✓A protest march took place in Yerevan, demanding the Karabakh peace agreement be scrapped and Pashiynan resign.
✓Gagik Tsarukyan has been arrested by the National Security Service.
✓Arrests have taken place regarding the ransacking of parliament and the assault on the parliament speaker.
✓Nikol Pashinyan explains why the Armenian side decided to sign the agreement.
“1815 hectares of forest area have already been burned, but fires continue in various areas, and there is a tendency for rapid growth,” Artak Beglaryan, Karabakh’s Human Rights Defender, said.
A video footage released from Karabakh (Artsakh) on October 31 shows Azerbaijani forces firing white phosphorus munitions over major forests in the region. According to the Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the use of air-dropped incendiary weapons against military objectives within a concentration of civilians is simply prohibited.
In a statement released on November 4, Armenian environmental rights groups warn that Azerbaijan is making the area uninhabitable for people as well as animals.
"We, the environmentalists of Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh), are compelled to speak out now to decry and condemn Azerbaijan’s deliberate use of white phosphorus to destroy forest ecosystems and protected areas of Artsakh, near the communities of Shushi, Martakert and Askeran," the statement says.
Per Reuters, white phosphorus munitions can be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings.
"The destructive effects of phosphorus on people, plants, and animals have caused many international organizations to forbid its use against civilian populations or the natural environment. Phosphorus burns intensely, causing severe injuries to people and animals. It is resistant to traditional methods of extinguishing fires, and its traces can remain in soil for many years, causing further damage to ecosystems affected by the fires.
The peaceful ethnic Armenians of Artsakh have lived in their ancient and beautiful sacred forests for thousands of years. The forests supply fuel, food, clean air and clean water. They serve as habitats for many native species of animals, including the endangered Caucasian Leopard, Europe’s last big cat. It is apparent that if Azerbaijan has decided it cannot capture this territory, it will make it uninhabitable. We can not tolerate such an outcome.
We call upon all citizens of the world who care for the natural environment to speak out against the wanton destruction of Artsakh’s forests by Azerbaijan’s illegal use of white phosphorus weapons," say the signatories of the statement.
Signatories:
Armenia Tree Project
Former RA Deputy Minister of Environment Vardan Melikyan
Armenian Environmental Network
My Forest Armenia
FPWC (Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets)
Paros Foundation
Green Lane Ngo
Yerevan Botanical Garden
EcoLur Informational NGO
Eco Hub Foundation
EcoTeam NGO
Tapan Eco Club
Ark Armenia NGO
Armenian Progressive Youth NGO
Third Nature NGO
Tree of Life CSO
Araks Center Charitable NGO
Institute of Botany after A. Takhtajyan
Armenian National Agrarian University
✓Azerbaijani subversive groups attempt to take the city of Shushi.
✓Armenian FM says no meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan is on the agenda.
✓Four Azerbaijani drones are downed in the Armenian region of Gegharkunik.
✓Aliyev lambasts Russian claims that Syrian mercenaries are in Karabakh.
Human Rights Defeder of Armenia confirms use of phosphorus projectiles by Azerbaijan
23:59,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Based on the urgent examination of the materials provided by the fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Defender's Office of Artsakh, it has been confirmed that Azerbaijan has used phosphorus projectiles, ARMEPRESS was informed from the Facebook page of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan.
''Azerbaijan is using, as the current data confirms, Phsophorus munitions over Nagorno Karabakh setting fires to the forests which are next to civilian communities.
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender’s urgent investigation results; fact-finding activities of Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman confirmed not only this fact, but also the fact that during days and nights many civilians are hiding in these forests from Azerbaijani military attacks.
These munitions have clear effects of mass destruction for environment; now are also used against civilians by Azerbaijani military forces and in this context are forbidden under international law.
These phosphorus munitions are weapons which use one of the common allotropes of the chemical element phosphorus. White phosphorus is used in smoke, illumination and incendiary munitions, and is commonly the burning element of tracer ammunition'', he wrote.
08:33,
STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani armed forces re-launched the bombardment attack at the city of Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh from early morning October 29.
More than a dozen strikes have hit the city in the morning, with incoming reports saying “the city is shaking from the strikes”.
Stepanakert City was shelled by the Azeri military overnight as well, with 5 missiles hitting the city.
The capital of Artsakh came under heavy bombing on October 28 also, when the Azeri military delivered a precision strike at the city’s maternity clinic.
09:20 – Artsakh emergency authorities say the first Azeri missile hit the city at 08:03, minutes after the air raid sirens were activated. The Azeri military fired Smerch multiple rocket launchers, hitting a residential home. The home and an adjacent building were completely destroyed, and one vehicle was damaged. The homeowner and his neighbor were wounded and hospitalized.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Artsakh's army improves positions in Berdzor direction, clashes continue – MoD Armenia
22:15,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian side has been able to improve its positions in the direction of Berdzor, ARMENPRESS reports representative of the MoD Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a press conference.
''During the entire day Azerbaijani armed forces, reinforced by terrorist groups and different special units, continued attacks against the units located along the border of the Republic of Armenia, as well as from the north of Artsakh to the south.
Some not large-scale military operations took place in the southern and Berdzor directions. The adversary was unable to advance in the direction of Berdzor despite its efforts. In this direction our forces were able to record some improvement of positions'', Hovhannisyan said.
Hovhannisyan added that in the northern direction Azerbaijan mainly carried out artillery fire, particularly in the direction of Martakert and units located north from Martakert.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan added that neutralization operations of subversive groups continues.
12:11,
STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 26, ARMENPRESS. Bomb squads are disposing the unexploded munitions fired by the Azeri military in Stepanakert City and nearby territories, the State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh said.
“At this moment the bomb squads of the State Service of Emergency Situations are working in Stepanakert and the adjacent territory of the city. The discovered ordnance is being disposed on spot. Therefore, please do not panic in the event of hearing sounds of explosions,” the service said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
00:00,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, ARMENPRESS. The ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone will take effect on October 26, 08:00, reads the joint statement of Armenia, the USA and Azerbaijan.
‘’Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun on and reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to implement and abide by the humanitarian ceasefire agreed in Moscow on October 10, which were reaffirmed in the statement issued from Paris on October 17, in accordance with the October 1, 2020 joint statement of United States President Donald J. Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The humanitarian ceasefire will take effect at 08:00 a.m. local time (12:00 a.m. EDT) on . The United States facilitated intensive negotiations among the Foreign Ministers and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to move Armenia and Azerbaijan closer to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict'', ARMENPRESS reports, reads the statement.
Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed to ceasefire on October 10 and October 17, but the agreements were never observed by the Azerbaijani side, which violated the humanitarian ceasefire immediately after it entered into force.
15:38,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan held a telephone conversation with UK’s Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Wendy Morton, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.
The phone talk focused on the current situation in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) caused by the large-scale war unleashed by the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan. The Armenian FM drew the attention of his partner to the ongoing violence of the Azerbaijani armed forces against the peaceful civilians, their torture and killings of the Armenian prisoners of war, constant targeting of civilian settlements and infrastructure, as well as on numerous facts of shelling of religious, cultural facilities.
Wendy Morton expressed her deep condolences over the civilians killed in the hostilities.
The sides discussed the necessity of fulfilling the agreements reached on October 10 and 17 on cessation of hostilities. In this context the Armenian FM said the violation of these agreements by Azerbaijan once again shows the latter’s incapability of respecting its obligations and refusing from the goals to solve the conflict through military means. The FM expressed deep concerns over the fact that Azerbaijan’s such behavior is openly supported and encouraged by Turkey which in its turn is attempting to push forward its expansionist goals through the destabilization of the regional security.
Minister Mnatsakanyan reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to the exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict and the establishment of stable and verifiable ceasefire.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan