Azerbaijan artificially delays the process of exchange of PoWs: An urgent call from Armenia’s Ombudsman

Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 27 2020

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan has called upon the international community, and in particular the international organizations on human rights to focus on the issue of Azerbaijani authorities artificially protracting the process of exchange of bodies and captives, which has been the case during the military activities, and continues now after the completion of military actions.

“With the objective of delaying the aforementioned process, the Azerbaijani authorities state that the exchange of the captives will take place after completing the process of bodies’ exchange, at the same time unreasonably protracting the process of exchange of bodies. By all these delays Azerbaijan grossly violates the fundamental requirements guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions,” the Ombudsman said.

It is obvious, he said, that Azerbaijan aims at creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and tension in the Armenian society, disrupt the mental immunity, cause psychological/mental suffering to the family members of the deceased soldiers and prisoners of war.

Studies of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia prove that such treatment is a result of the organized and disseminated hatred, as an inseparable systematically applied policy of torture and inhuman treatment.

In particular, the Human Rights Defender has repeatedly stated that starting from September 27, 2020, the military attacks by the Azerbaijani military forces against Armenia and Artsakh have been accompanied by torture and inhuman treatment, massive destruction of the civilian settlements, and other gross violations of human rights, which took place also with the help of the jihadist mercenaries and terrorists along with the dissemination of hatred.

“Throughout the military actions, as well as after the cessation of hostilities, the mass media, particularly the Azerbaijani social media sources ceaselessly publish videos and phots, which depict the degrading treatment by Azeri military forces of the Armenian soldiers’ bodies, torture and degrading treatment of the captives, both civilians and military,” Arman Tatoyan said.

The aforementioned is being accompanied by delightful comments and glorification from Azeris (the evidence to this is recorded). This has been an inseparable part of the methods applied by Azerbaijan during September-November 2020 war.

According to the Human Rights Defender, throughout the war activities it has been obvious that the Azerbaijani authorities endorse/promote these cruelties and degrading treatment, having an objective of instigating hatred and hostility in Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenians, glorifying those who commit these atrocities.

The results of the investigations of the Human Rights Defender affirm that these vicious events, which are beyond any human imagination and against all international requirements, have systematic and well-spread nature, starting from Azerbaijani political authorities and ending with cultural and sport figures. The Human Rights Defender possesses all necessary evidence, which attest to these facts.

After completion of the military activities the torture and inhuman treatment of the Armenian prisoners of war/captives by Azeri military forces have taken a new spin: the number and volume, as well as the level of cruelty have significantly increased. It is obvious that those who commit the torture and cruelties, as well as those who take videos are the representatives of the Azerbaijani military forces, whose activities are endorsed by their leadership.

The Ombudsman stressed that In current circumstances the liberation/release of the captives, their safe return, the exchange of bodies have become an urgent matter, requiring immediate resolution.

“Therefore, I call upon the international community, in particular the organizations, which have a mandate to protect human rights: It is an urgent necessity to resolve this issue with all the means possible and by real actions to release the people from the most atrocious war crimes and cruel captivity,” Tatoyan said.


Armenian government to adopt new assistance program for Artsakh people soon

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 12:12,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. On the sidelines of the Armenian government’s measure on providing a lump sum of 68,000 drams in aid to the citizens of Artsakh affected from the recent war, 30,000 citizens have already submitted applications, Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop Arakelyan said at the Cabinet meeting today, adding that up to 94,000 citizens can be considered as program beneficiaries.

The minister stated that according to the second assistance program, the residents of the settlements of Artsakh which have come under the Azerbaijani control will receive a lump sum of 300,000 drams.

In addition, compensation for some expenditures will be provided in coming months aimed at ensuring the livelihood of those who have lost their homes.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in his turn noted that the program beneficiaries are not the families, but individuals and several members of one family can be considered as program beneficiaries. “We will soon discuss and adopt a measure for the citizens who have been left without homes, and not the families, but the individuals will be a beneficiary, I hope the registration will be quickly carried out in joint cooperation with the government of Artsakh so that program will work right”, he said, adding that the purpose of these projects is for the citizens of Artsakh to return to their settlements as soon as possible.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

‘We can’t live together anymore – it’s impossible’: What six weeks of war has done to Nagorno-Karabakh

Sky News
Nov 20 2020
 
 
'We can't live together anymore – it's impossible': What six weeks of war has done to Nagorno-Karabakh
 
People are fleeing the disputed territory with livestock, blankets and even a memorial stone, Sky's Diana Magnay finds.
 
By Diana Magnay, Moscow correspondent
 
Friday 20:25, UK

 
Imagine how it feels to be given two days' notice to pack up your home.
 
The desperate situation follows a war which has already claimed the lives of your children and sunk your nation into a bitter defeat.
 
Now, the hastily drawn up peace demands that your house be handed to the victors and it seems you were the last to know.
 
This is what is happening to ethnic Armenians in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which there has been six weeks of fighting.
 
On a windswept farm above the village of Nor Seysulan, we met a mother who screamed out her fury. Her sacrifice in this war seems pointless and painful.
 
                                     
 
"Why did they take our children and kill them?" she cries. "They could have just said, 'we are giving the lands away, go and live your life'.
 
"I don't even know where my dead child is to bring back and bury. Why are they doing this?"
 
More from Armenia
 
Her family have livestock, and they don't know how to move it in time.
 
Her surviving son served in Shushi, or Shusha as the Azerbaijanis call it. The capture of Shusha was the tipping point for Azerbaijan – the moment when Armenia realised the main city of Stepanakert would be next and their chance of victory had gone.
 
Her son had been in Shushi for six weeks when the order came to leave. One of his relatives was "dead next to me and I didn't know whether to carry his body or save myself", he says.
 
"Why should I stay? My brother is dead, my cousin is dead." He points to his throat. "It would only take one knife here and that's it."
 
 
This is the story you hear over and over again in Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions around it.
 
It is unbearable to listen to, not least because of the way history has repeated itself in these contested mountains: lands lost and won by Azerbaijan, won and lost by Armenia in two wars almost 30 years apart.
 
Civilians from both sides have had to move as the borders are drawn and re-drawn.
 
Nor Seysulan is one of seven villages which were handed to Azerbaijan this Friday, along with the city of Aghdam. They were all newly built after the last war to house displaced Armenians. Now those Armenians are homeless again.
 
Ramila Ovanesyan opens up the back of a van. Inside are what look like a pile of blankets and a memorial stone. "I have three dead bodies in here," she says. "I'm taking a handful of soil of my husband, my mother and my father."
 
She wants to know how the government can possibly provide compensation for what she's lost.
 
She adds: "My husband was a veteran and died of cancer and now I'm taking all the stones and the bodies and going I don't know where. Let them at least give me a piece of land where I can bury them."
 
 
Artash Parshanyan, 70, is from Old Maragan, and tells us: "First the Turks kicked us out and we came here, and now they're kicking us out again."
 
 
No one here refers to Azerbaijan as the victors. It is always the Turks. It is clear who they think won this war for Azerbaijan.
 
 
"Azerbaijan is teaching their newborn children that we are enemies," Mr Parshanyan says. "They're teaching hate."
 
The city of Aghdam, which was handed back to Azerbaijan this Friday, was never resettled after it fell to Armenia in 1993. For the first time since then, Azerbaijan has held Friday prayers in the mosque – long derelict but still standing.
 
"Aghdam region returns to us without firing a single shot or sacrificing a single martyr," Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev tweeted triumphantly. "This is our tremendous political success."
 
But there is a terrible cost for the roughly 2,500 civilians who've had to abandon the nearby villages. Just as there is for all those who have already vacated the mountainous Kalbajar region, sandwiched between Nagorno-Karabakh and the northeast of Armenia.
 
Or those whose homes are in the Lachin corridor, which will pass into Azerbaijani hands on 1 December.
 
 
These are territories which used to be populated by Azerbaijanis and Kurds. After the ceasefire in 1994, 600,000 people fled to Azerbaijan from Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding Azerbaijani districts. The Azerbaijani president wants them to return. 2020 is his victory and his payback.
 
