Wednesday,
Armenia-Azerbaijan Border ‘Calm’ After Deadly Clashes
• Sargis Harutyunyan
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia -- Armenian soldiers take their position on the front line in Tavush
region,
Tensions on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan appeared to have eased on Wednesday
after three days of heavy fighting that left at least 15 soldiers dead.
The Armenian Defense Ministry reported throughout the day that there are no
serious ceasefire violations at a section of the border between Armenia’s
northern Tavush province and the Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, the scene of the
clashes.
A ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, said at around 9 p.m. local time that
the situation there remains “calm.” There were only “sporadic gunshots” fired
from Azerbaijani army positions, she said.
“At the moment the truce is largely observed on the border,” Stepanian wrote on
Facebook earlier in the day.
There were also no repots of fresh Azerbaijani shelling of the local town of
Berd and nearby Tavush villages located closer to the frontier. The Armenian
military reported on Tuesday Azerbaijani drone attacks on “civilian
infrastructure” in Berd.
“Berd was hit yesterday but there has been no shooting today,” a middle-aged
resident of the town told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“There is some tension but no panic here,” said another local man. “Everyone is
going about their business.”
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry also did not report serious ceasefire violations.
Citing Azerbaijan’s human rights ombudsperson, the Trend news agency claimed
that a border village in Tovuz again came under Armenian fire on Wednesday. It
said that nobody was hurt as a result.
The Armenian Defense Ministry strongly denied the claim.
Eleven Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army general, and four Armenian
soldiers were killed in the clashes that broke out in disputed circumstances on
Sunday. The fighting marked the worst escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict since 2016.
The conflicting parties blame each other for the flare-up along their volatile
border. They have released videos of their forces purportedly striking enemy
positions with artillery and drone fire.
The Armenian side also publicized on Tuesday what it described as footage of a
sophisticated Hermes 900 drone of the Azerbaijani armed forces shot down by an
Armenian surface-to-air rocket. Hermes 900 is manufactured by an Israeli
company, Elbit Systems.
Artsrun Hovannisian, another Defense Ministry representative, claimed that
Armenian anti-aircraft units shot down a dozen Azerbaijani unmanned aerial
vehicles during the three-day hostilities.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was reported to say on Wednesday
that his troops dealt a “crushing blow” to the Armenians during “revenge
operations” ordered by him.
Armenian Man Detained In Azerbaijan
• Heghine Buniatian
Armenia -- Narek Sardarian, an Armenian village resident detained in Azerbaijan.
Authorities in Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave said on Wednesday that they have
detained an Armenian man who went missing one week ago.
Local state-run television showed the 30-year-old man, Narek Sardarian, saying
that he fled Armenia and wants to live in Azerbaijan.
Sardarian is a resident of Nerkin Khndzoresk, a village in Armenia’s
southeastern Syunik province bordering Nakhichevan. According to his family, he
left his home on July 8 to graze cattle near another Syunik village located
about a dozen kilometers from the nearest section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border and never came back.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, discussed Sardarian’s
disappearance on Tuesday at a meeting with Claire Meytraud, the head of the
Yerevan office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“Family members suspect that the young man crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border by accident,” Tatoyan wrote on Facebook after the meeting.
He said Meytraud assured him that the ICRC is already trying to ascertain
Sardarian’s whereabouts and has contacted its office in Baku for this purpose.
Dozens of residents of Armenian and Azerbaijani border villages have crossed the
heavily militarized frontier throughout the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Most of
them are believed to have strayed into enemy territory mistakenly.
As recently as on June 12, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) detained an
Azerbaijani man who entered the country’s eastern Gegharkunik region from the
Gedabey district in western Azerbaijan.
A local official who spoke to the man, Elshan Aliyev, shortly before his
detention said the 26-year-old claimed to who have worked as a shepherd in a
Gedabey village and decided to flee to Armenia because of being mistreated his
employer. The NSS has yet to clarify whether Aliyev wants to be repatriated.
Before Sardarian’s disappearance, at least one Armenian national was known to be
held in an Azerbaijani prison. Karen Ghazarian, a resident of the northern
Tavush province, was captured in July 2018.
In February 2019, an Azerbaijani court sentenced Ghazarian to 20 years in prison
on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and “sabotage” in Azerbaijan. The
Armenian government condemned the ruling and demanded Ghazarian’s immediate
release.
Tatoyan said he also discussed Ghazarian’s fate with the Red Cross official.
Western Funding Approved For Armenia’s First Large Solar Plant
Armenia - A newly constructed solar power plant in Talin, 7Nov2017.
The European Union and two international lending institutions have formally
approved about $39 million in funding for a Spanish company contracted by the
Armenian government to build Armenia’s first large solar power plant.
The company, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), won more than two years ago an
international tender for the construction of the 55-megawatt plant in Mets
Masrik, a village close to the eastern coast of Lake Sevan.
FRV signed a relevant contract with the Armenian Energy Ministry in July 2018.
It said at the time that the facility will likely be built by the end of 2020.
The construction has still not begun, however.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) said they
each will lend FRV $17.7 million to finance the project strongly supported by
the World Bank. They said the renewable energy company will also receive an EU
“investment grant” worth 3 million euros ($3.4 million).
“The 55-megawatt power plant facility … will boost Armenia’s supply of renewable
energy and will help the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels,” read
the statement.
“Right now, nearly 70 percent of Armenia’s electricity generation depends on
imported fossil fuels,” it said.“As the country’s demand for electricity grows,
renewables are expected to provide a sustainable and low-cost alternative source
of energy and the Masrik plant is designed to set an example for the rest of the
Caucasus.”
The funding for the project was announced one week after the Armenian government
approved a $9 million contract with the Russian company Kaskad-Energy to
reconstruct an electricity substation located not far from Mets Masrik.
Minister for Local Government and Infrastructures Suren Papikian explained that
the substation needs to be completely rebuilt in order to receive and transmit
electricity to be generated by the planned solar plant. Papikian said that work
on the plant will get underway “soon” but gave no specific dates.
Both the current and former Armenian governments have pledged to significantly
increase the presently modest share of renewables in domestic electricity
production. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has said that the country could
and should have up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power capacity by 2030.
The first Armenian solar power plant with a capacity of just 0.5 megawatts went
on stream in September 2017. Six more such small plants were connected to the
national power grid by November 2018. Armenian private firms began building more
of them in the following months.
The Mets Masrik plant will be by far the biggest facility of its kind. According
to FRV, it will occupy about 100 hectares of land and produce enough energy to
power 21,400 households.
Azerbaijan Police Break Up Pro-War Rally In Baku
AZERBAIJAN -- People carry Azerbaijn's national flags as they rally in Baku,
Riot police in Azerbaijan dispersed early on Wednesday thousands of people who
rallied in Baku to demand war with Armenia following deadly clashes on the
border between the two South Caucasus countries.
The demonstration began on Tuesday evening as a show of support for the
Azerbaijani military, with participants reportedly chanting “Karabakh is
Azerbaijan!” and “Mobilization!” But it appeared to have grown into an angry
protest as the crowd reached Baku’s central Liberty Square.
News reports from the Azerbaijani capital said some protesters called for the
resignation of General Najmaddin Sadikhov, the long-serving chief of general
staff of the armed forces.
At one point late in the protest, a group of protesters broke into the nearby
Azerbaijani parliament building but were quickly removed by police, who then
used water cannons, tear gas, and batons to disperse those gathered in front.
The BBC cited the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry as saying afterwards that seven
people were arrested for the "mass riots" and “resistance or use of force
against a government official” which left seven police officers injured.
It was the largest demonstration in Azerbaijan in years. The protesters were
angered by the deaths of at least 11 Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army
general, in three days of heavy with Armenian forces which broke out at a
western section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Sunday.
The Armenian army has reported four combat deaths within its ranks.
Military officials in Yerevan and Baku said on Wednesday morning that there was
no fresh fighting at the border section overnight. The conflicting parties blame
each other for the escalation that has prompted serious concern from the
international community.
The border clashes came days after Azerbaijani President Aliyev raised the
possibility of a new war with Armenia and denounced stalled peace talks on
Nagorno-Karabakh. On July 7, Aliyev threatened to withdraw from negotiations “if
they yield no results.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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