Building of Armenia’s Consulate General in Lyon vandalized by Turks​

Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 2 2020
Building of Armenia’s Consulate General in Lyon vandalized by Turks

The building of Armenia’s Consulate General in Lyon has been vandalized by Turks.

“New anti-Armenian inscription on the Consulate of Armenia in Lyon-reference to the Genocide of 1915 and the loyalty of the ‘’Grey Wolves” organization to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” France 24 reporter Achren Verdian informs on Facebook.

This comes a day after the Armenian Genocide Memorial and the National Armenian Memorial Centre in Décines, France, were desecrated, with yellow spray paint inscription of the initials of Turkish President Recap Tayyip Erdogan and signed by the Turkish far-right militant group Grey Wolves.

French Minister of Interior Gérald Darmanin announced today that the Grey Wolves ultranationalist group would be banned in France.

https://en.armradio.am/2020/11/02/building-of-armenias-consulate-general-in-lyon-vandalized-by-turks/

Armenian FM says use of phosphorus munitions by Azerbaijan aimed at devastation of civil population

Save

Share

 18:05,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan referred to the use of phosphorus munitions by Azerbaijan in Artsakh. ARMENPRESS reports FM Mnatsakanyan wrote in his Twitter micro blog,

‘’This time Azerbaijan used phosphorus munitions in Artsakh over forests close to residential areas with many civilians. What Azerbaijan is doing: total disrespect of its commitments, continued aggression, devastation of civilian population & use of banned weapons''.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This time <a href=”"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Azerbaijan?src=”hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Azerbaijan</a> used phosphorus munitions in <a href=”"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Artsakh?src=”hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Artsakh</a> over forests close to residential areas with many civilians. <br><br>What Azerbaijan is doing: total disrespect of its commitments, continued aggression, devastation of civilian population &amp; use of banned weapons. <a href=”"https://t.co/YyEjZ0ldUY">pic.twitter.com/YyEjZ0ldUY</a></p>&mdash; Zohrab Mnatsakanyan (@ZMnatsakanyan) <a href=”"https://twitter.com/ZMnatsakanyan/status/1322504572498288640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"></a></blockquote> <script async src=”"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Azerbaijan has also used cluster munitions against the cities of Artsakh




Syrian militant mercenary fighting for Azerbaijan arrested by Armenian authorities for terrorism

Save

Share

 16:35,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian authorities have arrested Mihirab Muhammad Al Shayir, the Syrian member of a terrorist organization who was recruited by the Turkish authorities and sent to Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh as a mercenary, the Armenian prosecution said.

Al Shayir is arrested on suspicion of international terrorism, gross violations of international humanitarian law norm during armed conflicts (murder, attacking civilians, indiscriminate attacks), and his participation in a military conflict as a mercenary. Al Shayir is a member of the Abu Hussein 23 detachment of the Abu Hamshein group. He was taken through Turkey to Azerbaijan on October 19, 2020 from a terrorist camp in northern Syria. Al Shayir, born March 5, 1975, is originally from Hama, Syria.

He is arrested within the framework of the criminal case launched by the Armenian General Prosecution on the Azerbaijani war of aggression against Artsakh involving the use of recruited mercenaries, the act of aggression, gross violations of international humanitarian law norms, issuing criminal orders and committing international terrorism.

 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Artsakh urges Azerbaijani civilians not to serve as human shield – Artsakh President’s spox.

Artsakh urges Azerbaijani civilians not to serve as human shield – Artsakh President's spox.

Save

Share

 20:36,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan continues carrying out overt and deliberate war crimes, targeting Artsakh’s hospitals, schools, residential houses and other public objects from different weapons, killing or injuring civilians, ARMENPRESS reports Vahram Poghosyan, spokesperson of Artsakh’s President, wrote on his Facebook page.

‘’And the world with its famous media outlets continues to silently record it, at best, regretting for the human losses.

The international community should put an end to the futile actions aimed at stopping this war that has turned into a humanitarian disaster and make practical measures, otherwise, the disaster will go deeper into the region.

We once again warn the Azerbaijani military-political leadership that no strike against our civilian settlements does not and will not remain unanswered.

We once again urge the residents of the Azerbaijani settlements near whose houses Azerbaijani armed forces have located their military objects, to go away not to serve as a human shield against our retaliation to the war crimes of the Azerbaijani authorities'', Poghosyan said.

The Azerbaijani military used Smerch multiple rocket launchers to bombard Stepanakert and Shushi on October 28. The maternity hospital in the capital city of Artsakh was hit with air strikes.

One civilian died and two others were wounded in the Shushi bombing. In Stepanakert, the authorities said the bombing has caused heavy casualties.




Erdogan Pitches Putin on Karabakh Peace After U.S. Bid Fails

Bloomberg
Oct 28 2020

Asbarez: Armenian Community Calls on McDonald’s to Denounce Support of Azeri Aggression; Commit to Peace

October 27,  2020



ANCA-WR is urging McDonald’s to end its support of Azerbaijani aggression

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region is shocked and appalled by the recent statements made by McDonald’s that support Azerbaijan’s genocidal aggression against Artsakh (oftentimes called Nagorno-Karabakh) on Instagram and Facebook. The promotion of military action in Artsakh, which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis that has claimed thousands of lives of civilians, including women and children, certainly goes against the values of integrity and community championed by their organization.

Azerbaijani forces have been documented conducting war crimes, including the shelling of civilian areas and massacring of prisoners. Leading international human rights watchdogs including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have corroborated accounts of Azerbaijan using illegal cluster munitions against civilian populations.

Samples of McDonald’s support for Azerbaijani aggression on social media

McDonald’s in 2018 adopted a human rights policy in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Under the UN guideline, companies have a responsibility to ensure they do not contribute to the violation of fundamental human rights. By indicating its support for Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign against Artsakh, McDonald’s has breached this responsibility. It is a surprise that McDonald’s would choose to associate their brand with such human rights atrocities.

Furthermore, as one of the world’s most recognizable American brands, it is unacceptable that McDonald’s would openly promote the dictatorial Azerbaijani government’s campaign of ethnic cleansing – undermining the fundamental values of human rights and democracy the United States has sought to enshrine throughout the world.

In response to these actions, we are calling upon the Armenian diaspora to #BoycottHate until action is taken by McDonald’s on this matter.

Mayor of desolated Karabakh village vows to ‘rebuild everything’

CTV Canada
Oct 20 2020

AFP Staff

    

MARTAKERT– Dressed in military fatigues, the mayor of Martakert leans on his desk topped with coils of cables and two landline telephones in a makeshift basement office, his Kalashnikov rifle resting behind him.

His town in the northeast of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region has come under regular shelling since fighting erupted between Armenian separatists and Azerbaijan forces last month, forcing most of its 5,000 inhabitants to flee.

Now, Misha Gyurjyan, thinning grey hair framing a round face, spends most of his days in his basement office, coming out only occasionally to assess the damage.

The 61-year-old accompanied AFP journalists on a tour of the deserted town, where only stray dogs and pigs searching for food could be seen wandering its streets.

More than 30 per cent of homes have been destroyed in fighting over the disputed province, the mayor estimates, cautioning that he can't be sure of the figures until daily Azerbaijani shelling ends.

"The fighting needs to stop so we can go street by street to calculate the damage," he says.

There are no bombing sirens in Martakert to warn residents of looming attacks, the mayor notes.

"We no longer have electricity," he adds during a drive across town punctuated by the deep rumbling of shelling from the front line 10 kilometres (6 miles) away.

Gyurjyan pauses at a house he says was destroyed by shelling several days ago.

Ripped metal sheets from the roof are scattered around the garden, a bunch of black grapes hang from a trellis and the house's charred walls have partially collapsed.

In the garden of another destroyed home nearby, flies swarm around the body of a dead dog.

Further on, the mayor stops in front of a large one-storey building he says was attacked on October 10, saying it used to be his own family home.

The walls withstood the attack, but the windows were all blown out. Trees in the garden are in disarray, their trunks blackened by fire.

"My son was here," Gyurjyan says.

"He was coming back from the front to rest. He had time to get out before the airstrike," hit, he adds, lighting one cigarette immediately after finishing another.

Gyurjyan's wife has sought refuge in the Armenian capital Yerevan, while his two sons are serving in the military.

He checks his watch: 2:30 pm. "A bad time. They (the Azerbaijanis) could start bombing," he explains, climbing back into his car.

Back in his three-room, dimly lit basement that serves as office, dormitory and kitchen, Gyurjyan is joined by members of his municipal team — half a dozen men, most of them in combat fatigues.

The former traffic police chief who became mayor in 2011 recalls that the new fighting over Karabakh could not have come at a worse time.

"We had just finished rebuilding a road, people were buying apartments, the (pomegranate) crops were ripening," he says with regret.

Of the more than 800 people who have died since fresh fighting started just over three weeks ago, three were killed in Martakert, he notes.

"I didn't imagine it would start again," he says, referring to frequent flare ups over the disputed region since a post-Soviet war left 30,000 dead.

"But these are different weapons — aerial bombardments, drones. Before we fought with rifles," says Gyurjyan, a veteran of the first war that ignited the decades-long conflict.

When one of his phones rings he immediately picks up. It's a resident who fled, calling for an assessment of the situation in the town.

"It's okay…it's calm," he says down the phone, again lighting a new cigarette after replacing the receiver.

