RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/06/2020

                                        Friday, November 6, 2020

Armenian President Calls For Unity To Cope With War, Coronavirus


Armenian President Armen Sarkissian clenches his fist as he addresses the 
nation, calling for unity in the face of the Nagorno-Karabakh war and the 
coronavirus pandemic, Yerevan, November 6, 2020

President Armen Sarkissian has called on Armenian political parties and public 
figures to show unity in the face of an ongoing armed conflict in 
Nagorno-Karabakh and a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, both of which 
have claimed hundreds of human lives.
“Be united like our people is. Follow the example of our people,” Sarkissian 
said in his address on November 6.

The Armenian president said that unity was the most powerful weapon of Armenians 
that helped the newly independent nation prevail in the early 1990s when it had 
a ruined economy and was grappling with the consequences of a devastating 1988 
earthquake in Spitak.

“Thirty years ago we had no strong economy, no roads, no fuel, we hadn’t enough 
weapons. But we won because we had the most powerful weapon, ourselves, our 
unity. Some people ask me today what the guarantee of our today’s victory is. 
And my answer hasn’t changed – it’s our unity,” he said.

Sarkissian said that besides the war in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia is also 
combating another enemy – the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives 
of more than 1,500 in the South Caucasus country of some 3 million people to 
date.

“Victory over coronavirus also depends on us, on how united, organized and 
disciplined we are,” the president said.

Sarkissian, who chairs the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, 
also called on all businessmen, philanthropists and organizations in Armenia and 
its far-flung Diaspora to donate as much as possible to the charity.

“Making donations to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund you help families from 
Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] who have taken refuge in 
Armenia, help solve the problems of refugees, help rebuild destroyed schools and 
houses,” Sarkisian said.

“We place our hope on ourselves and our true friends. We will be creating our 
victory together. God bless Artsakh, Armenia and our entire nation,” the 
Armenian president concluded.

The current hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh between local ethnic Armenians and 
Azerbaijan broke out on September 27. The conflict has displaced tens of 
thousands of people. The ethnic Armenian army has confirmed the deaths of 1,177 
of its soldiers to date. Dozens of civilians have also been killed in shelling 
and rocket attacks during the ongoing conflict.



Russia ‘Possesses Precise Data’ On Terrorist Fighters In Karabakh


Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service

Russia possesses precise data about terrorist fighters from the Middle East 
involved in the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the country’s top 
intelligence official has said.

In an interview with RIA Novosti conducted by Russia Today news agency 
director-general Dmitry Kiselyov this week, head of the Russian Foreign 
Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin also said that Moscow sees “separate 
elements of Turkish intelligence work” in the conflict zone.

Since the outbreak of hostilities in late September Armenia has insisted that 
Islamist mercenaries from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East have been 
recruited by Turkey to fight on Azerbaijan’s side against ethnic Armenians in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Late last week ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed they had 
captured at least two Syrian fighters in the battlefield. They showed videos of 
interrogations of the two men who admit they had been recruited by Turkey to 
fight for Azerbaijan.

Yerevan also claims that Turkish forces are directly helping Azerbaijan fight 
the war.

Azerbaijan and Turkey deny deploying any mercenaries in the conflict zone. 
Azerbaijan also insists that Turkey’s role in the conflict is limited to 
political and moral support only.

According to Naryshkin, Russia got its information about the presence of 
terrorist fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh from various sources in the Middle East 
and elsewhere in the region.

“We have been receiving these data from a number of countries, from different 
sources and from our different partners, partner services in the Middle East,” 
he said.

At a news briefing on November 5, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs Maria Zakharova expressed Moscow’s lingering concerns about the 
deployment of jihadist fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that “it is fraught 
with the emergence of a new terrorist enclave in the South Caucasus.”



At Least Three Killed In Overnight Shelling Of Stepanakert


Rescuers remove the bodies of citizens from under the rubble of a building 
destroyed during shelling in Nagorno-Karabakh

At least three civilians have been killed in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of 
Stepanakert in what local authorities say was overnight shelling of the city by 
Azerbaijan’s armed forces.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Emergency Service said that Shushi, a town some 10 
kilometers to the south of Stepanakert, was also under intensive fire last night.

“As a result of rocket fire several residential houses were burned in Shushi. 
There is also destruction in the capital [Stepanakert]. Rescue services are 
working on the spots,” the body reported in the morning.

An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent in Stepanakert has confirmed the deaths 
of three civilians in the city, reporting at least a dozen explosions heard in 
the area last night.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan also reported shelling of its populated areas by ethnic 
Armenian forces. The country’s Defense Ministry said that the town of Tartar and 
nearby villages came under fire on Friday morning.

Both sides deny they target civilian populations in the ongoing conflict.

Meanwhile, the two sides again gave different accounts of the developments along 
the frontlines in the morning.

Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed to have 
conducted “effective defensive battles”, stopping attacks by Azerbaijani armed 
forces at several major sectors of the frontline. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan claimed 
its armed forces have been on the offensive in several directions, causing 
Armenian forces to retreat.

On November 5, Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto ethnic Armenian leader Arayik 
Harutiunian said he had visited Shushi (Shusha), a strategic town sitting on a 
mountaintop and overlooking the region’s capital Stepanakert, to meet with 
defenders of the town and discuss “the strategy of the struggle against the 
numerous forces of the enemy.”

As Azerbaijani forces were reportedly closing in on Shushi, Harutiunian said 
that “all possible efforts are being exerted to keep the fortress town 
impregnable.”



Moscow Remains Concerned About Jihadist Fighters In Karabakh


Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova (archive photo)

Russia has again voiced lingering concerns about the presence of fighters from 
the Middle East in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
Maria Zakharova, an official representative of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, said during a November 5 news briefing in Moscow that jihadist 
mercenaries with “blood on their hands” are being deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“All this cannot but raise our serious concern, as such developments are fraught 
with the emergence of a new terrorist enclave, now in the South Caucasus,” 
Zakharova said.

“Russia stated about it openly as soon as it got corresponding data,” she added.

In an interview with the Russian Kommersant daily earlier this week Russian 
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the number of mercenaries from the 
Middle East in Nagorno-Karabakh was approaching 2,000.

Late last week ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed to have 
captured at least two fighters from Syria fighting on Azerbaijan’s side. 
According to the Armenian side, both admitted during interrogations that they 
had been recruited by Turkey.

Turkey and Azerbaijan brush aside accusations of deploying thousands of 
mercenaries to fight against Armenians.

In an interview with the Spanish EFE news agency on November 5 Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev responded to Lavrov’s remarks about the presence of 
mercenaries in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling it a rumor.

“I regret that high-ranking officials of the countries that should be neutral 
and act on the basis of the mandate given to them by the OSCE use these 
unconfirmed ‘information’ and rumors,” Aliyev said, reiterating that there are 
no mercenaries on the territory of Azerbaijan.

“There is not a single proof that any foreign fighter is fighting on our side,” 
Aliyev said.

Armenia’s arguments on the presence of mercenaries on the Azerbaijani side have 
also been supported by multiple investigative reports by Western journalists, 
some of which alleged that Turkey began recruiting jihadist fighters to be later 
deployed in Azerbaijan as early as July.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) in October one such 
journalist, Lindsey Snell, estimated that the number of Syrian mercenaries 
fighting for Azerbaijan at one point was around 2,000.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based human 
rights organization, more than 200 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries have been 
killed in Nagorno-Karabakh since fighting broke out in the region in late 
September.


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