of thousands of them to flee to Armenia.

Simonyan noted that Russia, a treaty ally of Armenia, has largely been standing aside as the fighting raged, and that the United States is a NATO ally of Turkey, which has been heavily backing Azerbaijan.

“Armenians always have been alone in their fights, and that is what’s happening this time as well,” she told Eurasianet.

In his rhetoric, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has invoked the example of Sardarapat, the legendary 1918 battle in which greatly outmanned Armenian forces, on their own, fought back an advancing Ottoman Empire.

“This is our Sardarapat,” Pashinyan said in an October 3 televised address to the nation. “Their goal is not territory, their goal is to finish the Armenian genocide.”

The heavy Turkish involvement in the Azerbaijani offensive has brought up inevitable resonances with the 1915 genocide, in which the Ottoman Empire massacred or drove out nearly its entire population of ethnic Armenians.

The sense of threat from Turkey is such that Azerbaijan has receded to a secondary place in the Armenian discourse about the war.

“By getting involved in this conflict, Turkey has forced our hand, we will fight till the last drop of blood before we live under Turks,” said one Lebanese-born Armenian, who spoke to Eurasianet on condition of anonymity.

Immediately after fighting started on September 27 with a heavy Azerbaijani offensive, Armenian social media users began appealing to the international community for a strong reaction against Azerbaijan and its Turkish backers.

International soccer superstar Henrikh Mkhitaryan issued a call on Twitter for the leaders of the United States, France, and Russia to be more active in bringing an end to the fighting. “Our youth is dying on the front line,” he wrote. “I am calling on you to use your full power in halting this human tragedy.”

During the conflict Armenia has gotten much sympathetic coverage from the international media, and voices of support from politicians and other figures around the world. Armenians were cheered by a recent European Union parliament hearing on the conflict in which politician after politician stood up to support Armenia and criticize Azerbaijan and Turkey.

But little concrete has come of that moral support and as time has passed, many Armenians have come to lose hope in a strong international response. One popular hashtag, #DontBeBlind, speaks to Armenians’ sense that the world is not looking as closely as it should be.

Olympic champion wrestler Arthur Aleksanyan complained in an October 5 Instagram post about the inaction of the international community. “You have been silent about it while the children, mothers, and youth of Armenia are left alone with terrorists,” he wrote. “It is impossible to think anything but that THE WORLD HAS GONE BLIND FROM AZERI OIL AND PETRODOLLARS.”

One popular social media post going around among Armenians has quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

As the international community stands aside, many Armenians are reaching into a well of national unity and solidarity. “We can’t put our hope in anyone,” said Hrant Svyatelski, a 41-year-old who was an intelligence officer in the war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s.

“Nobody is afraid of those terrorists,” he said, referring to Syrian mercenaries that Turkey is widely reported to have hired to help the Azerbaijani armed forces. “There are no better fighters that Karabakhtsis,” he told Eurasianet. “In the worst case this will turn into a guerrilla war because nobody will leave Karabakh. So many things happened that mean that we can’t forgive them and they can’t forgive us.”

The sense of existential threat has led some Armenians to consider radical moves if the war continues.

“Either we lose everything or win, there is no other choice,” said Arsen Galstyan, a 32-year-old IT worker. “Armenians could disappear, and we can’t accept that. So there is a big chance the entire country could turn into ASALA.”

ASALA, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, was a terrorist group that operated in the 1970s and 80s, assassinating more than 30 Turkish diplomats around the world for that country’s refusal to acknowledge the genocide.

“I have full faith in the Armenian army, we have no choice but to win – the other option is to be ethnically cleansed” from Karabakh, said the Lebanese-born Armenian, who was discussing the war with some friends in a central Yerevan cafe. “But even if that starts to happen another ASALA will come, and this time every silent country that stood and watched as we were massacred will again live in fear.”

Another young woman interrupted with a grim joke: “If that happens, we’ll just bomb our own nuclear plant,” she said, referring to the Metsamor nuclear energy facility. “Why not? If we don’t get to live, no one else does either.”

For now, though, most Armenians see no room for such despair.

“People are confident and unified and we’re not expecting any military support at the moment, we just need support on the diplomatic front to block Turkey from involving more forces” in the conflict, said Vahan Khachatryan, a 29-year-old filmmaker who had just returned from Karabakh. “There is a feeling that only we have our backs, and that’s a great feeling.”

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

https://eurasianet.org/armenians-feel-they-are-facing-their-fight-alone?fbclid=IwAR2UNI3_MK0MoFiS1D2TO1kC260Isz5KBoOjGSkMo5nvQe0LIsXcSgF6110

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Yervant1

[Yervant1]

Intelligencer

Oct 10 2020

Armenia and Azerbaijan Are at War. Does President Trump Even Know?

By Jonah Shepp

On September 27, fresh fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. While each country accused the other of having shot first, the conflict quickly escalated into martial law and total mobilization on both sides. Since then, military clashes as well as artillery and missile strikes on cities have killed more than 360 people, and the war has threatened to escalate into an even more destructive regional conflagration. A tenuous ceasefire is now in place, but appears to be failing as both sides claim the other is violating it.

The impending election, the resurgence of the coronavirus, and President Donald Trump’s own COVID-19 infection have sucked Americans’ attention away from anything else in the world that might be worth paying attention to, so you’d be forgiven for not realizing that a distant war has been going on for the past two weeks. The lack of attention and involvement from the U.S., however, may be contributing to the conflict’s rapid escalation and diminishing the prospects for its speedy resolution. Although it will have no impact whatsoever on our presidential election, it’s the sort of international crisis in which the U.S. president can make a real difference.

