RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/09/2021

                                        Tuesday, November 9, 2021


Baku Condemns Armenian Defense Minister For Visiting Karabakh
November 09, 2021
        • Tatevik Sargsian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenia's Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian (left) visits a 
Karabakh Armenian army post, November 6, 2021.


Azerbaijan on Tuesday condemned Armenia’s Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian for 
visiting Nagorno-Karabakh ahead of the first anniversary of a Russian-brokered 
ceasefire that stopped last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

The Armenian Defense Ministry revealed the two-day visit on Monday, saying that 
Karapetian travelled to Karabakh on Saturday at the invitation of Kamo 
Vartanian, the commander of Karabakh’s Armenia-backed army.

The ministry released a short video and photographs that showed Karapetian 
meeting with the Defense Army’s top brass and inspecting some of its outposts 
along the new Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” in and around Karabakh. The 
minister also handed medals to several Karabakh Armenian soldiers.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry condemned the trip as a violation of the terms of 
the ceasefire which it said was aimed at “destabilizing the situation in the 
region” and discrediting Russian peacekeepers deployed in Karabakh.

The ministry warned that “in case of a repeat of such illegal visits to 
Azerbaijani territory necessary measures will be taken to prevent aggressive 
separatism and terrorist activities in accordance with Azerbaijan’s laws.” It 
did not elaborate.

Incidentally, Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Monday visited the 
Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha) captured by Azerbaijani forces during the 
six-week war and met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev there. The visit 
underscored Ankara’s decisive military support for Baku shown during the 
six-week hostilities.



U.S. Calls For ‘Comprehensive’ Karabakh Settlement
November 09, 2021

U.S. – State Department spokesman Ned Price speaks on the situation in 
Afghanistan at the State Department. Washington, August 18, 2021


The United States has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to do more to resolve the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“We urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue and intensify their engagement, 
including under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, to find comprehensive 
solutions to all outstanding issues related to or resulting from the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Ned Price, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said 
in a statement issued late on Monday.

The statement was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of a 
Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war 
over Karabakh.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and injured 
during the hostilities last year,” said Price. “We call for the return of all 
remaining detainees, a full accounting of missing persons, the voluntary return 
of displaced persons to their homes, comprehensive humanitarian de-mining of 
conflict-affected areas, and access by international humanitarian organizations 
to those in need.”

In an August message to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, U.S. President Joe Biden 
said Washington remains committed to facilitating a “comprehensive” Karabakh 
settlement together with Russia and France, the two other co-chairs of the Minsk 
Group.

The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, repeatedly stated afterwards that 
the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved after last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani 
war.

“We do not see the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as having been resolved,” Tracy 
insisted on September 13.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned the envoy’s remarks. It echoed 
President Ilham Aliyev’s repeated claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the war 
put an end to the conflict.

Erika Olson, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Southern Europe 
and the Caucasus, met with Aliyev and Pashinian when she visited the region last 
week.



Russia Vows More Karabakh Peace Efforts
November 09, 2021

Nagorno-Karabakh -- A Russian soldier of the peacekeeping force controls a 
vehicle at a checkpoint on a road outside the town of Stepanakert on November 
26, 2020.


One year after helping to stop the six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia 
pledged on Tuesday to continue maintaining the ceasefire in the conflict zone 
and fostering a peace accord between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that a ceasefire deal brokered by President 
Vladimir Putin late on November 9, 2020 has been “by and large” respected by the 
conflicting sides. It said both Baku and Yerevan are committed to a “further 
implementation and full compliance with all of its provisions.”

“We will do our best to contribute to a normalization of relations between 
Azerbaijan and Armenia and support peace initiatives aimed at expanding contacts 
at all levels on a wide range of issues related to ensuring stability, security 
and economic development in the South Caucasus,” read a ministry statement 
issued on the first anniversary of the agreement.

The statement said Moscow will specifically keep trying to find solutions to 
outstanding “socioeconomic and humanitarian” problems in and around Karabakh. It 
also promised continued Russian efforts to help Armenia and Azerbaijan demarcate 
their border and establish transport links.


RUSSIA -- A sign outside the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the 
Russian Federation.

The truce accord was reached after the Azerbaijani army captured four districts 
south of Karabakh as well as the Armenian-populated disputed territory’s 
southern Hadrut district and the town of Shushi (Shusha). It led to Armenian 
withdrawal from three other districts occupied by Karabakh Armenian forces in 
the early 1990s.

According to the Armenian authorities, more than 3,700 Armenian soldiers and 75 
civilians were killed during the war. At least 246 others remain unaccounted for.

Baku has acknowledged over 2,900 combat deaths in the Azerbaijani army ranks.

The ceasefire deal was followed by the deployment of 2,000 Russian peacekeeping 
forces in Karabakh and the so-called Lachin corridor connecting the territory to 
Armenia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the peacekeepers have made a “significant 
contribution to stabilizing the situation and ensuring security in the region.” 
They have demined 2,311 hectares of land and 683 kilometers of roads over the 
past year, it said.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry insisted, meanwhile, that Azerbaijan has failed to 
comply with the Russian-brokered deal. It said that Baku is continuing to hold 
dozens of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives and to periodically 
violate the ceasefire regime.


RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right) attend a trilateral 
meeting in Moscow, January 11, 2020

A ministry statement also dismissed Azerbaijan’s claims that it resolved the 
Karabakh conflict with its victory in the war. It said Karabakh’s status can be 
determined only as a result of negotiations mediated by the Russian, U.S. and 
French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Senior Azerbaijani officials insisted late last week that Armenia must recognize 
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Karabakh through a 
“peace treaty” proposed by Baku. They complained that Yerevan has still not 
accepted the proposal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with his Armenian and Azerbaijani 
counterpart on Monday for the second time in a week. The phone calls came the 
day after the Kremlin confirmed that Putin is trying to organize fresh talks 
between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the sides have still not 
agreed on the date of the virtual trilateral summit.

An Armenian media outlet reported late last month that during the upcoming talks 
Aliyev and Pashinian will sign two Russian-drafted documents announcing the 
start of the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the opening of 
transport links between the two South Caucasus states.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS