Author: Arsine Chaltikian

                                        Wednesday, 

Armenia-Azerbaijan Border ‘Calm’ After Deadly Clashes

        • Sargis Harutyunyan
        • Emil Danielyan

Armenia -- Armenian soldiers take their position on the front line in Tavush 
region, 

Tensions on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan appeared to have eased on Wednesday 
after three days of heavy fighting that left at least 15 soldiers dead.

The Armenian Defense Ministry reported throughout the day that there are no 
serious ceasefire violations at a section of the border between Armenia’s 
northern Tavush province and the Tovuz district in Azerbaijan, the scene of the 
clashes.

A ministry spokeswoman, Shushan Stepanian, said at around 9 p.m. local time that 
the situation there remains “calm.” There were only “sporadic gunshots” fired 
from Azerbaijani army positions, she said.

“At the moment the truce is largely observed on the border,” Stepanian wrote on 
Facebook earlier in the day.

There were also no repots of fresh Azerbaijani shelling of the local town of 
Berd and nearby Tavush villages located closer to the frontier. The Armenian 
military reported on Tuesday Azerbaijani drone attacks on “civilian 
infrastructure” in Berd.

“Berd was hit yesterday but there has been no shooting today,” a middle-aged 
resident of the town told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“There is some tension but no panic here,” said another local man. “Everyone is 
going about their business.”

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry also did not report serious ceasefire violations. 
Citing Azerbaijan’s human rights ombudsperson, the Trend news agency claimed 
that a border village in Tovuz again came under Armenian fire on Wednesday. It 
said that nobody was hurt as a result.

The Armenian Defense Ministry strongly denied the claim.

Eleven Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army general, and four Armenian 
soldiers were killed in the clashes that broke out in disputed circumstances on 
Sunday. The fighting marked the worst escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict since 2016.

The conflicting parties blame each other for the flare-up along their volatile 
border. They have released videos of their forces purportedly striking enemy 
positions with artillery and drone fire.

The Armenian side also publicized on Tuesday what it described as footage of a 
sophisticated Hermes 900 drone of the Azerbaijani armed forces shot down by an 
Armenian surface-to-air rocket. Hermes 900 is manufactured by an Israeli 
company, Elbit Systems.

Artsrun Hovannisian, another Defense Ministry representative, claimed that 
Armenian anti-aircraft units shot down a dozen Azerbaijani unmanned aerial 
vehicles during the three-day hostilities.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was reported to say on Wednesday 
that his troops dealt a “crushing blow” to the Armenians during “revenge 
operations” ordered by him.




Armenian Man Detained In Azerbaijan

        • Heghine Buniatian

Armenia -- Narek Sardarian, an Armenian village resident detained in Azerbaijan.

Authorities in Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave said on Wednesday that they have 
detained an Armenian man who went missing one week ago.

Local state-run television showed the 30-year-old man, Narek Sardarian, saying 
that he fled Armenia and wants to live in Azerbaijan.

Sardarian is a resident of Nerkin Khndzoresk, a village in Armenia’s 
southeastern Syunik province bordering Nakhichevan. According to his family, he 
left his home on July 8 to graze cattle near another Syunik village located 
about a dozen kilometers from the nearest section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border and never came back.

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, discussed Sardarian’s 
disappearance on Tuesday at a meeting with Claire Meytraud, the head of the 
Yerevan office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“Family members suspect that the young man crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border by accident,” Tatoyan wrote on Facebook after the meeting.

He said Meytraud assured him that the ICRC is already trying to ascertain 
Sardarian’s whereabouts and has contacted its office in Baku for this purpose.

Dozens of residents of Armenian and Azerbaijani border villages have crossed the 
heavily militarized frontier throughout the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Most of 
them are believed to have strayed into enemy territory mistakenly.

As recently as on June 12, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) detained an 
Azerbaijani man who entered the country’s eastern Gegharkunik region from the 
Gedabey district in western Azerbaijan.

A local official who spoke to the man, Elshan Aliyev, shortly before his 
detention said the 26-year-old claimed to who have worked as a shepherd in a 
Gedabey village and decided to flee to Armenia because of being mistreated his 
employer. The NSS has yet to clarify whether Aliyev wants to be repatriated.

Before Sardarian’s disappearance, at least one Armenian national was known to be 
held in an Azerbaijani prison. Karen Ghazarian, a resident of the northern 
Tavush province, was captured in July 2018.

In February 2019, an Azerbaijani court sentenced Ghazarian to 20 years in prison 
on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and “sabotage” in Azerbaijan. The 
Armenian government condemned the ruling and demanded Ghazarian’s immediate 
release.

Tatoyan said he also discussed Ghazarian’s fate with the Red Cross official.




Western Funding Approved For Armenia’s First Large Solar Plant


Armenia - A newly constructed solar power plant in Talin, 7Nov2017.

The European Union and two international lending institutions have formally 
approved about $39 million in funding for a Spanish company contracted by the 
Armenian government to build Armenia’s first large solar power plant.

The company, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), won more than two years ago an 
international tender for the construction of the 55-megawatt plant in Mets 
Masrik, a village close to the eastern coast of Lake Sevan.

FRV signed a relevant contract with the Armenian Energy Ministry in July 2018. 
It said at the time that the facility will likely be built by the end of 2020. 
The construction has still not begun, however.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the European Bank for Reconstruction 
and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) said they 
each will lend FRV $17.7 million to finance the project strongly supported by 
the World Bank. They said the renewable energy company will also receive an EU 
“investment grant” worth 3 million euros ($3.4 million).

“The 55-megawatt power plant facility … will boost Armenia’s supply of renewable 
energy and will help the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels,” read 
the statement.

“Right now, nearly 70 percent of Armenia’s electricity generation depends on 
imported fossil fuels,” it said.“As the country’s demand for electricity grows, 
renewables are expected to provide a sustainable and low-cost alternative source 
of energy and the Masrik plant is designed to set an example for the rest of the 
Caucasus.”

The funding for the project was announced one week after the Armenian government 
approved a $9 million contract with the Russian company Kaskad-Energy to 
reconstruct an electricity substation located not far from Mets Masrik.

Minister for Local Government and Infrastructures Suren Papikian explained that 
the substation needs to be completely rebuilt in order to receive and transmit 
electricity to be generated by the planned solar plant. Papikian said that work 
on the plant will get underway “soon” but gave no specific dates.

Both the current and former Armenian governments have pledged to significantly 
increase the presently modest share of renewables in domestic electricity 
production. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian has said that the country could 
and should have up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power capacity by 2030.

The first Armenian solar power plant with a capacity of just 0.5 megawatts went 
on stream in September 2017. Six more such small plants were connected to the 
national power grid by November 2018. Armenian private firms began building more 
of them in the following months.

The Mets Masrik plant will be by far the biggest facility of its kind. According 
to FRV, it will occupy about 100 hectares of land and produce enough energy to 
power 21,400 households.




Azerbaijan Police Break Up Pro-War Rally In Baku


AZERBAIJAN -- People carry Azerbaijn's national flags as they rally in Baku, 


Riot police in Azerbaijan dispersed early on Wednesday thousands of people who 
rallied in Baku to demand war with Armenia following deadly clashes on the 
border between the two South Caucasus countries.

The demonstration began on Tuesday evening as a show of support for the 
Azerbaijani military, with participants reportedly chanting “Karabakh is 
Azerbaijan!” and “Mobilization!” But it appeared to have grown into an angry 
protest as the crowd reached Baku’s central Liberty Square.

News reports from the Azerbaijani capital said some protesters called for the 
resignation of General Najmaddin Sadikhov, the long-serving chief of general 
staff of the armed forces.

At one point late in the protest, a group of protesters broke into the nearby 
Azerbaijani parliament building but were quickly removed by police, who then 
used water cannons, tear gas, and batons to disperse those gathered in front.

The BBC cited the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry as saying afterwards that seven 
people were arrested for the "mass riots" and “resistance or use of force 
against a government official” which left seven police officers injured.

It was the largest demonstration in Azerbaijan in years. The protesters were 
angered by the deaths of at least 11 Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army 
general, in three days of heavy with Armenian forces which broke out at a 
western section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Sunday.

The Armenian army has reported four combat deaths within its ranks.

Military officials in Yerevan and Baku said on Wednesday morning that there was 
no fresh fighting at the border section overnight. The conflicting parties blame 
each other for the escalation that has prompted serious concern from the 
international community.

The border clashes came days after Azerbaijani President Aliyev raised the 
possibility of a new war with Armenia and denounced stalled peace talks on 
Nagorno-Karabakh. On July 7, Aliyev threatened to withdraw from negotiations “if 
they yield no results.”


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.

 

Radio Farda



July 06, 2020

The Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan on Monday denied allowing another
country – presumably Israel or the United States – to use its airspace
to carry out attacks on Iran.

"Information about Russia's 'Container' radar system detecting unknown
planes using Azerbaijan's air space to carry out attacks on Iran is an
absolute lie," Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said according to
Azerbaijan's International News.

“The dissemination of such information is aimed at undermining the
Azerbaijani-Iranian relations," the Ministry told International News
and declared that the allegations of Azerbaijan's involvement were
disseminated by "pro-Armenian forces" with the aim of damaging the
relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry also stressed that Azerbaijan has
never taken any steps against Iran and will not do so in the future.

The source of the news about detection of foreign planes in
Azerbaijan's airspace is the lesser-known Avia-Pro news website of
Russia. The news website on Monday claimed that the drones that
attacked Iran's military and nuclear sites had been detected by the
Russian Radar system.

In recent days there have been explosions at two of Iran's top
security nuclear and military facilities – Khojir in the east of
Tehran and Natanz in Isfahan province.

Iranian authorities said the incident at the first site was caused by
the explosion of a gas storage tank but have delayed thee announcement
of the cause of the incident at Natanz "for security reasons".

It's been widely suggested that Israeli drone or missile attacks were
responsible for the explosions. Israel has not commented on the issue
but in similar cases, they have neither confirmed nor denied reports
of their involvement.

Azerbaijan and Armenia – which Azerbaijan has accused of slander in
this case – have had a territorial and ethnic conflict over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region for more than three decades. Azerbijan has
close military relations with the United States and Israel.

Iran's relations with Azerbaijan soured during the presidency of
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but since President Hassan Rouhani took office
relations have been cordial and the two countries have cooperated on a
number of projects.

In August 2014 after the Revolutionary Guard announced that it had
downed an Israeli drone that attempted to "infiltrate the nuclear zone
of Natanz", the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan refuted the claims that
the drone had been launched from its territory.

However, a few days after the incident, Brigadier-General Masoud
Jazayeri, Deputy of Iran's Armed Forces Joint Staff, told reporters
that the Israeli drone had flown in from "a country in the north of
Iran" and threatened to disclose the name of the country if that
country did not take action to make compensation.