Author: Arpi Talalian

Putin briefs Security Council members on phone talks held with Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders

Arpi Talalian

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 16:49,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, the activity of the Russian peacekeepers and the humanitarian mission in Karabakh with the permanent members of the Security Council, the Kremlin said in a statement.

In this context President Putin briefed the Security Council members on the telephone conversations held with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenia reaffirms direction of developing and deepening allied relations with Russia

Arpi Talalian

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 17:11,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The leadership of Armenia has reaffirmed the direction of deepening and developing the allied relations with Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan.

“The leadership of Armenia has reaffirmed the direction of developing and deepening the allied relations with Russia. We assess our visit as a confirmation of the support of the Russian President to the efforts aimed at ensuring the public’s stability in Armenia, and as a demonstration of our support to the direction that the leadership of Armenia – the Prime Minister, the President, support to maintain the November 9 statement which allowed to stop the bloodshed and start the peace processes”, the Russian FM said.

The Russian governmental delegation led by FM Lavrov arrived in Armenia on November 21.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenian PM says he tried to change the logic of negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh

Arpi Talalian
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 16 2020

No doubt for me and there can be no misreading that I am the number one official responsible for what happened in Artsakh, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during an online press conference.

“I understand that I will stand the trial of the people. But for the judge – the people in this case – to make conclusions – it must be aware of all circumstances of the case. Therefore, it’s important to listen to all – the soldiers, the opposition, the government,” Pashinyan said.

He said that as of May 2018 [before he came to power] the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh had crossed the point of irreversibility and the issue had stepped into a phase of “territories for nothing.”  

According to the Prime Minister, his policy since has been aimed at changing that logic.

“Actually now we can say that, unfortunately, we have not succeeded, because we faced a situation of an international consensus that the territories must be handed over to Azerbaijan without any precondition. Whole our policy has been aimed at trying to change that logic, but we have not succeeded,” PM Pashinyan stated.  

“I couldn’t put up with that and have done my best to improve the resisting ability of Armenia, to raise the combat readiness of the armed forces,” he said.

“We are accused of opposing things. We are accused of signing a paper to cede certain territories and accused of failure to sign that paper earlier,” the Prime Minister said. “We are therefore accused of both ceding and not ceding lands.”

“The responsibility first of all lies with me, but to bear that responsibility, I think it necessary for all circumstances to be explained to the society,” he reiterated.

The Prime Minister said “we must analyze and form the agenda on the situation today, focusing on the status of Nagorno Karabakh.”

“The issue of status should be put in the basis of negotiations, as should the communication, humanitarian and transportation issues,” he emphasized.

The Prime Minister noted that there are a number of provisions in the trilateral statement that need to be interpreted and discussed “and we will try to call the best proposals to life.”

“Could we avoid war? Yes, we could, had we agreed to hand over seven regions including Shushi. But was that the policy we wanted to pursue? No, it wasn’t. Artsakh’s Defense Army, Armenia’s Government and Armed Forces decided to accept the challenge, which unfortunately did not produce the result we wanted,” PM Pashinyan stated.

“The events of July showed we were ready to fight against Azerbaijan, but the involvement of Turkey and mercenary terrorists were the main cause of our failure. Could we prevent this development. Yes, we could had we agreed to cede the territories, without the status of Nagorno Karabakh. That’s why, we tried to fight and try to ensure more favorable conditions,” Pahsinyan stated.

How drones helped Azerbaijan defeat Armenia, and the implications for future modern warfare

Arpi Talalian
The Print, India
Nov 14 2020
ThePrint Team 6:07 pm IST

New Delhi: The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended earlier this week, as both sides decided to sign a ceasefire agreement. 

In episode 618 of #CutTheClutter, ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explained that “unlike most wars in recent decades, this war has ended decisively in the sense that there is a victor, that is Azerbaijan, and there is a defeated side, that is Armenia.”

Back in the 1990s, it was the Armenians who had trumped Azerbaijan. But decades later the tables turned, in a way that could have severe implications on modern warfare.

“(This) is actually the first war in the history of modern warfare that has been won almost entirely on the strength of drone warfare,” Gupta noted.

The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on 27 September, over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

While Armenia only fought with tanks, artillery and air defence systems, Azerbaijan relied heavily on drones, specifically the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 and the Israeli-made Kamikaze drones. The two drones can carry bombs of up to 55 kg and 15 kg respectively.

“These are drones that are expensive, but very useful when it comes to targeting your adversaries, missile batteries particularly, your adversaries’ air defence radars, because all of those emit radiation,” Gupta said.

Gupta went onto refer to two articles to illustrate how this war would change the future of warfare. One, in The Washington Post, titled ‘Azerbaijan’s drones owned the battlefield in Nagorno-Karabakh — and showed future of warfare’, and the second, published in a military warfare blog, Oryx, titled ‘The Fight For Nagorno-Karabakh: Documenting Losses on The Sides Of Armenia and Azerbaijan’.

The Oryx article tallied pictures and videos to establish how much equipment had been lost by both sides. The forces of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenians who had been living in the disputed region, lost 185 tanks, 45 armoured fighting vehicles, 44 infantry fighting vehicles, 147 towed artillery guns, 19 self-propelled artillery, 72 multi-barrel rocket launchers and 12 radars. Azerbaijan’s losses were only one-sixth of this.

“It’s as if armoured vehicles or tanks now are there for target practice if you lack the ability to handle drone attacks. If you have drone superiority, you don’t get tanks to fight tanks anyway,” Gupta said, illustrating why this was uneven warfare.

