Monday, Ankara Urges Yerevan To Back Use Of Agdam Road By Karabakh Armenians The Turkish national flag The Turkish Foreign Ministry has called on Armenia to support the idea of the use of the Agdam road by Karabakh Armenians who continue to reject Azerbaijan’s relevant offer and continue to demand the reopening of the Lachin corridor. In a statement issued on Monday, the Turkish ministry also called on Yerevan to “refrain from provocative steps, recognize the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and support Azerbaijan’s efforts on the integration of the [Karabakh] Armenian population.” Official Ankara said it was closely following the discussions around the Lacհin road, emphasizing that it “understands the legitimate concerns of Azerbaijan on that issue.” “Turkey believes that there is no reason to criticize Azerbaijan regarding the Lachin road,” it said. The Turkish statement came after Armenia officially asked the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the issue of humanitarian access to Nagorno-Karabakh that Yerevan and Stepanakert say has been denied for months by Azerbaijan that has imposed an “illegal blockade” on the region. Earlier ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that the purpose of Baku’s proposal to provide humanitarian aid through Agdam without restoring free movement through the Lachin corridor was “an attempt to revise” the Moscow-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement under which the vital land connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia was placed under the control of Russian peacekeepers. “This approach that has persistently been proposed by Azerbaijan violates the rights and humiliates the dignity of the people of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] and contradicts international humanitarian law,” Stepanakert said. Yerevan, likewise, believes that the checkpoint installed by Azerbaijan at the Lachin corridor contradicts the terms of the ceasefire agreement and is, therefore, illegal. The Armenian government also denies having any territorial claims to Azerbaijan or otherwise infringing on its sovereignty. It insists, however, that the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians be discussed between Baku and Stepanakert in an “internationally visible” dialogue. Yerevan Calls Azeri Reports On Concentration Of Armenian Troops Along Border ‘Disinformation’ The national flag of Armenia over a combat position along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border (file photo). Military authorities in Yerevan have disproved a statement made in Baku about an alleged concentration of a large number of Armenian troops and military hardware near the border with Azerbaijan. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that the statement of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to that account did not correspond to the facts. “To another false message in the statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia states once again that the Republic of Armenia has no army in Nagorno-Karabakh,” it added. Official Baku stated, in particular, that “armed forces of Armenia illegally stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan have intensified military engineering works and other military activities in recent weeks”, and “in recent days, a large amount of weapons, military equipment and personnel of the armed forces of Armenia have been accumulating along the un-demarcated border with Azerbaijan.” At the same time, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that “Armenia has not stopped its territorial claims against Azerbaijan and its verbal recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan differs from its actions.” “Azerbaijan reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry underscored. Meanwhile, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also described the Azerbaijani statement as disinformation. “The spread of such false information indicates Azerbaijan’s intention to escalate the situation in the region,” it charged in a statement. The kind of rhetoric from official Baku comes amid reports of sporadic cross-border shootings that Armenia and Azerbaijan blame on each other. Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have also traded accusations regarding violations of the ceasefire regime in recent days. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left ethnic Armenians in control of the predominantly Armenian-populated region and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper. Decades of internationally mediated talks failed to result in a diplomatic solution and the simmering conflict led to another war in 2020 in which nearly 7,000 soldiers were killed on both sides. The 44-day war in which Azerbaijan regained all of the Armenian-controlled areas outside of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as chunks of territory inside the Soviet-era autonomous oblast proper ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire under which Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers. Despite the ceasefire and publicly stated willingness of the leaders of both Armenia and Azerbaijan to work towards a negotiated peace, tensions between the two South Caucasus nations escalated in June after Azerbaijan tightened its blockade at a checkpoint installed in April on the road known as the Lachin Corridor, the only link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan and Stepanakert view the Azerbaijani roadblock as a violation of the terms of the ceasefire agreement that they insist places the vital route solely under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Amid severe shortages of basic foodstuffs, medical and fuel supplies experienced by Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians, Armenia last Friday officially asked the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting regarding the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The move came after the region’s ethnic Armenian leader appealed to the international community for “immediate action” to lift the de facto blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called “the genocide of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.” Azerbaijan denies blockading Nagorno-Karabakh and offers an alternative route for supplies via the town of Agdam, which is situated east of the region and is controlled by Baku. However, Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities have rejected that offer amid concerns in Stepanakert that the opening of the Agdam road could be a prelude to the region’s absorption by Azerbaijan. 