Wednesday, Karabakh Leaders Urge Armenia To Halt Talks With Azerbaijan • Artak Khulian Nagorno-Karabakh -- The parliament building in Stepanakert, September 7, 2018. Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership and main political factions urged Armenia to stop ongoing peace talks with Azerbaijan on Wednesday after four Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed overnight in what Stepanakert described as an Azerbaijani ceasefire violation. In a statement unanimously adopted by its members, the Karabakh parliament linked the bloodshed to a new round of U.S.-mediated negotiations which the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers began outside Washington on Tuesday. It said that Yerevan must refuse to negotiate until Baku ends truce violations along the Karabakh “line of contact” and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and provides “documentary guarantees” of its commitment to the ceasefire regime. “Otherwise, the continuation of the negotiations would mean the encouragement of the Azerbaijani side’s aggressive behavior and a privilege [granted] at the international level,” it warned. The statement also called for international sanctions against Baku and said Russian peacekeepers stationed in Karabakh should take “tougher measures to counter Azerbaijan’s inhuman, genocidal actions.” The Armenian government did not immediately respond to the appeal. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian tweeted instead that the international community should take “practical steps to ensure rights and security of the Nagorno-Karabakh people.” Pashinian pointed to the deaths of the four Karabakh soldiers and the continuing Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor. “High risk of destabilization in the South Caucasus,” he added. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Pashinian of misleading the international community. The ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizada, claimed that the Azerbaijani army took “retaliatory measures” after one of its soldiers was wounded by “illegal” Armenian forces. “Armenia, instead of interfering in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs, must … respect Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in both words and deeds,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Russia expressed serious concern at the overnight incident but stopped short of publicly blaming the Azerbaijani side for it. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, also renewed Moscow’s calls for Baku to fully unblock traffic through the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. “We believe that taking quick measures to fully unblock the Lachin corridor and creating conditions for the normal life of the civilian population would contribute to a de-escalation of the situation,” Zakharova told reporters. Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the Karabakh leaders and the Armenian opposition after he pledged in May to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. His critics say the far-reaching move only emboldened Baku to step up the pressure on the Karabakh Armenians. The peace treaty is the main focus of the ongoing meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers which began in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The latter also held separate talks with the two ministers. “We support Armenia and Azerbaijan working together toward a durable and dignified agreement,” Blinken tweeted late on Tuesday. Four Karabakh Soldiers Killed In ‘Azeri Shelling’ Nagorno-Karabakh - A road sign at the entrance to the town of Martakert. Nagorno-Karabakh’s military said on Wednesday morning that four Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed when Azerbaijani forces shelled its positions overnight. It said that the positions located in Karabakh’s Martakert and Martuni districts were struck by artillery systems as well as combat drones. The situation in these and other sections of the “line of contact” was “relatively stable” as of 7 a.m. local time, according to the Karabakh Defense Army. On Tuesday evening, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry accused Karabakh Armenian forces of wounding an Azerbaijani soldier and said it is taking retaliatory measures. The authorities in Stepanakert were quick to deny that. They said Baku used the “false” claims as an “information basis” for the overnight shelling, which was one of the deadliest ceasefire violations reported from Karabakh since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Tensions along the Karabakh “line of contact” and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have increased significantly over the past month, with the conflicting sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. The Armenian government said earlier this month that Baku may be gearing up for another attack on Karabakh. Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov threatened the Karabakh Armenians with fresh military action in televised remarks aired on Monday. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in late May that they must dissolve their government bodies and unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule. Erdogan, Pashinian Discuss Normalization Efforts Czech Republic- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet in Prague, October 6, 2022. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed efforts to normalize relations between their countries in a phone call on Wednesday. Pashinian was reported to congratulate Erdogan on the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday. His press office said the two leaders discussed the implementation of an agreement to open the Turkish-Armenian border to citizens of third countries. It did not elaborate. Ankara and Yerevan reached the agreement last July after several rounds of negotiations held by their special envoys. They have still not said when it will be put into practice. According to a Turkish readout of the phone call cited by the Anatolia news agency, Erdogan told Pashinian that the two neighboring states should continue to take “confidence-building measures.” No other details were reported. Erdogan also spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone. The Turkish leader visited Baku earlier this month. Following that trip, he praised Pashinian for attending his recent inauguration ceremony in Ankara. Armenian opposition leaders condemned Pashinian’s presence at the ceremony held after Erdogan’s reelection. They argue that Ankara continues to fully support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and make the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Yerevan meeting Baku’s key demands. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan visited Turkey and met with his then Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in February in the wake of a powerful earthquake in the country’s southeast. Mirzoyan said afterwards that Yerevan and Ankara agreed speed up the normalization efforts. Ankara banned Armenian airlines from flying over Turkey to third countries after municipal authorities in Yerevan unveiled in late April a monument dedicated to Armenians who had assassinated masterminds and perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. It threatened “new measures” against Armenia if the monument is not removed soon. Pashinian described the erection of the monument as a “wrong decision” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in May. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.