Many of the homes in Kalbajar are burnt already. Houses in Nor Seysulan and the villages around Aghdam are smouldering still.
 
More will burn before this latest handover of territory is completed, around the start of December. Some Armenians would rather destroy their homes than have Azerbaijanis live in them.
 
Azerbaijanis will begin to trickle back.
 
There's a welcome message for them sprayed on the wall of a vandalised petrol station on the main road through Kalbajar. The spelling is peculiar but the meaning is clear. "F*** Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Terrorists," it reads.
 
 
Georgiy Emilian is standing guard in front of a nearby restaurant. There are no customers anymore but he keeps himself busy directing the traffic.
 
He doesn't believe many Azerbaijanis will come back voluntarily to the mountains of Kalbajar, stuck as they are between the Armenian part of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia proper.
 
"We would both be occupied then," he says.
 
He remembers the time when Azerbaijanis and Armenians lived side by side, before the first war.
 
"Back then it was the Soviet Union. Neither us nor them were hurting each other. But now the situation is different. The bread's been broken in half. It's two different pieces now.
 
"We can't live together anymore – it's impossible."
 
 

Asbarez: Lavrov, Minsk Group Co-Chairs Discuss Karabakh Settlement

November 19,  2020



OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs during a 2018 meeting in Yerevan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs the coordination of efforts to resolve the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France, Andrew Schofer of the U.S., as well as the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

“During the consultations, they discussed the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh after the statement by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and the President of the Russian Federation on a complete ceasefire and stopping all hostilities on November 9. The coordination of further mediation efforts of the three countries were considered,” the ministry said, according to Sputnik.

There were no other or official press statement from this highly-anticipated meeting—the first time the Minsk Group co-chairs were meeting since the Karabakh War agreement was signed on November 10.

Exclusive: Eric Hacopian breaks down war between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Fox 11 Los Angeles
Nov 18 2020

It’s been over a week since a ceasefire agreement was signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia— bringing in Russian peacekeepers for the next five years into the region.

There are a lot of unknowns about the agreement including what happens when the five years are up.

RELATED: Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to end fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh

American political consultant Eric Hacopian who now lives in Armenia, explains why the war wasn’t immediately stopped by world powers and contextualized what happened — and why it happened this way.

RELATED: Click here for more coverage of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan

In an exclusive interview with FOX 11’s Araskya Karapetyan, Hacopian provides historical insight on the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, how this war was unlike any other, the war crimes committed, the recent ceasefire, the political chess match in the Caucasus, why there was a lack of international involvement, why it is important to recognize Artsakh, and his message to the Armenian Diaspora— among other things.

Hacopian is a 30-year veteran of American politics, having worked on local and presently campaigns over the years. Hacopian has his own political consulting firm— EDH & Associates, a Southern California-based firm.

https://www.foxla.com/news/exclusive-eric-hacopian-breaks-down-war-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan

Office of High Commissioner for Diaspora urges Russian-Armenians not to give in to provocations

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 17:10, 9 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is trying to make provocative actions in third countries, the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia said, urging Armenians living in Russia to be vigilant and not to give in to provocations.

“Dear compatriots living in Russia, Azerbaijan is again trying to make provocative actions in third countries, provoking inter-ethnic clashes and disorders. At this period we ask you to be cautious, vigilant, not to give in to provocations, cooperate with the local law enforcement agencies. Now our every glance, effort and potential should be directed exclusively to Armenia and Artsakh”, the statement says.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Video of “capturing” the Shushi Fortress is fake

Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 8 2020

Photos and videos spread in the Azerbaijani media today were presented as evidence of “capturing of Shushi.”

The Armenian Information Checking Center reports that the fortress seen in the videos and the photos has nothing to do with the medieval fortress of Shushi.

In the video, a group of men fasten the flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey at the head of the fortress.

However, the men seen in the video are neither in military clothes, nor armed, they are in civilian clothes.


There is no destruction in the city that rises from a height in the next few seconds. The question arises, where did those hot battles take place?

Finally, just by comparing the fortresses seen in Shushi and in the video, we will see that they are different.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/11/08/video-of-capturing-the-shushi-fortress-is-fake/

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/04/2020

                                        Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Russia ‘Doing Everything’ To End Fighting In Nagorno-Karabakh

        • Aza Babayan

RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with heads of 
religious confessions on the National Unity Day, via a video conference call in 
Moscow, November 4, 2020

Moscow is doing everything in its power to put an end to the armed conflict in 
Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible, Russian President Vladimir Putin said 
during a meeting with representatives of religious organizations on Wednesday.

Putin said that a halt to hostilities will save the lives of people “who stand 
opposite each other and, unfortunately, still see each other through rifle 
sights.”

“They are using weapons against each other to achieve goals that, in our deep 
conviction, could be achieved through a negotiation process,” the Russian leader 
said.

Putin again stressed that Russia stays in contact with both Armenia and 
Azerbaijan.

“I hope that we will be able to achieve a result on the basis that would suit 
all people living in the region, and achieve it by peaceful means,” Putin added.

As the Kremlin reported earlier this week, Putin had separate telephone 
conversations with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev on November 1 and 2, respectively. It said the situation 
in Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed during the phone calls. But Russia’s Deputy 
Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko cautioned on Tuesday that it was yet too early 
to speak about a possible meeting between the two South Caucasus leaders.

Putin’s remarks today came amid reports of fresh fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh 
where ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan have been making claims and 
counterclaims about successful defensive and offensive operations that are 
difficult to confirm independently.

Either side also accuses the other of targeting civilians in the armed conflict 
that broke out on September 27.

Both sides have reported scores of deaths among civilians. Armenians have also 
confirmed 1,177 deaths among their military. Azerbaijan does not disclose its 
military casualties, considering them a wartime secret. Russia has estimated as 
many as 5,000 deaths on both sides.



Armenia Sees Azerbaijan’s Advancement In Karabakh As ‘Ethnic Cleansing’


Armenian President Armen Sarkissian (archive photo)

Azerbaijan is seeking to take over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh by 
annihilating its ethnic Armenian population, Armenia’s President Armen 
Sarkissian charged while meeting with a group of local and foreign politicians, 
public figures and journalists in Yerevan on Wednesday.

As quoted by his press office, Sarkissian stressed that “Azerbaijan’s claims 
that they are liberating their territories has, in fact, another internationally 
accepted formulation, which is called ‘ethnic cleansing’.”

“They are now destroying schools, hospitals, committing inhumane acts, taking 
away human lives: of the elderly, children and young people,” the Armenian 
president said, emphasizing that “Armenians have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for 
thousands of years.”

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with the 
Italian La Republica newspaper that Baku will guarantee the security and better 
life for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I have repeatedly said that all residents of Nagorno-Karabakh will continue to 
live there peacefully and with dignity. Armenians are our citizens,” Aliyev 
said, as reported by AzerTac state news agency.


Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev

“Thousands of Armenians live in various places in Azerbaijan, mainly in Baku. 
Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh can rest assured that their security will 
be guaranteed and that they will have a better financial situation and better 
life than today,” the Azerbaijani leader said.

The remarks by the two countries’ leaders came amid reports of fresh fighting in 
Nagorno-Karabakh where ethnic Armenian forces claimed to have repulsed two 
attacks by Azerbaijan troops in the southern direction on November 4 morning and 
afternoon, destroying several Azeri tanks and other materiel.

Azerbaijan, meanwhile, denied losing any tanks in the reported battles, on the 
contrary, claiming its successful operations, in particular, in the Khojavend 
(Martuni) direction. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denies its forces target 
civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.



Heavy Fighting Reported In Nagorno-Karabakh


An ethnic Armenian artillery unit during a combat in Nagorno-Karabakh (archive 
photo)

Ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh have reported heavy fighting with 
Azerbaijani troops attempting to advance in the direction of Shushi (Shusha), a 
strategic town overlooking the region’s capital, Stepanakert.

In a report disseminated on Wednesday morning the ethnic Armenian Defense Army 
claimed that Azerbaijani commandos attempted a raid overnight towards the town 
sitting on a mountaintop some 10 kilometers to the south of Stepanakert, but 
were stopped in their tracks after meeting resistance from army units and 
volunteers defending the approaches to the town.

“The advancing group suffered heavy losses and was thrown back,” the report 
claimed.

“Actions on the encirclement and destruction of the group continue at this 
moment,” it added.

Official reports coming from Azerbaijan do not refer to any fighting near 
Shushi. According to Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry, fighting of varying 
intensity continued in the Tartar, Aghdam, Khojavend (Martuni), Zangilan and 
Qubadli directions of the frontline.

Both armies claim to control “the operational-tactical situation” along the 
frontline.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Army also claimed in its report that Azerbaijani 
forces continued to shell civilian areas. It said there were wounded people 
among civilians as a result of the shelling.

On November 3, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement 
deploring Azerbaijan’s continued bombing of the civilian infrastructure in 
Stepanakert and Shushi with the use of cluster munitions.

It said that the Stepanakert Mother and Child Healthcare Center was targeted, in 
particular.

“The continuous targeting of Stepanakert’s medical facilities by the Azerbaijani 
armed forces once again demonstrates the goal of Azerbaijan’s military-political 
leadership to inflict maximum damage on the civilian population of Artsakh [the 
Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh], especially women and children far away from 
the frontline,” the ministry said.

“This is another manifestation of state terrorism carried out by a country which 
through the efforts of Turkey has already turned itself into a hub of 
concentration of international terrorist fighters in the South Caucasus. We 
emphasize that amid the existential threats the people of Artsakh are facing, 
the authorities and the Defense Army of Artsakh have the inalienable right to 
defend their own people and to counterattack the enemy,” it added.

Azerbaijan denies targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in 
Nagorno-Karabakh. In its turn it accuses Armenia and Armenia-backed forces in 
Nagorno-Karabakh of shelling populated areas inside Azerbaijan, a claim denied 
by Armenians.



Russia Calls For Ceasefire Control Mechanisms In Karabakh

        • Aza Babayan

RUSSIA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint press 
conference with his Armenian counterpart following their talks in Moscow on 
October 12, 2020.

A sustainable ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would be difficult to achieve 
without agreements on effective control mechanisms, according to Russian Foreign 
Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In an interview with the Russian Kommersant daily on November 3 Lavrov said that 
such mechanisms could include the use of various electronic devices, a hot line 
between Yerevan and Baku, observers under the auspices of the Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), operations with the participation of 
military contingents.

“However, it has not yet been possible to agree on all the parameters,” he added.

Russia brokered the first of the three humanitarian ceasefires to halt ongoing 
military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh on October 10. However, that ceasefire 
as well as the two other agreements brokered by France and the United States 
later last month collapsed within hours after entering into force.

The top Russian diplomat said that although it was not immediately possible to 
achieve a sustainable ceasefire, Moscow will “continue to use all its influence 
in the region to persuade Baku and Yerevan to sit down at the negotiating table.”

“Moscow once again calls on the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and 
external partners to strictly respect the agreements on ceasefire, the creation 
of a control mechanism and the resumption of a substantial negotiation process 
with a specific timetable,” Lavrov said.

In the interview the Russian foreign minister also addressed the issue of 
mercenaries from the Middle East involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting, 
saying that the number of such fighters is approaching 2,000. He said that the 
Russian leadership periodically raises this issue and that this issue was also 
raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his telephone conversation 
with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 27.

Lavrov once again stressed that Russia is against changing the format of the 
mediation, which is currently led by Russia, the United States and France, but, 
noting the important role and influence of Turkey on Azerbaijan, said that 
“Moscow is working and will continue to work with Turkey to bring the parties to 
the conflict to the negotiating table.”

“We will continue to use all the influence we have in the region, we will work 
with our Turkish partners to stop the further unwinding of the military 
scenario, establish a dialogue between the parties and convince Baku and Yerevan 
to sit down at the negotiating table,” the top Russian diplomat said.

Earlier this week the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin held 
separate telephone conversations with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, on November 1 and November 2, 
respectively, and that “issues of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict were discussed in detail” during the phone calls.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, however, said that it is too 
early to speak about a possible meeting between the leaders of Armenia and 
Azerbaijan.

According to him, at the moment negotiations on the settlement of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are being conducted at the expert level, primarily 
within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Rudenko once again stressed that Moscow stands for a political settlement of the 
conflict.

“We definitely assume that there can be no military solution to this conflict, 
that the solution should be a political, comprehensive one taking into account 
the interests of all parties concerned,” he said.


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.

 


TURKISH press: Azerbaijani army destroys Armenian military convoy

Explosions are seen in the mountains during fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces outside Stepanakert in the occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Nov. 1, 2020. (AP Photo)

Azerbaijan's army on Sunday destroyed an Armenian military convoy during operations to liberate its occupied territories.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said the convoy was detected as it was moving toward the town of Khojavend.

Azerbaijan hit the Armenian forces both with airstrikes and artillery, destroying some of the vehicles and neutralizing the military personnel, the ministry added.

Video footage of the operation was also shared with the public via the ministry's Twitter account.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Monday also stated that Armenia's armed forces at the front fired in different directions including toward the positions of its army units and toward civilian human settlements using a variety of weapons, including artillery and missiles.

"Defending enemy units were forced to retreat while losing personnel and military vehicles at the front. The enemy's weapons, ammunition and food supplies are running out. There is a lack of spare parts for trucks and other military vehicles" it added in a tweet, followed by, "During the day, a large number of enemy forces including 4 BM-21 Grad MLRS, 10 different types of howitzers, 3 trucks loaded with ammunition and 5 other vehicles were destroyed or wrecked along the front."

It also stated that starting from 6 a.m. on Nov. 2, Armenian armed forces began shelling the Aghdam village and the Aghjabedi region.

Later in the day, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani army has liberated eight more villages from the Armenian occupation.

"Victorious Armed Forces of Azerbaijan have liberated Chaprand, Haji Isagli and Gosha Bulag villages of Jabrayil, Dere Giletag and Boyuk Giletag villages of Zangilan, Ishigli, Muradkhanli and Milanli villages of Qubadli. Long live Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces! Karabakh is Azerbaijan!" he wrote on Twitter.

Since clashes erupted Sept. 27, Armenia has repeatedly attacked Azerbaijan's civilians and its armed forces, violating three humanitarian cease-fires since Oct. 10 in the process.

To date, at least 91 innocent people, including 11 children and 27 women, have been killed by Armenian attacks, according to Azerbaijan's Chief Prosecutor's Office.

About 400 civilians, including at least 14 infants, 36 children and 101 women, have also been injured in the violence.

At least 2,442 homes, 92 apartment buildings and 428 public buildings have been damaged and become unusable, the authority also said.

More than 1,200 people from both sides have been reported killed in the fighting, but the death toll is believed to be substantially higher.

Yerevan and Baku once again accused each other of bombing residential areas on Saturday, in defiance of a pact to avoid the deliberate targeting of civilians in and around occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.

Shelling was reported by both sides within hours of the latest agreement to defuse the conflict was reached. A meeting in Geneva included the two countries' foreign ministers and envoys from France, Russia and the United States, which are the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group, which was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict but to no avail.

Baku and Yerevan's top diplomats agreed on Friday not to target civilian populations or non-military objects, according to a statement from the Minsk Group after it had mediated hours of discussions.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military took control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

About 20% of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions, has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

World powers, including Russia, France and the U.S., have called for a sustainable cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

France recalls Ambassador from Turkey

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 21:03,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. France has recalled its Ambassador from Turkey for consultations following the incident that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that French President Emmanuel Macron needs ''mental treatment'', ARMENPRESS reports AFP agency informs.

''President Erdoğan's comments are inadmissible. Impoliteness and rudeness are not a method. We demand Erdoğan to change his policy, because it's dangerous in all respects'', an official from  Élysée Palace told AFP.

He added that the Ambassador will also meet with Emmanuel Macron to discuss the situation.