13 Parties, 1 Bloc Bid To Compete In Yerevan Municipal Polls The Yerevan Municipality building Thirteen political parties and one bloc of parties have submitted their applications to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to participate in upcoming municipal elections in Yerevan. The CEC is due to complete the registration process by August 18 and publish electoral lists within three days after that. The vote in the elections to Yerevan’s Municipal Assembly (Council of Elders) is due on September 17. It will proceed according to party lists, with the four-week campaigns of the political forces and their candidates for mayor commencing on August 23. The ruling Civil Contract party is led in the elections by current Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian who formerly also served as deputy prime minister in the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Former Yerevan mayor Hayk Marutian, who was removed from office by a vote of no confidence in December 2021 after falling out with the ruling party, has also announced his participation in the elections with the hitherto little-known National Progress party. Several other political parties and groups, notably Aprelu Yerkir (Country for Living), Bright Armenia, the European Party of Armenia and others, have also applied for registration to participate in the Yerevan elections. Two key parliamentary opposition alliances affiliated with former presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, Hayastan and Pativ Unem, have not joined the local race in the Armenian capital where about a third of the country’s voters are concentrated. It is not clear whether either alliance will support any other political party or bloc participating in the elections, including the Mother Armenia bloc, which is led by Andranik Tevanian, a former Hayastan faction member who resigned recently to focus on the Yerevan elections. Leading Ukrainian Diplomat Drowns in Armenia Oleksandr Senchenko Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Armenia has died in an apparent drowning incident at Lake Sevan that was reported by the country’s authorities and confirmed by the Ukrainian foreign ministry on Monday. Armenia’s Interior Ministry said the body of a Ukrainian citizen was recovered from the mountain lake on August 13. Later local media as well as Ukraine’s foreign ministry confirmed that the drowned man was Oleksandr Senchenko, who led Ukraine’s embassy in Yerevan for the past year or so. The Armenian rescue service was quoted by local media as saying that on Sunday evening lifeguards at a public beach at Lake Sevan spotted a man at a distance of 25 meters from the shore who disappeared while swimming. “Lifeguards swam towards the area and lifted a man from the bottom that was 1.5 meters deep, taking him to the shore on a rubber motor boat. Ambulance service workers registered the man’s death,” a report said. In reporting the tragic death of Senchenko, Ukraine’s foreign ministry described him as an experienced and highly qualified diplomat who had worked in the ministry since 2003. The Armenian police said materials related to the drowning of the Ukrainian citizen had been sent to Sevan’s investigation department. No other details related to the circumstances of Senchenko’s death were reported immediately. According to Armenia’s embassy in Ukraine, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan extended condolences on behalf of the entire staff of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on his personal behalf to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on the tragic death of Ukraine’s charge d’affaires Senchenko. 11 Killed In Minibus-Truck Collision In Armenia • Satenik Kaghzvantsian Armenia - Firefighters are working on the scene of a major motor vehicle collision on the Yerevan-Gyumri highway, . At least 11 people were killed and nine others injured in an overnight collision of a passenger minibus and a truck in Armenia. The Rescue Service of Armenia’s Interior Ministry said the collision occurred on the 90th kilometer of the Yerevan-Gyumri highway just after midnight on August 14. It said a Volkswagen van carrying passengers collided with a ZIL truck on the section near the village of Lanjik. Six people injured in the crash were hospitalized in Gyumri, a local medical center said, adding that one patient was later transferred to a hospital in Yerevan. Deputy director of the Gyumri Medical Center Armen Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that said that the five patients were in a critical condition and their lives were in danger. The Health Ministry later said that on person hospitalized in Yerevan was also in a serious condition, while three others taken to a medical center in the Armenian capital had sustained only light injuries and were discharged from the clinic shortly after they had been examined and received treatment. According to relatives of the victims, they were returning from Turkey where they had visited historical Armenian sites. Investigators were reportedly working on the scene early on Monday to establish the circumstances of the traffic collision. No other information was reported immediately. The Investigation Committee said later criminal proceedings had been instituted in connection with the case. Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed condolences to the families of all victims. 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.