He further explained Azerbaijan’s “viciously clever tactics”, which involved baiting the Armenians using a repurposed biplane that dates back to 1947.

“They (Azerbaijan) took a biplane with a single propeller engine and converted it into unmanned single-use drones, which were sent to the Armenian defences, which thought this was a big threat coming,” Gupta added.

The Armenians activated their radars and missile batteries, which disclosed their positions. The Azerbaijan drone that had been encircling the area then came in and destroyed them. 

“That’s how almost the entire Armenian air defence and missile defence, surface-to-air missile defence was taken out,” Gupta said.

Explaining the advantages that a drone provides, Gupta pointed out how it can debilitate a force by having a devastating effect on the morale of soldiers “because they do not know what will come and hit them”.

“Now, it’s very scary because you don’t know — you’re sitting on the ground, you are in a tank, and you don’t know which fellow is loitering over you someplace, and will pick up your electronic signatures or your heat signatures and come drop bombs on you,” he said. 

Gupta quoted an exasperated speech by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who said the defeat was unavoidable due to the “deep analysis of the military situation”. 

“An army sitting on the ground and air force with very expensive jets having pilots cannot fight a rival that is very good with the use of drones,” Gupta said, elaborating what the Armenian PM had stated.

Another important factor that Gupta laid emphasis on was that the drones had been acquired from Turkey.

“Now these drones are very controversial, because the Turks designed these and built these after the Americans and NATO put sanctions keeping the Turkish from buying drones from them,” Gupta said. 

Canada had also stopped exporting electronic parts that were being used by Turkey to build drones.

At the heart of the issue was the devastation that had been caused by the drones in the conflicts in Syria and Libya. As the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan proved, Turkey developed the capability to build its own drones, which could affect India.

Gupta explained: “Turkey and Pakistan are now very close allies. Turkey will not give Pakistan drones for free because its economy is a mess… But if one gets very desperate, the Pakistanis can find the money. So India has to work on the presumption that Pakistan has access to these.”

In conclusion, Gupta quoted researcher Franz-Stefan Gady’s remarks that had been highlighted in the aforementioned Washington Post article.

“Now, he (Gady) says that it’s not as if the tanks and armoured vehicles will become obsolete… but Nagorno-Karabakh has shown the ever-increasing importance of using armed drones along with other weapons and highly trained ground forces, and the exponentially more devastating consequences of failing to do so in future wars,” said Gupta.

Watch the full episode here:

Armenia to receive 50,000 coronavirus detecting antigen tests

Arpi Talalian

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 11:55, 9 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will receive 50,000 new antigen tests which detect presence of coronavirus in human organism faster than the PCR tests, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said during the joint session of the parliamentary standing committees today.

“I want to announce news which will probably lead to decrease in prices of PCR tests, it’s about the import of new type of antigen tests to Armenia. These tests detect the virus faster and will more likely lead to change in the structure of the market, and people, as well as medical centers will start using them. This trend exists in the world, and we will soon get 50,000 such tests. These tests will be made for free”, the minister said.

Torosyan added that currently the world is passing from PCR tests to antigen tests.

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Artsakh Defense Army destroys three attacking Azerbaijani tanks

Arpi Talalian

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 12:57, 4 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Army of Artsakh has destroyed three attacking tanks of the Azerbaijani army, Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said on Facebook.

“At around 10:30 three advancing enemy tanks were destroyed in the southern direction”, the spokesperson said.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

European Parliament groups urge to establish international control for ceasefire in NK

Arpi Talalian

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 21:26,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The leading parties of the European Parliament urge to invest effective international mechanisms for the monitoring of the ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports, citing Ria Novosti, reads the joint statement of the European Parliament parties.

''We resolutely condemn the violation of the previously reached agreements. We urge to immediately and unconditionally cease the military operations. We also urge to invest effective international mechanisms for the preservation of the ceasefire'', reads the statement.

Artsakh will retaliate very soon, with no mercy – Artsakh President’s spokesperson

Arpi Talalian

Artsakh will retaliate very soon, with no mercy – Atrtsakh President’s spokesperson

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 21:39,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Army of Artsakh will retaliate to the bombing of Stepanakert very soon, ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of Artsakh’s President Vahram Poghosyan wrote on his Facebook page.

‘’Stepanakert was once again bombed by Azerbaijan a while ago. The Defense Army will retaliate very soon. We had warned long ago. There will be no mercy’’, Poghosyan wrote.

''A while ago Azerbaijan fired a number of powerful missiles against Stepanakert's residential buildings. There is still no information about casualties'', Artsakh's Human Right Defender wrote in his Twitter micro blog.




Children from Artsakh hosted at Armenian Presidential Palace

Arpi Talalian

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 16:26,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, ARMENPRESS. A group of children from Artsakh, who have temporarily settled in Armenia due to the ongoing Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh, have been hosted at the Armenian Presidential Palace, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The Presidential administration has organized an event for the Artsakh kids together with the State Musical Chamber Theater after Hakob Paronyan.

Chief director of the Theater Hakob Ghazanchyan stated that such initiative is important for the children from the perspective of psychological support. He added that such events will be continuous and informed that the doors of all theaters in Armenia will be open to the Artsakh children.

He reminded that back in summer during the meeting with President, Armen Sarkissian proposed to organize performances in the presidential palace due to the restrictions in operations of theaters and other cultural facilities due to the COVID-19. “When the President made that offer, there was no war yet, the situation was peaceful. But during these war days we decided to hold a performance at the presidential place for our children of Artsakh”, he said.

After the performance the Presidential administration also handed gifts to the children.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan