Monday,
Armenia, Azerbaijan Urged To De-Escalate Tensions
Switzerland -- Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia and Elmar
Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and international mediators meet in Geneva, January
30, 2020.
International mediators on Monday urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to avoid further
ceasefire violations and resume peace talks “as soon as possible” following
deadly skirmishes on the border between the two warring nations.
In a joint statement, the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE
Minsk Group condemned the “serious breach of the ceasefire” but did not
explicitly put the blame on Yerevan or Baku.
They said they and the head of an OSCE mission monitoring the ceasefire regime
in the Karabakh conflict zone have been “in direct contact with Armenian and
Azerbaijani officials” since the outbreak of fierce fighting at a western
section of the border on Sunday.
“The Minsk Group Co‑Chairs condemn the recent ceasefire violations and call upon
the sides to take all necessary measures to prevent any further escalation,
including by use of the existing direct communication channels between them,”
read the statement.
“The Minsk Group Co-Chairs also call on the sides to resume substantive
negotiations as soon as possible and emphasize the importance of returning OSCE
monitors to the region as soon as circumstances allow,” it said.
The European Union’s foreign policy spokesman, Peter Stano, issued a similar
statement on the escalation.
“The EU calls on the sides to strictly respect the ceasefire, devote energy and
resources to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, meaningfully re-engage in
substantive negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs
and prepare their populations for peace,” he said.
The co-chairs already urged the conflicting parties to strengthen the ceasefire
regime during a June 30 video conference with the Armenian and Azerbaijani
foreign ministers. They insisted that “there is no military solution to the
conflict.”
The mediators also said after those talks that the ministers agreed to hold
another video conference in July and meet in person “as soon as possible.”
German Medics Arrive In Coronavirus-Hit Armenia
Armenia -- A German medical team arrives at Zvartnots airport, Yerevan, July 13,
2020.
A team of German healthcare workers arrived in Armenia on Monday to help their
Armenian colleagues deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
They were flown to Yerevan by a German Air Force plane that also delivered
medical supplies to the country hit hard by the pandemic.
The 16 medics were greeted at Zvartnots international airport by Armenia’s
deputy ministers of health and foreign affairs as well as the German and
European Union ambassadors in Yerevan.
“The German experts will be working alongside their Armenian colleagues for two
weeks,” tweeted the German Embassy. “We stand at Armenia’s side!”
According to an Armenian government statement, Germany’s government has
organized the mission in collaboration with two European charities and the World
Health Organization. The mission is part of a broader EU scheme designed to help
partner countries contain the spread of the virus.
Similar medical teams have also been sent to Armenia by France, Russia,
Lithuania and Italy over the past month. They were deployed to local hospitals
treating COVID-19 patients.
The EU Delegation in Yerevan announced that the German government will also
provide coronavirus-related financial aid to Armenia. “Germany will be
allocating 2.75 million euros ($3.1 million) for a project addressing COVID-19
in Armenia through research cooperation in order to establish medium to
long-term systemic, integrated risk management,” the delegation said in a
statement.
The Armenian government has recorded 32,151 coronavirus cases and 573 deaths
caused by them so far. The continuing spread of the virus led the government on
Monday to extend a state of emergency in the country by another month, until
August 12.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian spoke of a “slight positive dynamic” in the
coronavirus crisis, saying that in recent days there have been fewer infected
people awaiting hospitalization at home. But he cautioned that virtually
intensive care hospital beds remain occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Armenia Rounds On Turkey Over Azeri Border Clash
Azerbaijan -- Azeri President Ilham Aliyev receives prayer beads from his
Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan in Baku, February 25, 2020.
Armenia accused Turkey of trying to heighten tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict zone on Monday after Ankara blamed Yerevan for the latest deadly
skirmishes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry decried “yet another manifestation of Armenia's
aggressive nationalism” in a statement issued late on Sunday hours after the
outbreak of heavy fighting there. It accused Armenia of continuing to occupy
Azerbaijani territory and hampering the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.
“Turkey will continue, with all its capacity, to stand by Azerbaijan in its
struggle to protect its territorial integrity,” added the statement added.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry dismissed these “utterly false and misleading”
claims and charged that the Turkish government is trying to “instigate
instability in our region.”
“This provocative attitude by Turkey and its groundless accusations against
Armenia attest to the fact that this country has been acting not as a member of
the OSCE Minsk Group but as a party involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,”
read a ministry statement. “This fact makes it even more impossible for Turkey
to play any role in issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within
international and particularly the OSCE framework.”
Successive Turkish governments have lent Azerbaijan full and unconditional
support throughout the Karabakh conflict. They have made the establishment of
diplomatic relations with Armenia conditional on a Karabakh settlement
acceptable to Baku.
Armenia has always rejected this precondition. It has forged close military ties
with Russia to counter what many Armenians see as a serious security threat from
Turkey. From Yerevan’s perspective, the presence of thousands of Russian troops
in Armenia precludes Turkey’s direct military intervention on Azerbaijan’s side.
Incidentally, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep
Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone on Monday. Their press offices did not list the
Karabakh dispute among the issues discussed by the two leaders.
Russia ‘Seriously Concerned’ About Armenian-Azeri Fighting
• Aza Babayan
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Russia -- The Russian Foreign Ministry buiding, Moscow.
Russia called for an immediate end to heavy fighting which continued on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border for the second consecutive day on Monday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov phoned his Armenian and Azerbaijani
counterparts to discuss the tense situation there.
“We find inadmissible a further escalation threatening the security of the
region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We are calling on
the conflicting sides to show restraint and strictly adhere to the ceasefire
regime.”
“For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry is ready to provide necessary
support for stabilizing the situation,” added the statement.
Three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and several others wounded shortly after
the fighting broke out at a western section of the long border in disputed
circumstances on Sunday afternoon. It continued overnight, leaving another
Azerbaijani serviceman dead. The Armenian army reported no combat deaths within
its ranks.
Both sides reported on Monday morning continuing skirmishes involving mortar
fire. The Defense Ministry in Yerevan claimed that Azerbaijani forces also used
an attack drone and shelled an Armenian border village.
Each side again accused the other of provoking the escalation with attempts to
seize enemy positions in the mountainous area between Armenia’s northern Tavush
province and the Tovuz district in western Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian condemned Baku’s “provocative actions” during a
cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “I can assure you that their provocative actions do
not remain unanswered,” he said, appealing to the nation.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held an emergency session of his
national security council to discuss the deadly truce violations. “We thwarted
the [Armenian] attack and gave an adequate response, avenging the death of our
soldiers,” he said, according to the Trend news agency.
Russia -- (L-E) Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov meet
in Moscow, April 15, 2019
Foreign Ministers Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia and Elmar Mammadyarov of
Azerbaijan stood by their countries’ official versions of events during their
separate phone conversations with Lavrov. Mammadyarov also said that the
fighting is contributing to “third countries’ involvement in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.”
It was not clear if Mammadyarov referred to Russia or Turkey, his country’s
closest ally. Ankara was quick to blame Yerevan for the latest escalation and
reaffirm its unconditional support for Baku.
Earlier in the day, the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO), Stanislav Zas, called an emergency meeting of the Permanent
Council of the Russian-led defense alliance, of which Armenia is a member, to
discuss the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier.
The meeting was postponed indefinitely a couple of hours later, however. A
spokesman for Zas refused to say who initiated the delay. He only told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service that the CSTO Secretariat and member states need to ascertain
the “format” of the discussion beforehand.
Zas and Mnatsakanian also spoke by phone on Monday. “Constant contact with the
CSTO Secretary General is maintained, and efforts within the CSTO framework are
continuing,” said the official Armenian readout of the phone call.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.