October 21, 2020
Russia hosts new round of talks on Nagorno-Karabakh
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held two separate meetings with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss the implementation of a cease-fire in the Upper Karabakh region, Anadolu News Agency reported.
"During the talks, urgent issues related to the implementation of previously reached agreements on a cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and the creation of conditions for its sustainable settlement were discussed," the ministry said in a statement, following Lavrov's meeting with Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Jeyhun Bayramov.
Over the past 10 days, two humanitarian cease-fires in fight over Nagorno-Karabakh failed to hold. A new humanitarian cease-fire was agreed on last Saturday, taking effect at midnight.
Wednesday’s peace talks in Moscow followed a day after telephone contact between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
"Vladimir Putin informed his French counterpart about the steps that are being taken to prevent further escalation of hostilities and resume talks to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh problem by political and diplomatic means as soon as possible," Tass quoted the Kremlin press service as saying Tuesday.
"It was stressed that the conflicting parties must observe the October 10 and October 17 agreements on cessation of fire."
"The leaders stressed their readiness to continue close coordination between Russia and France as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and within the United Nations Security Council," the Kremlin said.
On Friday, Armenia and Azerbaijan's foreign ministers are due to meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington.
Armenian PM Pashinian says diplomatic solution for Nagorno-Karabakh not possible
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has ruled out a diplomatic solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis, saying that there will be no such solution for a long time.
"Everything that is diplomatically acceptable to the Armenian side ... is not acceptable to Azerbaijan anymore," Pashinian said in a video message on Facebook.
He called on the citizens to volunteer for the Karabakh front.
Pashinian said Armenia should fight until an acceptable diplomatic solution is found.
Pashinian's statements came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held two separate meetings with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Moscow to discuss the implementation of a cease-fire in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkey won't hesitate to send soldiers for Azerbaijan
Turkey will not hesitate to send troops and provide military support for Azerbaijan if such requests were made by Baku, Vice President Fuat Oktay said Wednesday, adding that there were no such requests at the moment.
Turkey has vowed full solidarity with Azerbaijan as Yerevan continues its illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands.
During an interview with the private broadcaster, CNN Türk, Oktay also criticized the OSCE Minsk Group, consisting of France, Russia and the United States, formed to mediate the conflict. He said the group was trying to keep the issue unresolved and supporting Armenia, both politically and militarily.
Azerbaijan: Operations continue to free occupied lands
Azerbaijani army operations to liberate territories occupied for nearly 30 years by Armenian forces continue, local authorities were quoted by media as saying on Wednesday.
Overnight combat operations in the Aghdara, Fuzuli-Jabrail and Gubadli sections of the front continued with varying intensity, while Armenian forces fired at Azerbaijani defensive positions using small arms, mortars, and howitzers, according to the country's Defense Ministry.
Units of the 18th motorized rifle division of the Armenian Armed Forces in the Jabrayil and Gubadli sections of the front were forced to retreat, having suffered manpower and vehicle losses in Azerbaijani operations, said the statement.
Armenian forces were seized in the defensive line of the 5th mountain rifle regiment, while "a large number" of weapons and ammunition was confiscated, said the ministry.
"The regiment's chief of artillery, commander of artillery division, and commander of the 4th battalion together with the battalion's military personnel were destroyed."
A battalion of Armenian army's 556th regiment was also destroyed by the Azerbaijani army in operations in the Jabrayil direction of the front, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry also said.
Yerevan says 772 Armenian soldiers and 36 civilians have been killed in the flare-up of fighting.
Baku has reported 63 civilian casualties but has yet to disclose military losses.
Azerbaijan and the Armenian separatists who control its Karabakh region have been locked in a bitter impasse over the fate of the mountainous province since a war in the 1990s that left 30,000 people dead.
Their long-simmering conflict erupted again on September 27 in fierce clashes that raised the alarm over the failure of decades-long international mediation.
Minsk Group
Four UN Security Council resolutions and two from the UN General Assembly, as well as international organizations, demand the "immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces" from the Azerbaijani territory.
In total, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory – including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions – has been under illegal occupation for nearly three decades.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.
World powers, including Russia, France, and the US, have called for a new cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.
Armenia, Azerbaijan accuse each other of shelling despite cease-fire
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
A new cease-fire aimed at stopping the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh appears to be in jeopardy with Armenian forces and Azerbaijan accusing each other of renewed shelling, according to Radio Free Europe.
On Monday, officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Azerbaijani forces were shelling their positions in northern and southern areas of the Line Of Contact that divides them.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Armenian forces had shelled its positions in the Goranboy, Tartar, and Agdam regions of Azerbaijan overnight and the Agcabadi region was being shelled on the morning of October 19.
President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijani forces had taken control over 13 villages in the Cabrayil region near the Iranian border. The previous day he announced the capture of the 11th-century Khudaferin bridge over the Aras River between Azerbaijan and Iran.
Internationally recognized as part of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh territory has been controlled by mainly Christian ethnic Armenians, backed by Yerevan, since the 1994 halt in fighting, Radio Free Europe pointed out
On October 18, Armenia and Azerbaijan posted identical statements on their respective Foreign Ministry websites when they agreed on the new cease-fire.
The statements said the decision was made following statements earlier this month from the presidents of France, Russia, and the United States, representing the co-chair countries of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The Minsk Group is a diplomatic initiative aimed at trying to resolve the conflict, which dates to 1988 in the waning days of the Soviet Union.
US to host Armenian, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministers
The US will host the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers later this week amid raging conflict over a breakaway region, the Politico reported Monday.
On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will first meet with Jeyhun Bayramov, Baku's top diplomat, before also sitting down with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, according to documents reviewed by the Politico news website.
It is unclear if a trilateral meeting is also being planned. Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to the US, did not rule out a potential three-way meeting when asked by Politico. “We want a substantive conversation,” he said.
Armenia & Azerbaijan declare a new ceasefire
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to stop fighting for “humanitarian reasons” after dozens of civilians have died in the latest flare-up over the disputed region, RT reported Saturday.
The foreign ministries of the two countries announced the decision late on Saturday, simultaneously releasing similar statements. The ceasefire is said to come into effect within hours, at 00:00 local time.
However, Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of violating a fresh “humanitarian truce” minutes after the agreement came into force, as both Russia and France said they intervened in an attempt to mediate an end to the latest escalation in violence over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Shusan Stepanyan, a spokeswoman for Armenia’s defense ministry, said on Twitter that Azerbaijan fired artillery shells and rockets.
The ceasefire deal, agreed on Saturday, came a week after Russia brokered a truce, which failed to stop the worst fighting in the region in decades, with both warring sides accusing each other of violations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called his Armenian and Azeri counterparts in the hours before the announcement, his ministry said, urging both parties to adhere to the deal brokered in Moscow last week.
France also put out a statement after Saturday’s announcement, saying it followed “French mediation … in co-ordination with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group (Russia and the US)”.
The truce announcement came hours after Azerbaijan accused Armenia of perpetrating a war crime during a missile attack on its second city of Ganja, a charge echoed by ally Turkey.
Armenia denied responsibility for the attack, which left 13 civilians – including two children – dead and dozens wounded.
The EU on Saturday condemned the attacks on Ganja and said the original ceasefire deal “must be fully respected without delay”. “All targeting of civilians and civilian installations by either party must stop,” said a spokesperson for EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry earlier said it had made further gains on the front line, bringing several villages and a city under its control.
The contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, a mountainous and heavily forested patch of land, is at the heart of a decades-long armed standoff between neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Home to some 145,000 people, Nagorno-Karabakh is controlled by ethnic Armenians backed by the Republic of Armenia, but is recognized as part of Azerbaijan under international law.
Azerbaijan lost control of the area in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago. A fragile ceasefire had been in place since 1994.
Armenia pushed for new ceasefire
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, said it was Armenia that had pushed for the latest ceasefire.
The Armenian government was under enormous pressure because of the large number of casualties, as well as the loss of territory, he explained.
About 20% of Azerbaijan's territory has remained under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.
“The Azeris have taken, as we understand, territory that is essentially in the buffer zone between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. This is territory that Armenia has controlled since the 1994 ceasefire. Armenia considers it a buffer zone, a security zone, but it is Azeri territory. And for the last 26 years at least, both sides were supposed to have been negotiating the future of this territory as well as Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Smith.
“The Azeris say after 26 years, nothing has been done, there has been no solution, as to what to do with this territory, and so with Turkey’s support, they’ve been moving militarily. And they’ve succeeded in taking territory. Hence, the Armenians’ enthusiasm to push for a ceasefire.”
Nagorno-Karaback war missiles hit Iran’s East Azarbaijan
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Missiles fired by opposing sides in the Nagorno-Karabakh war hit a district in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, south of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, Anadolu News agency quoting the Iranian state media as saying Thursday.
Ten missiles landed in two villages in the Khudaferin district, injuring a civilian when rockets hit a house, IRNA News Agency quoted the district’s Governor Ali Emiri Rad.
Iran warned Armenia and Azerbaijan following the incident. “The security of our citizens living in border regions is the red line of our armed forces,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement. He said next time, Iran would not remain indifferent.
According to IRNA, since the beginning of the Karabakh war two weeks ago, more than 50 mortar shells have landed in the border areas of East Azerbaijan in the city of Khoda-Afarin.
Earlier on Tuesday, a drone crashed in border county of Parsabad-Moghan in northwestern Iranian province of Ardebil. Investigations are underway to determine whether it is Azeri or Armenian, Nedaei said. He noted that the crash caused no damage.
Top Turkish, US officials discuss Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
Turkey's presidential spokesman and US national security adviser on Tuesday discussed over the phone bilateral ties, Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan, and developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported.
According to a statement by the presidential office, Ibrahim Kalin told Robert O'Brien that while supporting the cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia declared on humanitarian grounds, a permanent solution can only be achieved through Armenia's withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territory of Upper Karabakh and its surroundings.
Armenia’s attacks against civilians violate the international law, and they are not acceptable, Kalin stressed in the phone talk, according to the statement.
He also noted that the international community should take concrete steps to ensure the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan under the decisions of the UN Security Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Nagorno-Karabakh has seen heavy fighting since September 27, which has claimed the lives of 600 people, including civilians. The region is considered by the United Nations and international law to be part of Azerbaijan which claims liberating more than 30 villages from Armenian occupation.
US again calls for Armenia, Azerbaijan to end hostilities
The United States on Wednesday once again urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt hostilities, calling for a cease-fire.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is committed "to helping Azerbaijan and Armenia achieve a peaceful and sustainable settlement to their conflict."
"We’ve asked every international player to stay out of the region, not to continue to reinforce trouble, and we’re working to deliver that," he told reporters at the State Department. "We’re using our diplomatic toolkit to try and achieve an outcome that gets a stand down, a cease-fire and an outcome that is a solution based on international law."
Pompeo called on Yerevan and Baku "to implement their agreed-upon commitments to a cease-fire and stop targeting civilian areas."
Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators carrying Azerbaijani and Turkish flags on Wednesday gathered in front of the White House to show their support for Azerbaijan, the Daily Sabah reported.
Holding banners against Armenia's aggression and occupation, the group called on the U.S. administration to take a stance against Armenia's occupation and attacks targeting civilians.
Peace in region cannot be ensured without Turkey: Aliyev
Peace in the region cannot be guaranteed without Turkey's mediation, the Azerbaijani president said on Thursday, as fighting in the Upper Karabakh region continues for over two weeks.
In an interview with NTV, a private Turkish news channel, Ilham Aliyev said Turkey has influence in the region, and there can be no solution to the conflict without Ankara's active role.
Aliyev said that a humanitarian cease-fire agreement, brokered by Russia last week, was swiftly violated by Armenia, seeing it as an opportunity to fortify its military position.
He said the violation did not receive global attention despite being clear for everyone.
Aliyev said the Azerbaijani people have run out of patience after 30 years of occupation and continual Armenian hostility.
"At the first stage, the Armenian army should withdraw from the regions it occupied, firstly from five districts, and then from two districts. Former residents of the Upper Karabakh, Susha, and other occupied regions should start returning to their homes.
"Then, negotiations for Karabakh should continue. We don't have any problem with Armenians living in the Upper Karabakh; Azerbaijan is a multinational country," he said.
Some 20% of Azerbaijan's territory has remained under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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