The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but most of its inhabitants are ethnic Armenians. The territorial dispute originated in the waning days of World War I when the Caucasian nations briefly set up their own independent nation-states amid the collapse of the Russian Empire, before being absorbed into the Soviet Union a few years later. The Soviets redrew the borders of the peripheral republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia to ensure that they contained significant ethnic-minority populations, making them more likely to fight each other than to fight Russia and harder to govern as independent states. Whether these decisions were part of a deliberate divide-and-rule strategy or more nuanced remains the subject of scholarly debate, but in any case, the strategy worked.

The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh continued to press for independence from Azerbaijan throughout the Soviet period. In 1988, as the Soviet Union was beginning to fall apart, the leaders of the regional soviet voted to separate the region from Azerbaijan and unite it with Armenia. This attempt at secession launched an ethnic conflict that quickly spiraled into an all-out war, which lasted six years and led to at least 25,000-30,000 deaths and the displacement of 1 million people. Russia brokered a ceasefire between its former imperial possessions in 1994, by which time Armenia had taken control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjoining territories of Azerbaijan.

That ceasefire held, despite occasional violations, for 22 years, but the countries never reached a permanent settlement of the dispute, making Nagorno-Karabakh one of the several “frozen conflicts” of the post-Soviet era. A mini-war broke out in 2016, with Azerbaijan recapturing a small amount of territory over four days, and small-scale hostilities erupted this past July, presaging the larger war that broke out in late September.

An unexploded rocket in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region’s main city of Stepanakert on October 6 during the ongoing fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region. Photo: Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images

A complicating factor in this conflict is that the belligerents’ more powerful neighbors, Russia and Turkey, have interests in the South Caucasus and have the ability to either deescalate or exacerbate the conflict. Turkey, which sees the Turkic-language-speaking Azerbaijanis as part of a greater Turkish sphere of influence, has backed Azerbaijan in this dispute since 1993, when Ankara closed its borders with Armenia and imposed an economic blockade that remains in place today. Bad historical blood between Armenia and Turkey, which still refuses to acknowledge the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide, also contributes to present-day enmity between these countries. Russia, meanwhile, has always been the primary broker responsible for managing this conflict. It has a formal military alliance with Armenia, but does not consider Azerbaijan an enemy — and it is also the primary arms dealer to all sides in this conflict.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tacitly supported military action by Azerbaijan, and the Turkish government has sent around 1,500 Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan to participate in the war, leveraging its proxy army of Syrian opposition militias, which it has also sent to fight in the Libyan civil war. Further illustrating the conflict’s expansive regional dimension, Turkey’s deployment of Syrian fighters has alarmed Iran, Azerbaijan’s other more powerful neighbor, which backs the Syrian government in that country’s civil war. Iran has good relations with both its Caucasian neighbors, particularly Azerbaijan, with which it has historical, cultural, and religious ties: Iranian Azerbaijanis are the largest ethnic minority in Iran, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is half-Azerbaijani on his father’s side. Tehran doesn’t want Turkish-backed mercenaries, whom it considers terrorists, on its borders, nor does it want Azerbaijan to fall too deeply under Turkish influence.

Russia has not stepped in militarily yet, but experts fear that Moscow could intervene on Armenia’s behalf if the fighting drags on, turning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict into a direct or proxy war between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member state. Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian president Vladimir Putin have both said Moscow would uphold its commitment to Armenia as a military ally, but Putin has sought to position himself as a neutral mediator and broker another ceasefire. However, some experts believe Putin would like to see Pashinyan diminished or overthrown, as the Armenian leader is more pro-Western than his predecessors and not inclined to run his country as a Russian puppet state. Putin may seek to pressure Pashinyan into a more pro-Moscow position by withholding direct military assistance when Armenia needs it most.

The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, a committee co-chaired by Russia, the U.S., and France, has been responsible for mediating this conflict since 1992. Russia has led the latest effort to bring the parties to the negotiating table. Overnight talks in Moscow led to a Russian-brokered humanitarian ceasefire that went into effect midday Saturday, but Armenia and Azerbaijan both accused each other of violating it within hours. Negotiations are reportedly still ongoing over the terms of a more durable ceasefire, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, and the countries have agreed to renew peace talks under the auspices of the Minsk Group.

One member of that international mediation committee has been conspicuously absent from this effort. U.S. representatives have been involved in the Moscow effort to broker a ceasefire, but the highest levels of U.S. leadership have largely backed off. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo only commented on the conflict after being asked about it last week, and his comments made it clear that the U.S. wasn’t going to get involved: “We’re discouraging internationalization of this. We think outsiders ought to stay out. We’re urging a ceasefire. We want them both to back up. We’ve spoken to the leadership in each of the two countries, asking them to do just that.”

In past administrations, a shooting war involving Russia and a NATO member would be a drop-everything event for the State Department. President Donald Trump, who is friendly with Erdogan, could try calling his Turkish counterpart and persuade him to stop escalating the conflict. But of course, the president is too busy trying to rescue his spiraling reelection campaign and persuade the American people that he is not debilitatingly ill with COVID-19. Anyway, resolving a conflict between two countries most Americans can’t find on a map would not win him any votes next month, so why should he care?

As multiple commentators have pointed out, the absence of U.S. global leadership invites conflicts like these to flare up and makes them harder to resolve peacefully. We have seen bad actors take advantage of the Trump administration’s hands-off, “America first” approach to foreign policy over the past three years, and it is unsurprising to see a small country like Azerbaijan looking to settle a border dispute militarily while the U.S. is still governed by a president with no interest in diplomatic leadership. Under a putative Joe Biden administration, they must realize, they will be much less likely to get away with it.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/armenia-and-azerbaijan-are-at-war-does-trump-even-know.html?utm_source=fb&fbclid=IwAR25PDSwEfkbXf6XSqvhD_AE3YoQRPtDqYwYsMGjwxXEn1-gDFWf64j1Q-g

[Yervant1]

The Hill, DC
Oct 10 2020

Azerbaijan's assault against Armenia threatens Democracy everywhere

BY CHRISTOS A. MAKRIDIS AND ALEX GALITSKY, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS — 10/10/20 03:00 PM EDT

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

On September 27, Azerbaijan began a coordinated full-scale aerial and missile attack on Artsakh, Armenia. Turkey has played an especially active role by not only supporting, but also driving much of Azerbaijan’s aggression. It has provided its proxy with foreign mercenaries and the full extent of its military arsenal, including its F-16s . In fact, shortly after the assault on Artsakh began, Turkish President Recep Erdogan announced his full support for Azerbaijan and called for the overthrow of the Armenian government. These tactics are not new: Erdogan has employed them countless times, from its intervention in Libya to its dispute with Greece in the Mediterranean.

Unfortunately, some actors in the international community have dismissed Azerbaijan as the aggressor, calling both sides to “prepare populations for peace.” But if Armenia was never in search for war in first place, what more do they have to prepare for?

In contrast, Azerbaijan has been preparing its population for war over the past two decades — institutionalizing anti-Armenian sentiment, stockpiling military assets purchased from Turkey and Israel, and steadily sidelining efforts for a negotiated solution to the conflict. In fact, Azerbaijan recently disavowed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group peace process when President Ilham Aliyev called the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) mediation efforts “pointless” and threatening to resolve the issue militarily. What’s happening now shouldn’t come as a surprise to the international community — Azerbaijan telegraphed it all along.

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Azerbaijan and Turkey have been working strategically to influence international public opinion, especially the United States, Israel and Europe. Azerbaijan’s nefarious foreign dealings were recently exposed by an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation into the “Azerbaijani laundromat,” an extensive money laundering operation that saw Azerbaijan funnel over $2.9 billion dollars between 2012 and 2014 alone into foreign shell corporations to buy favor among international institutions, politicians, lobbyists and journalists. UNESCO and the European Parliament were extensively targeted, and recent reports have surfaced from Israel of the transfer of a significant amount of funds from the state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries to a laundromat-linked account after a $5 billion contract was signed between the two.

Azerbaijan's public relations efforts have sought to obscure the international community’s awareness of the virulent state-sponsored anti-Armenian racism throughout Azerbaijani society that has resulted in the incitement of hate crimes, such as the destruction of cultural monuments and the granting of impunity to the perpetrators of hate crimes. Moreover, Azerbaijan and Turkey have repeatedly dismissed and denied the Armenian genocide, not only refusing to take accountability for the actions of their predecessors in perpetrating this crime against humanity, but going to the lengths of openly espousing the very ideologies that informed the genocide 105 years ago.

These actions have had international reverberations. For example, following Azerbaijan's aggression against the Republic of Armenia in July, tens of thousands of Azerbaijani demonstrators chanted “death to Armenians” in the streets of Baku. That has spread to diaspora even in the United States, where in recent weeks, most notably in San Francisco, a series of attacks were waged against an Armenian church and elementary school.

Ironically, Azerbaijan has often touted itself as a leader in human rights and religious liberty. But according to measures of religious liberty from the Varieties of Democracy, Azerbaijan ranks within the 10th percentile of countries across the world as of 2018 — far below the median. In contrast, Armenia ranks at roughly the unweighted mean across all countries in the data.

While religious liberty might seem like a luxury to some students of international relations, it is an important determinant of human flourishing. Using a sample of over 150 countries surveyed between 2006 and 2018, new research from one of the authors shows that religious liberty has a causal effect on human flourishing, particularly among religious minorities. Importantly, these results are present even after controlling for measures of economic freedom (e.g., property rights) from the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and measures of economic activity (e.g., GDP).

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The research suggests that religious liberty is a prerequisite for democratic governance, aiding the process for civic engagement and women empowerment and reducing the potential for public and political corruption. Not surprisingly, limiting the freedom to choose and arrive at even the most basic judgments about their identity stifles creativity and increases the potential for corruption by overly zealous and powerful bureaucrats. In this sense, until Azerbaijan recognizes the legitimate right to self-determination of the Armenian people free of threat of persecution for their religion, culture and ethnic identity, peace is going to be impossible.

Throughout the years, the chief failure of the OSCE Minsk Group – the entity mandated with finding a settlement to this conflict – and its three co-chairs – the United States, Russia and France – has been the refusal to directly attribute blame to Azerbaijan for its constant aggression and ceasefire. Despite efforts by the U.S to curtail Azerbaijan’s aggression during the 1991-94 war, and in recent years its advocacy for the implementation of the Royce-Engel peace protocols, successive administrations have continued to appease Azerbaijan, including the recent earmarking of $100 million in military assistance to the Caspian dictatorship earlier this year.

While Azerbaijan has positioned itself as a key strategic partner to the U.S. in the region, often cynically deploying its relationship with Israel as an example of its good-faith partnership, its close ties to an increasingly dictatorial and expansionist Turkey, as well as its oft-overlooked relationship with Iran and Russia, demonstrates that Azerbaijan is only out to serve its own interests, even if that means transferring millions of dollars into Russian and Iranian state-linked companies, or selling Iran a 10 percent stake in one of its major oil pipelines despite international sanctions regimes.

While Azerbaijan has attempted to shield itself from international scrutiny by riding on the presence of tense domestic politics in the United States and a global pandemic, we cannot ignore it any longer. The international community must recognize that failure to stand up for religious minorities anywhere is a threat to them everywhere. Inaction creates precedent and emboldens dictators.

Christos A. Makridis is an assistant research professor at Arizona State University, a non-resident fellow at Baylor University, and a senior adviser at Gallup. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @camakridis. Alex Galitsky is communications eirector of the Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region, the largest Armenian grassroots advocacy organization in the United States. Follow him on Twitter @algalitsky.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/520437-azerbaijans-assault-against-armenia-threatens-democracy-everywhere?fbclid=IwAR117ufZn_gDEyLUEXAgj4O0D_cfDHWShqtE_gKZQTrbYojZ8I-Dj9RGYDY#.X4IYzw4ZWAw.facebook

[Yervant1]

The Telegraph, UK

Oct 10 2020

Armenia hails new weapon in war with Azerbaijan: Kim Kardashian

So big is Kim Kardashian's online profile that her statements on Nagorno Karabakh have been viewed by millions

ByColin Freeman GYUMRI10 October 2020 • 6:00pm

Samvel Balasayan does not look like the sort of man who spends much time Keeping Up With The Kardashians. As mayor of Armenia's second-biggest city, Gyumri, he has enough on his plate as it is – and like most middle-aged men, he is not that fascinated by the day-to-day lives of LA reality TV stars.

Yet Mr Balasayan can boast one thing that most of Kim Kardashian's 190 million social media fans can only dream of: he has actually met her. Gyumri is where her ancestors hail from, and when she returned to the city five years ago for an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, he was in the VIP greeting party.

"Gyumri has become well known through her programme," beamed Mr Balasayan, who is keen to promote the city as a tourist destination. "We are delighted that Kim has us put on the world map."

Right now, though, Ms Kardashian has turned her considerable publicity powers to a more pressing Armenian cause: the war against Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which has claimed more than 300 lives since it broke out two weeks ago.

“Please share the news,” she posted on her Instagram account. “We are praying for the brave men & women risking their lives to protect Artsakh (the local name for Nagorno Karabakh's self-declared republic) & #Armenia."

So big is Ms Kardashian's online profile that her statements on Nagorno Karabakh may have been viewed as much, if not more, than those of Armenia's elected leaders. But while many Kardashian followers may have only a passing interest in Nagorno Karabakh, there is another worldwide constituency for whom it could not be closer to the heart: the global Armenian diaspora.

Spread everywhere from Los Angeles to Lebanon, and with pockets too in France, Russia and west London, the diaspora is a legacy from World War One, when up to 1.5m Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Turkey denies Armenian claims that it was a genocide, saying the deaths occured during civil war, but there is no doubting the scale of the exodus. The diaspora is an estimated 11m strong - compared to just 3m in Armenia itself.

Since the flare up of the conflict with Azerbaijan, the exiles have been mobilising en masse - some staging demonstrations, some organising relief supplies, and some even volunteering for front line duty.

"Armenia is a small country always at the mercy of other empires, and we have only two allies: our army and our diaspora," said Vartan Marashlyan, executive director of the Repat Armenia Organisation, a group based in the capital, Yerevan, which encourages diaspora engagement. "Whenever we have an existential issue, the entire nation becomes an army."

The diaspora previously mobilised in major fashion in 1988, helping Gyumri after an earthquake that killed some at least 25,000.

With the diaspora traditionally well-organised - some 30,000 Armenian community and church groups exist worldwide - the contribution to the latest war effort is substantial. Some £60m in donations has already reached the Hayastan All Armenian Fund, a national charity.

Meanwhile, thousands have come back to the homeland to help, from LA-based doctors and trauma psychologists to Russian-Armenian business tycoons. Some offer expertise in IT or logistics - while others, like Allen Sayadyan, a 40-year-old LA estate agent, simply offer goodwill.

The Telegraph bumped into him last weekend in Nagorno Karabakh, where he and several friends had driven to donate medical supplies, cigarettes and water. At the time he was visiting the Holy Saviour Cathedral in the town of Shushi, which has since had its dome shelled by Azeri forces.

"I'm just here to help however I can really," he said. "I'd fight if asked to, although to be honest I've never picked up a gun before.”

Another expat who has swung into action is IT project manager Haik Kazazian, 32, who moved back to Armenia two years ago from Montreal. When the war broke out, he put out a fundraising appeal on Facebook to friends in the Canadian diaspora, expecting no more than CDN $500 (£300). He has already received CDN $20,000 (£11,750).

"Nobody in Montreal is sleeping at night, everyone is as worried as they can be," said Mr Kazarian, as he stood in a yard piled high with vegetables, toiletries ready to be sent in a van to families displaced by the fighting,

Like Mr Sayadyan, Mr Kazarian has no experience of military service, although he did offer his services at his local army HQ in Yerevan. However, with Armenia still full of combat veterans from the last war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s, and also running a national service program, he got the impression he wouldn't be needed.

"My sense was that if things reached the point where they needed me to enlist, then the war effort really would be going badly," he smiled. "Aid convoys are probably the best way I can help."

In similar fashion, nobody is expecting Ms Kardashian to swap her raunchy outfits for designer military fatigues and head to the frontlines. But back in Gyumri, her backing of the cause has certainly raised morale among some of those trying to help.

"I'd like her phone number for sure," joked Svoyan Sasun, 30, as he manned a city centre stall collecting food and clothes. "People criticise here, but when the nation is in its hour of need, everyone loves her."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/10/armenia-hails-new-weapon-war-azerbaijan-kim-kardashian/?fbclid=IwAR30wMQy686ZpzsF4fxh2_Y4XykUF45dL4DHreoVB4MJna2fJCtmdEACuVs

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Dev Discourse, India

Oct 10 2020

Self-proclaimed Artsakh says fighting continues in Karabakh's Hadrut despite ceasefire

The Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh region said on Saturday that the Azerbaijani forces carried on with military operations in the town of Hadrut in Karabakh despite the humanitarian ceasefire agreement, but other areas along the contract line are "relatively calm."
ANI | Yerevan | Updated: 10-10-2020 21:18 IST | Created: 10-10-2020 21:18 IST

Yerevan [Armenia], October 10 (ANI/Sputnik): The Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh region said on Saturday that the Azerbaijani forces carried on with military operations in the town of Hadrut in Karabakh despite the humanitarian ceasefire agreement, but other areas along the contract line are "relatively calm." Following the 10-hour talks in the Russian capital of Moscow, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to cease hostilities in the conflict-torn region starting noon (08:00 GMT). The ceasefire is intended to allow both sides to exchange captured individuals and bodies of those deceased. However, the parties soon accused each other of violating the truce.

"Prior to reaching the ceasefire agreement for humanitarian reasons, the Azerbaijani side attempted to carry out reconnaissance operation in the direction of Hadrut. Despite the fact that it was only about three hours into the ceasefire, operations to blockade and destroy the infiltrated [Azerbaijani] group continue. It is relatively calm at the other sectors of the contact line," the Foreign Ministry said. The large-scale hostilities in the Armenian-majority breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh erupted on September 27 when both parties accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Most countries, including Russia and France, have called on the warring parties to cease fire and settle their differences via dialogue. Turkey has vowed to support Azerbaijan with all the needed means. (ANI/Sputnik)

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/1246576-self-proclaimed-artsakh-says-fighting-continues-in-karabakhs-hadrut-despite-ceasefire

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Greek City Times

Oct 10 2020

Turkey says the Armenian-Azeri ceasefire “cannot replace a lasting solution”
by PAUL ANTONOPOULOS

Turkey on Saturday hailed the Azerbaijan-Armenia humanitarian truce as an “important first step”, but was quick to add that such measures “but cannot replace a lasting solution.”

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry also reaffirmed that “Turkey will continue to stand by brotherly Azerbaijan on the ground and at the table”

“The ceasefire which was declared on humanitarian grounds for the exchange of prisoners of war and bodies, is an important first step, but cannot replace a lasting solution,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Since the beginning, Turkey has always underlined that it would only support those solutions which were acceptable to Azerbaijan. With this understanding, Turkey will continue to stand by brotherly Azerbaijan on the ground and at the table,” the statement continued.

The Turkish Foreign Minister claimed that “during the armed conflicts that started on 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan has shown Armenia and the whole world that it has the ability and the self confidence to reclaim its territories under occupation for nearly 30 years.”

“In this process, calls for ceasefire were made from all over the world with humanitarian considerations. Consequently Azerbaijan gave Armenia a last opportunity to withdraw from the territories it has occupied,” the statement added.

It is noted that the Turkish Foreign Minister and its Azerbaijani counterpart discussed by telephone a tripartite meeting between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on Saturday, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov discussed the tripartite meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow on Friday, citing sources, who asked not to be named. Çavuşoğlu voiced Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan’s decisions at the tripartite meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to Moscow on Friday for consultations mediated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the parties decided to suspend the ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

However, just minutes after the ceasefire was meant to begin, Azerbaijan broke it by attacking various positions, particularly against the town of Hadrut that it falsely claimed it had captured yesterday but was exposed to be a lie.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/11/turkey-says-the-armenian-azeri-ceasefire-cannot-replace-a-lasting-solution/

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AHVAL News

Oct 10 2020

Erdoğan edging towards crossing Putin in Nagorno-Karabakh - Kerim Has // Russia analyst

• Ahval
• Oct 10 2020 09:43 Gmt+3
• Last Updated On: Oct 10 2020 10:37 Gmt+3

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is on the verge of crossing Russia's red line as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is different from Syria and Libya, Kerim Has, a Moscow-based Russian and Turkish affairs analyst told Ahval in a podcast.

On Oct. 1, Andrey Kortunov, director-general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think-tank affiliated with the Russia's Foreign Ministry, said the relationship between Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was a minefield, and the Turkish president might have crossed the line and was close to stepping on a mine with its involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Although the red line has not been crossed yet, Erdoğan is poking Putin's nerve endings," Has said.

The relationship between the two leaders was already strained before fighting broke out around Nagorno-Karabakh on Sep. 27, he said.

Russia and Turkey have managed to establish a relationship that is mutually beneficial but also fraught with complications in the Syrian and Libyan civil wars, where the two support opposing sides. They are strategic partners and competitors at the same time, even direct opponents in some cases.

However, Nagorno-Karabakh has a distinct significance for Russia, the analyst said. The two countries have had either military advisers, mercenaries or troops deployed on in Syria and Libya, but similar Turkish efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh, a former Soviet stomping ground in close proximity to Russia, could lead to unintentional escalation and permanent destruction of the partnership, he added.

"Putin will not allow more Turkish interference in Karabakh, which is known as Russia's backyard," Has said.

Russia enjoys good relations with both sides in the conflict: it has a defence pact with Armenia, its traditional ally, and recently fostered warmer ties with Azerbaijan. Moscow also sells arms to both countries.

Turkey, on its part, has not hid its support for Azerbaijan as they share long-standing cultural, historic and economic ties. Ankara provided military support to the Azeri government for the fighting that broke out with Armenian separatists on Sept. 27.

Armenia, Russia, France and Iran all accused Turkey of deploying Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said last week that it was “deeply concerned” by the deployment of Syrian and Libyan militiamen to the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported around 900 Syrian mercenaries were transported to Azerbaijan by private Turkish security companies since the clashes started. Members of the Syrian National Army, a group of Turkey-backed opposition militias in northern Syria, told Foreign Policy that such transfers happened even before the fighting. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan deny such reports.

Turkey instrumentalised foreign mercenaries to exert influence on several fronts, Has said. "Putin comes within an inch of publicly announcing that jihadists were sent to Nagorno-Karabakh through Turkey."

Putin is reserving his true feelings of resentment over Turkey’s intervention as part of a strategy to punish Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government that resists returning into Russia’s sphere of influence, the analyst said.

One of Pashinyan’s pre-election promises when he came to power following a series of anti-government protests that unseated a Moscow-friendly administration was to reduce Armenia’s reliance on Russia.

The Russian president has been successfully using Armenia’s phobia of Turkey in his gambit to restore control over the country, Has said.

"The reckoning of the Pashinyan administration with Russian and pro-Russian names and flirting with the West caused Moscow to view the threat of Baku (the Azeri government) from a favourable perspective."

Has said Erdoğan's recent move to test its Russian-made S-400 missile systems should be seen as an effort to calm relations with Putin.

On Tuesday, Turkey began moving its Russian S-400 missile defence systems to a training ground near western province of Sinop for testing.

"The unveiling of S-400s in Sinop is again based on political calculations. Although it is not activated at the moment, it will be activated sooner or later," he said.

Tensions between NATO allies Turkey and the United States over the S-400 air defence systems appeared to come to a head in April when Erdoğan and his government announced plans to activate them.

However, the costly activation has been delayed for the foreseeable future, with Turkish authorities citing technical issues and the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington has threatened Ankara with sanctions and suspended Turkey from the programme to build and operate the fifth generation F-35 fighter jet last year after Turkey bought the S-400s, which the United States maintains are not compatible with NATO defence systems and threaten the F-35’s stealth capabilities.

https://ahvalnews.com/nagorno-karabakh/erdogan-edging-towards-crossing-putin-nagorno-karabakh-kerim-has-russia-analyst?amp&fbclid=IwAR27mPWtFvQDz8FosaaVqVfeHEnzQow0yVa0Q_YQjzhIWjPw0RvbNdySXj4

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Kim Kardashian donates 1 million USD to ‘’Hayastan’’ All Armenian Fund

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00:49, 11 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. World famous TV star donates 1 million USD to ‘’Hayastan’’ All Armenian Fund, ARMENPRESS reports Kardashian twitted about this.

‘’ I will be donating $1 million to assist their efforts on the ground and invite you to join me. Whether you are helping with just raising awareness and posting on social media or donating just $1, every bit helps. The

The ArmeniaFund is directly helping those that have been impacted during this critical time with humanitarian aid through food, shelter, and medical care’’, she wrote.

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Azerbaijan lost nearly 200 servicemen and terrorists from October 9 until ceasefire

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21:36, 10 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani side suffered nearly 200 manpower losses, including regular army servicemen and terrorists, from October 9 until the ceasefire, ARMENPRESS reports representative of the Defense Ministry of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a press conference.

He added that Azerbaijan also lost 3 UAVs, 4 military vehicles and some other minor military equipment.

Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey , unleashed war against Artsakh on September 27. Turkey, in addition to various types of assistance to Azerbaijan, including using Turkish air force against Artsakh and Armenia, has also deployed thousands of mercenaries and terrorists from Syria in Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh.

So far the Armenian side has reported 376 casualties among the military and 21 civilians, Azerbaijan’s manpower losses are over 4500, which includes both servicemen from the regular Azerbaijani army and terrorists.

President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan called for an new coalition against international terrorism on October 6.

Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan

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Russian war reporter supposes the saboteurs who invaded Hadrut were Turkish special forces

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19:30, 10 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The reporter of Russian WarGonzo notes in his footage that there are all grounds to suppose that the group of saboteurs that invaded Artsakh’s Hadrut town and were later repelled was comprised of Turkish special forces.

ARMENPRESS reports the reporter notes they were dressed in black and their goal was to raise Azerbaijani flag in the town to be able to confirm the political announcement of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev about capturing Hadrut.

The video will not be posted due to non-normative lexicon.

The Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani FMs announced about a humanitarian ceasefire starting from October 10, 12:00 aimed at the exchange of captives and bodies of victims under the mediation of the ICRC. However, Azerbaijani forces made a sabotage-reconnaissance infiltration attempt in the direction of Hadrut and the Defense Army of Artsakh continues its countermeasures to eliminate the raid.

Later, President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan informed that the situation in the town is under full control of the Defense Army.

On October 9, Aliyev had announced that the Azeri forces have captured Hadrut, a claim that was debunked by Artsakh as a “total lie.”

Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan

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OC Register, Orange County, CA

Oct 10 2020

Orange County Armenians rally to shed light on Turkey’s shelling of Azerbaijan enclave

Over 200 members of the Armenian American community in O.C. hold a protest about the violence in Artsakh, the Armenian name for what the Soviets termed Nagorno-Karabakh, as they march to Mile Square Park Friday Oct. 9, 2020 in Fountain Valley. They are protesting the escalating violence in Artsakh and Armenia by Turkey and Azerbaijan. A limited cease fire has been agreed upon on Friday, Oct. 9, 2020 to exchange prisoners and collect the dead after two weeks of fighting. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer

By Susan Christian Goulding | sgoulding@scng.com | Orange County Register

PUBLISHED: October 10, 2020 at 12:34 p.m. | UPDATED: October 10, 2020 at 12:35 p.m.

Members of the local Armenian American community gathered at Mile Square Park Friday evening, Oct. 9, to raise awareness about violence occurring on the other side of the globe.

“Turkey, who to this day denies committing the Armenian Genocide, is now providing unlimited military and otherwise support to its ‘brother’ Azerbaijan,” Gregory Codilian, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny Armenian separatist enclave in Azerbaijan, is at the center of a conflict that that has drawn in Turkey and Russia – claiming hundreds of civilian lives.

Codilia said the shelling has damaged schools and a factory that produces PPE.

The parties involved in the conflict have clashed before. Between 1914 and 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in a mass murder and expulsion carried out by the Ottoman government.

Turkey continues to argue that the killings should not be classified as genocide – the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group. However, 32 countries, including the United States, Russia, and Germany, do recognize those events as a genocide.

https://www.ocregister.com/2020/10/10/orange-county-armenians-rally-to-shed-light-on-turkeys-shelling-of-azerbaijan-enclave/

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Karabakh will ask Armenia and the world's recognition if Azerbaijan violates ceasefire

October 11, 2020 - 11:44 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nagorno-Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan has said he will ask Armenia and all countries of the world to recognize Artsakh (Karabakh), if Azerbaijan fails to fulfill commitments under a humanitarian ceasefire agreement reached on October 9.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, October 11, Harutyunyan said Artsakh cannot accept conditions from a country whose goal is to eradicate the people, the millennial culture and history of Karabakh's Armenians.

According to him, he will appeal to the world to recognize his country's independence if he doesn't see Azerbaijan's readiness for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the next one or two days.

"We'll have a list of all the countries that respect human rights, international law, the right of nations to self-determination, and another one with countries that support international terrorism," Harutyunyan said.

The shelling of Stepanakert and other settlements throughout the night showed that the humanitarian ceasefire is not working, though he said the situation is relatively calm in the morning.

Harutyunyan said if the ceasefire agreement is not honored in the coming days, it will mean Azerbaijan will accept a ceasefire only when forced by long-term heavy losses.

"They want a long war, they have chosen that path, we will not reject a war that has been imposed on us," he added.

Azerbaijan, with help from Turkey, launched a large-scale offensive against Karabakh (Artsakh) in the morning of September 27, shelling Armenian positions and civilian settlements with large caliber weapons and rocket systems. Armenia and Karabakh have introduced martial law and total mobilization. The Armenian side has reported deaths and injuries both among the civilian population and the military. International and local journalists too have been injured in Azeri shelling of towns and villages, as well as the iconic Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. Before a humanitarian ceasefire could begin on October 10, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive and struck settlements both in Karabakh and Armenia.

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Karabakh leader: Israel aware Azeris using its weapons to attack Armenians

October 11, 2020 - 11:07 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan has said that Israel is "certainly" aware of Azerbaijan's use of Israeli weapons to attack the Armenian troops and civilians.

Israel appears to continue shipping advanced weapons systems to Azerbaijan even throughout the war, local media reports show. When contacted by PanARMENIAN.Net Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the country's defense exports.

"During the April War in 2016, not only did the Israeli authorities know that Azerbaijan was using their weapons to attack, but experts from Israel were handling those weapons back then," Harutyunyan told briefing on Sunday, October 11 morning.

"So if Israel says they had no idea, that's another mockery of humanity. They are most definitely aware and continue shipments today."

The Karabakh President said the authorities of Israel – representatives of a nation that has gone through a genocide – are too responsible for the genocide being perpetrated against the Armenians of Artsakh by Azerbaijan and Turkey.

"Money runs the world. And Israel's actions are evidence that they violete the values of humanity and those of God for money," Harutyunyan added.

In 2019, Israel’s Defense Ministry suspended the export licenses of three senior officials from aircraft manufacturer Aeronautics Ltd. for testing one of its “suicide drones” against the Armenian military in 2017 at the behest of its client Azerbaijan in violation of Israeli law.

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Azeri saboteurs killed Karabakh woman, her disabled son in their home – Ombudsman

October 10, 2020 - 23:28 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - A woman and her son who has a disability were killed by the Azerbaijani subversive group that made an infiltration attempt near Hadrut on Saturday, October 10, Karabakh (Artsakh) Human Rights Defender.