"We will rebuild everything when it stops," he says, his eyes red from hours of lost sleep.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/mayor-of-desolated-karabakh-village-vows-to-rebuild-everything-1.5152897


​Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire

Reuters
Oct 10 2020
 
 
 
Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire
 
Nvard Hovhannisyan and Nailia Bagirova
 
 
REUTERS
 
YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) – Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of swiftly and seriously violating the terms of a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, raising questions about how meaningful the truce, brokered by Russia, would turn out to be.
 
The ceasefire, clinched after marathon talks in Moscow advocated by President Vladimir Putin, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead.
 
The Moscow talks were the first diplomatic contact between the two since fighting over the mountainous enclave erupted on Sept. 27, killing hundreds of people.
 
 
The enclave is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.
 
Within minutes of the truce taking effect from midday, both sides accused each other of breaking it.
 
The Armenian defence ministry accused Azerbaijan of shelling a settlement inside Armenia, while ethnic Armenian forces in Karabakh alleged that Azeri forces had launched a new offensive five minutes after the truce took hold.
 
Azerbaijan said enemy forces in Karabakh were shelling Azeri territory. Both sides have consistently denied each others' assertions in what has also become a war of words accompanying the fighting.
 
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told Russia's RBC news outlet that the warring parties were now engaged in trying to find a political settlement, but suggested there would be further fighting ahead.
 
"We'll go to the very end and get what rightfully belongs to us," he said.
 
Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said the truce would last only for as long as it took for the Red Cross to arrange the exchange of the dead.
 
Speaking at a briefing in Baku, he said Azerbaijan hoped and expected to take control of more territory in time.
 
Armenia's foreign ministry said it was using all diplomatic channels to try to support the truce, while Nagorno-Karabakh's foreign ministry accused Azerbaijan of using ceasefire talks as cover to ready military action.
 
'RUSSIA CANNOT AFFORD TO STEP BACK'
 
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who had mediated over 10 hours of talks, said in a statement early on Saturday that the ceasefire had been agreed on humanitarian grounds.
 
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it stood ready to facilitate the handover of bodies of those killed in action and the simultaneous release of detainees.
 
 
 
Lavrov said Armenia and Azerbaijan had also agreed to enter into what he called substantive peace talks.
 
Those talks would be held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group, he said.
 
Azerbaijan has said it wants a change in the talks' format, has spoken of wanting to get Turkey involved too, and on Saturday accused France of not being a neutral mediator.
 
Putin spoke to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani by phone on Saturday about the deal, the Kremlin said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter the deal was a step towards peace.
 
Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a former colonel in the Russian army, said on Twitter that any peace talks were likely to fail and that Azerbaijan would continue to press for Armenian forces to leave the enclave, something Armenia would not accept.
 
Russia could not afford to step back, he said.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
"For Russia, the most important issues in the South Caucasus are the security of Russian borders from jihadis coming from the Middle East and elsewhere, and Turkey’s rising role in the region," wrote Trenin.
 
"This means that Moscow can’t walk away from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and allow a war to rage".
 
Renewed fighting in the decades-old conflict has raised fears of a wider war drawing in Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defence pact with Armenia.
 
The clashes have also increased concern about the security of pipelines that carry Azeri oil and gas to Europe.
 
The fighting is the worst since a 1991-94 war that killed about 30,000 people and ended with a ceasefire that has been violated repeatedly.
 
Turkey welcomed the ceasefire deal but said much more was needed.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
 
"The humanitarian ceasefire is a significant first step but will not stand for a lasting solution," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement. "Turkey will continue to stand by Azerbaijan in the field and at the table".
 
The Azeri and Turkish foreign ministers also spoke by phone on Saturday.
 
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, Ezgi Erkoyun in Turkey and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mark Potter, Ros Russell and Frances Kerry)
 
.

 
 

Armenia and Azerbaijan Say Russia-Brokered Cease-Fire Truce Fails to Hold

TIME Magazine
Oct 10 2020
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV / AP

 

OCTOBER 10, 2020 11:33 AM EDT

MOSCOW — Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a Russia-brokered cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting Saturday, but immediately accused each other of derailing the deal intended to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in more than a quarter-century.

The two sides traded blame for breaking the truce that took effect at noon (0800 GMT) with new attacks, and Azerbaijan’s top diplomat said the truce never entered force.

The cease-fire announcement came overnight after 10 hours of talks in Moscow sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The deal stipulated that the cease-fire should pave the way for talks on settling the conflict.

If the truce holds, it would mark a major diplomatic coup for Russia, which has a security pact with Armenia but also cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan. But the agreement was immediately challenged by mutual claims of violations.

Minutes after the truce took force, the Armenian military accused Azerbaijan of shelling the area near the town of Kapan in southeastern Armenia, killing one civilian. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry rejected the Armenian accusations as a “provocation.”

The Azerbaijani military, in turn, accused Armenia of striking the Terter and Agdam regions of Azerbaijan with missiles and then attempting to launch offensives in the Agdere-Terter and the Fizuli-Jabrail areas. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov charged that “conditions for implementing the humanitarian cease-fire are currently missing” amid the continuing Armenian shelling.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied any truce violations by the Armenian forces.

The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began Sept. 27 and left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since a separatist war there ended in 1994. The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.

Since the start of the latest fighting, Armenia said it was open to a cease-fire, while Azerbaijan insisted that it should be conditional on the Armenian forces’ withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing that the failure of international efforts to negotiate a political settlement left it no other choice but to resort to force.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed the truce in Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin had brokered it in a series of calls with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Russia has co-sponsored peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh together with the United States and France as co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group, which is working under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. They haven’t produced any deal, leaving Azerbaijan increasingly exasperated.

Speaking in an address to the nation Friday hours before the cease-fire deal was reached, Aliyev insisted on Azerbaijan’s right to reclaim its territory by force after nearly three decades of international talks that “haven’t yielded an inch of progress.”

His aide, Hikmat Hajiyev, said that the Minsk Group must offer a concrete plan for the Armenian forces’ withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh. “There will be no peace in the South Caucasus until the Armenian troops pull out from the occupied territories,” he said.

Fighting with heavy artillery, warplanes and drones has engulfed Nagorno-Karabakh, with both sides accusing each other of targeting residential areas and civilian infrastructure.

According to the Nagorno-Karabakh military, 404 of its servicemen have been killed since Sept. 27. Azerbaijan hasn’t provided details on its military losses. Scores of civilians on both sides also have been killed.

The current escalation marked the first time that Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey took a high profile in the conflict, offering strong political support. Over the past few years, Turkey provided Azerbaijan with state-of-the-art weapons, including drones and rocket systems that helped the Azerbaijani military outgun the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist forces in the latest fighting.

Armenian officials say Turkey is involved in the conflict and is sending Syrian mercenaries to fight on Azerbaijan’s side. Turkey has denied deploying combatants to the region, but a Syrian war monitor and three Syria-based opposition activists have confirmed that Turkey has sent hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey’s involvement in the conflict raised painful memories in Armenia, where an estimated 1.5 million died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915. The event is widely viewed by historians as genocide, but Turkey denies that.

Turkey’s highly visible role in the confrontation worried Russia, which has a military base in Armenia. Russia and Armenia are linked by a security treaty obliging Moscow to offer support to its ally if it comes under aggression.

But at the same time, Russia has sought to maintain strong economic and political ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan and ward off Turkey’s attempt to increase its influence in the South Caucasus without ruining its delicate relations with Ankara.

Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have negotiated a series of deals to coordinate their conflicting interests in Syria and Libya and expanded their economic ties. Last year, NATO member Turkey took the delivery of the Russian S-400 air defense missiles, a move that angered Washington.

A lasting cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh would allow the Kremlin to stem Turkey’s bid to expand its clout in Russia’s backyard without ruining its strategic relationship with Ankara.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the deal was “an important first step, but cannot replace a lasting solution.”

“Since the beginning, Turkey has always underlined that it would only support those solutions which were acceptable to Azerbaijan,” it said.

While Turkey has aspired to join the Minsk Group talks as a co-chair, the statement issued by Armenia and Azerbaijan contained their pledge to maintain the current format of the peace talks.

Speaking in televised remarks after the talks, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan emphasized that “no other country, in particular Turkey, can play any role.”

The French Foreign Ministry hailed the truce announcement, adding that “now it must be put into practice and strictly respected to create conditions for a permanent end to hostilities between the two countries.”

___

Associated Press writers Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.


https://time.com/5898960/armenia-azerbaijan-russia-cease-fire-fails/?fbclid=IwAR1PwZ6znUWcRVkWkRQ6cKvTsxMRCWz7yHIAN6thH15aaIosdILDvfD7koI

22 civilians killed, 95 injured from Armenian side as a result of Azerbaijani aggression

Save

Share

 20:54, 8 October, 2020

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. As a result of the Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh 22 civilians have been killed and 95 were injured, ARMENPRESS reports the Armenian United Information Center informs.

A total of 5800 estates, residential buildings and other buildings have been damaged in Artsakh and Armenia.

20 of the 22 civilian victims are from Artsakh, 2 from Armenia. 93 of the 95 injured are from Artsakh, two from Armenia.

The two civilian victims in the Republic of Armenia were residents of Vardenis and Mets Masrik.

A number of reporters were injured on October 8 during the bombing of Shushi Cathedral, one of them, a Russian journalist, is in critical situation. Doctors of Artsakh are sparing no efforts to save his life.

Earlier two French reporters of Le-Monde had been injured in Martakert. One of them was in critical situation, but doctors of Artsakh were able to save his life.

Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan