Thursday, October 8, 2020
Putin Pushes For End To Karabakh Fighting
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses participants of the 7th
Forum of the Regions of Russia and Belarus via video feed at the Novo-Ogaryovo
state residence, outside Moscow, September 29, 2020
After what the Kremlin described as a series of phone calls with the leaders of
Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the warring sides
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on Thursday night to stop hostilities.
In a written statement, Putin said they should do so “for humanitarian
considerations with the aim of exchanging prisoners and the bodies of dead
soldiers.”
“The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are invited to Moscow on
October 9 for holding consultations on these issues mediated by the Russian
Foreign Minister [Sergei Lavrov,]” concluded the statement.
Yerevan and Baku did not immediately react to the extraordinary appeal.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Thursday that face-to-face talks
between Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart
Jeyhun Bayramov are “not yet planned in any format.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced afterwards that
Lavrov has offered to host a trilateral meeting with Mnatsakanian and Bayramov.
She said the Russian, U.S. and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group
would also be in attendance.
“We are holding consultations with the parties regarding possible dates for the
start of negotiations in this format,” Zakharova told journalists.
Putin issued his statement a few hours later.
Mnatsakanian was scheduled to travel to Moscow for an official visit on Monday.
For his part, Bayramov was due to meet with the Minsk Group co-chairs in Geneva
on Thursday.
The three world powers leading the group have persistently pressed the parties
to restore a ceasefire regime since the large-scale hostilities in the Karabakh
conflict zone broke out on September 27. Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia has backed
their calls for an unconditional halt to the fighting that has left hundreds of
soldiers dead.
As recently as on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev continued to
make the ceasefire conditional on Armenia presenting a “timetable for
withdrawing its troops from the occupied territories.” Yerevan has rejected this
precondition.
Another Journalist Wounded In Karabakh
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A photo shows damage to Ghazanchetsots church caused by
shelling, October 8, 2020
A Russian journalist was gravely wounded on Thursday during a reported
Azerbaijani missile strike on Nagorno-Karabakh’s largest Armenian church.
News reports from Karabakh said the Holy Savior Cathedral located in the town of
Shushi (Shusha) was twice hit by rockets and seriously damaged as a result.
Photographs taken at the scene showed a gaping hole on the roof of the church
and debris scattered inside it.
Karabakh officials said Yuri Kotenok, who writes for the Segodnia.ru news
service, was wounded as he inspected, together with another Russian reporter,
damage caused to the church by the first missile strike.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Information Center said Kotenok was rushed to a hospital in
Stepanakert and was undergoing surgery there in the evening. “Karabakh doctors
are fighting to save his life,” it said in a statement.
The RIA Novosti news agency reported that the other journalist, identified as
Levon Arzanov, and his Armenian companion suffered light injuries during the
shelling of the 19th century church commonly known as Ghazanchetsots.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the shelling as a “war crime.” “With
these actions Azerbaijan replicates the behavior of its newly acquired allies,
infamous international terrorist organizations that are responsible for the
destruction of numerous historical-cultural monuments in the Middle East,” it
charged in a statement.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that its forces did not deliberately
target the church.
Shushi, Stepanakert and other Karabakh towns have been heavily shelled since the
outbreak on September 27 of large-scale hostilities along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh.
Two French journalists working for Le Monde daily came under artillery fire and
were wounded in one of those towns, Martuni, on October 2. One of them underwent
life-saving surgery in Stepanakert.
Baku has also reported extensive Armenian shelling of Azerbaijani towns and
villages which it said continued on Thursday.
Russian-Led Military Bloc Also Sees Foreign ‘Mercenaries’ In Karabakh War
• Armen Koloyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with CSTO Secretary General
Stanislav Zas, February 28, 2020
The head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) expressed concern
on Thursday about the alleged participation of Syrian mercenaries in hostilities
around Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it poses a “challenge” to the Russian-led
military alliance.
“It’s hard for me now to judge the scale and organization of militants’ transfer
to the Karabakh conflict zone,” CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas told RT.
“In all likelihood, it is the case, and militants and mercenaries emerge there.”
“Of course it does not help to normalize relations. It poses a certain challenge
to the organization,” Zas said in remarks cited by the TASS news agency.
Russia last week implicitly accused Turkey of sending “terrorists and
mercenaries” from Syria and Libya to fight in Karabakh on Azerbaijan’s side. It
demanded their immediate withdrawal from the region.
The Russian foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, warned on Tuesday that
the region could become a “launch pad” for Islamist militants to enter Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also said that at least 300 “Syrian
fighters from jihadist groups” were flown from Turkey to Azerbaijan ahead of the
September 27 outbreak of fighting in Karabakh. Both Ankara and Baku strongly
deny that.
The CSTO comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus and three other ex-Soviet states.
Zas said the bloc could intervene in the Karabakh conflict if Armenia’s
sovereignty is threatened.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Wednesday that the CSTO statutes
commit Moscow to defending Armenia against foreign aggression. “We have always
fulfilled, are fulfilling and will fulfill our obligations,” he said in his
first public comments on the Karabakh hostilities.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted afterwards that these “CSTO obligations do
not extend to Karabakh.”
Armenian Security Chief Sacked
Armenia - Argishti Kyaramian, April 3, 2019
The director of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), Argishti Kyaramian,
was sacked on Thursday after only four months in office.
President Armen Sarkissian relieved Kyaramian of his duties in a decree
initiated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The latter did not immediately make
any statements on the development.
The 29-year-old Kyaramian headed an anti-corruption government body before being
appointed as NSS director in June. He had never worked in Armenia’s most
powerful security service before.
Kyaramian’s temporary replacement, Mikael Hambardzumian, is a long-serving NSS
officer.
Hambardzumian is the fourth head of the former Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB
appointed, albeit in an acting capacity, since Pashinian came to power in the
2018 “Velvet Revolution.”
Artur Vanetsian, one of the former NSS chiefs fired last year, is now a bitter
political opponent of Pashinian. Vanetsian set up an opposition party early this
year.
More Fighting, Shelling In Karabakh Conflict Zone
• Naira Nalbandian
Nagorno Karabakh - The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi damaged by
shelling,October 8, 2020
Nagorno-Karabakh towns again came under rocket fire on Thursday as heavy
fighting continued in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone for a twelfth day.
The shelling by Azerbaijani forces of the Karabakh capital Stepanakert resumed
late on Wednesday and continued periodically until the next morning. The city’s
remaining residents mostly hiding in bomb shelters could hear powerful
explosions and the sound of air raid sirens during the night.
One local man examined afterwards the damage to his home caused by recent day’s
artillery fire. “No one is staying home,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “So
they shouldn’t try in vain to kill us.”
“My sons are on the frontline,” he added. “They say that everything will be
alright.”
Another Stepanakert resident said he is still not planning to take refuge in
Armenia. “Either we should die or live on our land,” said the middle-aged man.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A view shows a house damaged by recent shelling in
Stepanakert, October 8, 2020.
The Azerbaijani army shelled the nearby town of Shushi (Shusha) and seriously
damaged its famous Armenian cathedral in the afternoon. Photographs taken at the
scene and posted on social media showed a gaping hole on the Ghazanchetsots
church’s roof and debris scattered inside it.
According to officials in Stepanakert, 19 civilian residents of Karabakh have
been killed and 80 others wounded since the September 27 outbreak of large-scale
hostilities along the “line of contact” around Karabakh. The fighting has also
left two residents of Armenian villages close to the Azerbaijani border dead.
Azerbaijani authorities reported, meanwhile, continued Armenian shelling of
Azerbaijani towns and villages close to the frontlines, saying that the death
toll among their residents rose to 31. They said one of those towns, Barda, was
hit particularly hard on Thursday.
AZERBAIJAN -- Police block the area around destroyed cars and buildings,
following a missile attack by Armenian forces, in the city of Barda, October 8,
2020
There were no signs of imminent end to the worst hostilities in the Karabakh
conflict zone since 1994. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, the
southern sections of the “line of contact” adjacent to Iran remained the
epicenter of the deadly fighting.
A ministry spokeswoman said Karabakh Armenian forces repelled at least two
attacks launched by Azerbaijani troops deployed in that area. The latter
suffered “substantial losses,” she said.
There was no immediate reaction to those statements from the Azerbaijani side.
The Defense Ministry in Baku said only that Armenian-backed forces had shelled
several Azerbaijani villages overnight, causing casualties. It said Azerbaijani
forces are "taking adequate measures."
Also, the Karabakh army publicized on Thursday the names of 30 more of its
soldiers killed in action since September 27. The total number of confirmed
Armenian combat deaths thus reached 350.
The Azerbaijani army still not released its casualty figures.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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