"Today the Staff of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh received concrete information that the subversive group which entered Hadrut town in the morning killed two civilians at their home – a woman and her son who has a disability. We are making efforts to gather more information and will publish them tomorrow," Beglaryan said on Facebook.

"Strongly condemning the continuous severe atrocities of the Azerbaijani armed forces against the Artsakh population, I demand from the international community to react properly to this cruel crime and to pursue punishing those criminals."

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CANADA

Ottawa must act to prevent a second genocide, Armenian diaspora in Canada says

By Jacob Serebrin The Associated Press

Posted October 11, 2020 9:36 am

Smoke rises after shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery during a military conflict in Stepanakert, self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of firing missiles into the capital of the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan said several of its towns and its second-largest city were attacked. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

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The ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is physically and emotionally distant to most Canadians, but for Montrealer Talar Chichmanian, the war is the second time since the 1990s her family has taken up arms.

Her husband left Montreal to join the Armenian forces, who have been battling the Azerbaijani army since Sept. 27 in a war that has left hundreds dead. This is his second war for the same piece of land in the South Caucasus. The previous conflict, which ended in 1994, killed his father, brother and uncle.

READ MORE: Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to cease-fire after talks in Moscow

Members of the Armenian diaspora are known for being fiercely loyal to their home country, and they remain haunted by the 1915 genocide committed against their people by the Ottoman Empire, or modern-day Turkey.

They fear the current conflict, which they say is fuelled in part by Turkey, will lead to another genocide and are they calling on Canada to take a stronger position supporting the Armenian people.

“Normally, I’m proud to call myself a Canadian, but this past week has been a horrible disappointment,” Chichmanian said in a recent interview from Montreal. “I don’t want tears on Remembrance Day; I need action today.”

Her two children, who are 12 and nine years old, are “terrified,” she said. “There’s only so much that I can share with them. Their lives are already disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t want to stress them out even more.”

3:24Armenia-Azerbaijan: WHO working with governments ‘on all sides’ of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to protect civilians

Armenia-Azerbaijan: WHO working with governments ‘on all sides’ of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to protect civilians

Armenian officials say Turkey is sending arms and Syrian mercenaries to help Azerbaijan. Chichmanian said she’d like to see Canada push for Turkey’s removal from NATO.

On Oct. 5, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada had suspended exports of a drone-targeting sensor, made in Ontario, to Turkey, as it investigates allegations that drones equipped with the sensor have been use by Azeri forces in the ongoing conflict.

Champagne said he spoke Friday to his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. “My key message was stay out of the conflict,” Champagne told reporters.

Nearly half of the almost 64,000 people who identified themselves as Armenian in the 2016 Canadian census live in the Montreal area. While Armenians have integrated into Canadian society, Montrealer Taline Zourikian said the community remains tight-knit.

READ MORE: Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of shelling historic cathedral amid conflict

“We don’t assimilate,” said Zourikian, a psychiatrist who helped organize a protest in Montreal on Thursday. The roughly 50 people who gathered called on the Canadian media to pay more attention to the conflict.

“We’re decedents of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide,” she said, referring to the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. Canada officially recognized and condemned the genocide in 2004.

The region at war, called Nagorno-Karabakh, is majority Armenian and has been controlled by the Armenian-backed Republic of Artsakh since 1994. But Artsakh’s government is not recognized internationally and the territory is located within Azerbaijan.

Kyle Matthews, the executive director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, compares Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan to Germany attacking Israel.

Turkey committed genocide against a minority and is now attacking that minority’s homeland, he said. The Turkish government, Matthews added, has never recognized the Armenian genocide and has jailed people for bringing it up.

3:16Armenia-Azerbaijan: What’s behind the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh?

Armenia-Azerbaijan: What’s behind the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh?

“The final stage of genocide is denial,” Matthews said in a recent interview. “By being this aggressive, there’s fear that Turkey has ulterior motives in this conflict.

“There’s now documented evidence that Turkey has been ferrying religious, extremist fighters from Syria into Azerbaijan to fight Armenian forces,” said Matthews, who spent two years in the South Caucasus with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The arrival of those fighters is a concern for Lara Aharonian, an Armenian Montrealer who founded the Women’s Resource Center, an NGO that operates in Armenia and in Shusha, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh.

READ MORE: Iran works on peace plan as Armenia, Azerbaijan clash

“It’s a direct threat to women living in border areas and conflict zones,” she said in a phone interview from the Armenian capital Yerevan.

Aharonian and her husband, Raffi Niziblian, have been volunteering in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh since 1999. Her organization helps women overcome trauma from the previous conflict.

She said she’s worried about what will happen to the estimated 75,000 people who have been displaced by the current fighting amid of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a generation who has experienced displacement for the second time in their lives,” Aharonian said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russia-brokered ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting Saturday, but immediately accused each other of derailing the deal.

Minutes after the truce took force, the Armenian military accused Azerbaijan of shelling the area near the town of Kapan in southeastern Armenia, killing one civilian. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry rejected the Armenian accusations as a “provocation.”

2:35Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Armenia says Azerbaijan attacking civilian areas with cluster bombs

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: Armenia says Azerbaijan attacking civilian areas with cluster bombs

Armenian Canadians say the Canadian government needs to do more before it’s too late.

Sevag Belian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, said in a phone interview Canada needs to condemn Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“Because if we don’t hold the aggressors accountable, they will continue committing their crimes with impunity.” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2020.

— With files from The Associated Press and from Mike Blanchfied with The Canadian Press

© 2020 The Canadian Press