Tuesday,
Karabakh Residents Escorted To Armenia
• Robert Zargarian
• Tigran Hovsepian
Armenia - A group of Karabakh residents arrive in Armenia, .
Azerbaijan has allowed several dozen residents of Nagorno-Karabakh to travel to
Armenia for the first time since tightening its blockade of the Lachin corridor
more than two months ago.
Forty-one Karabakh-born citizens of Russia as well as students enrolled in
Armenian universities were escorted by Russian peacekeepers on Monday to an
Azerbaijani checkpoint set up in the corridor in April before entering Armenia.
Another group of Karabakh Armenians passed through the checkpoint on Tuesday.
They included the 17-year-old Knar Khachatrian, who was recently admitted to
Yerevan State University.
“I expected the process of going through the checkpoint to be more complicated,
but it was actually easy and everything went well,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service after crossing into Armenia.
Many of the travellers were approached at the checkpoint by a large number of
journalists from state-controlled Azerbaijani media that portrayed their journey
as proof of Baku’s claims that Karabakh has not been cut off from the outside
world. Karabakh authorities accused Baku of manipulating those interviews for
propaganda purposes.
“The Azerbaijani side continues to create humiliating conditions at the illegal
checkpoint located near the Hakari bridge, in addition to its illegal
surveillance of and obstacles for the citizens of Artsakh,” read a statement
released by a Karabakh agency on Monday evening.
The authorities in Stepanakert argue that Azerbaijan keeps blocking commercial
and humanitarian traffic through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
The blockade, compounded by the disruption of Armenia’s gas and electricity
supplies to Karabakh, has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and
other essential items in the Armenian-populated region.
Baku has also periodically banned the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) from transporting critically ill Karabakh residents to Armenian
hospitals. The medical evacuations continued on Tuesday, with the ICRC escorting
seven such patients to Armenia and transferring as many others back to Karabakh.
Meanwhile, the family of a young Karabakh woman who died in an August 13 road
accident in Armenia still awaited Azerbaijani permission to repatriate her body
through the ICRC. The Red Cross said it is continuing to discuss the matter with
Baku.
Tensions Rise Again On Armenian-Azeri Border
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - An Armenian army post on the border with Azerbaijan.
One Armenian soldier has been killed and one Azerbaijani serviceman wounded in
fresh skirmishes reported from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said late on Monday that the soldier, Vanik
Ghazarian, died at an Armenian army outpost in eastern Gegharkunik province that
came under fire from across the border.
The mayor of the nearby village of Akhparadzor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
that he heard the sounds of gunfire late in the afternoon. He said there were no
signs of further shooting in that border area the following morning.
The Azerbaijani military said, meanwhile, that one of its soldiers was wounded
by Armenian forces on Tuesday. It did not specify where the incident occurred
while accusing Armenia of escalating tensions along the volatile border.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan issued on Tuesday at least three statements
denying Armenian ceasefire violations alleged by the Azerbaijani side.
Tensions at various sections of the long border have run high in recent months
despite major progress reported in Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on a bilateral
peace treaty. According to Yerevan, one of the main remaining obstacles to such
a deal is Baku’s rejection of an Armenian proposal to use Soviet-era military
maps for delimiting and demarcating the frontier.
Fresh shooting incidents were also reported from the “line of contact” in and
around Nagorno-Karabakh. The authorities in Stepanakert on Tuesday accused
Azerbaijani troops of continuing to shoot at residents of a Karabakh village
trying to harvest their wheat.
The authorities report such incidents on a regular basis. They claim Azerbaijani
is deliberately trying to disrupt agricultural activity in Karabakh in an effort
to aggravate food shortages resulting from the Azerbaijani blockade of the
Lachin corridor. Baku claims that its troops only open fire to stop Karabakh
Armenian forces from fortifying their positions.
Azerbaijan Urged To Recognize Armenia’s Borders
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan meets his Belgian
counterpart Hadja Lahbib in Yerevan, .
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib urged Azerbaijan to publicly recognize
Armenia’s borders when she visited Yerevan on Tuesday.
“We have welcomed the courage of [Armenian Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian who
publicly recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and we call on
Azerbaijan’s leadership to do the same,” she said after talks with her Armenian
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.
Mirzoyan reiterated Yerevan’s claims that Baku could lay claim to Armenian
territory even after Pashinian recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh
earlier this year.
“So far we have not heard public statements by Azerbaijan’s leadership
recognizing the territorial integrity of Armenia,” he told a joint news
conference with Lahbib. “We heard such words only during meetings held behind
closed doors, and we are very concerned about this. This may mean that
Azerbaijan has territorial claims to Armenia.”
Pashinian suggested earlier this month that Azerbaijan is seeking to sign the
kind of peace deal with Armenia that would not preclude such claims.
Pashinian’s most recent meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was
hosted in Brussels on July 12 by Charles Michel, a former Belgian prime minister
heading the European Union’s top decision-making body. Michel said after the
meeting that the two leaders reaffirmed their earlier “understanding that
Armenia’s territory covers 29,800 square kilometers and Azerbaijan’s 86,600
square kilometers.” Aliyev has still not publicly confirmed that.
Mirzoyan said that international mediators should make sure that Baku honors
Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings brokered by them. “Not only are
understandings not being respected but we are seeing opposite processes,” he
said, pointing to the continuing Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Lahbib expressed serious concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in
Karabakh, warning of the risk of famine in the Armenian-populated region. “It is
incumbent on Azerbaijan to ensure the security of Karabakh’s population and free
traffic through the Lachin corridor,” she said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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