Links - The News And Times - links-newsandtimes.com
People living in the Karabakh region are citizens of Azerbaijan regardless of their ethnicity, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a press statement together with President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Report informs via AZERTAC that the head of state said that their safety, security and rights would be ensured by the state of Azerbaijan.
The same day that Azerbaijan celebrated the surrender of separatist Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, many in the breakaway region’s capital spent the evening throwing stacks of paper onto a fire.
“One of the main things that people were doing in Stepanakert was burning all the possible documentation that could become evidence for the Azerbaijani authorities that they personally were part of the de facto government,” Olesya Vartanyan, Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the South Caucasus, told CNN.
“They believe that this could lead to their persecution,” she said.
The ceasefire may have ended the latest brief but bloody conflict fought for control of the region, but there are fears a fresh humanitarian disaster is just beginning. Azerbaijan has said it plans to “reintegrate” Nagorno-Karabakh, but how this happens without a mass exodus of the region’s more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians, or without violence being committed against those who stay and attempt to resist Azerbaijani rule, is unclear.
Azerbaijan said it had regained full control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian enclave within its borders, after launching a lightning 24-hour assault on Tuesday that killed at least 200 people and injured many hundreds more. Karabakh officials said their forces were outnumbered and had no choice but to surrender.
Whether this leads to a lasting peace is not yet clear. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally considered part of Azerbaijan but for decades has been under the control of Armenian separatists. Armenia and Azerbaijan have already fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and ceasefire agreements between them have proven brittle.
While this ceasefire may have saved Karabakh from the sort of bloodbath seen in previous wars, it has utterly upended the lives of ethnic Armenians in the region, who now face an uncertain future. Whereas the 2020 ceasefire called on both sides to lay down their weapons, Wednesday’s agreement was far more comprehensive. Nagorno-Karabakh’s presidential office said it had agreed to the “complete disarmament of its armed forces.”
But officials from Baku have demanded more, calling for “the dissolution of the puppet regime” in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has for decades been ruled by a de facto government not recognized by Azerbaijan or any other country, including Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has long been explicit about the choice that confronts Karabakh officials. In a speech delivered in May, he told Karabakh Armenians they needed to “bend their necks” and accept full integration into Azerbaijan. Baku sent representatives to meet with Karabakh officials in the city of Yevlakh on Thursday, “to discuss reintegration issues.”
Few details were released about the meeting, ahead of which Aliyev said of the Karabakh Armenians that “all their rights will be guaranteed.” The Azeri delegation said the talks had been “held in a constructive and positive environment,” and had focused on the humanitarian situation, especially the need for fuel and food.
“Their requests were well received. The heating systems of kindergartens and schools, emergency medical aid and firefighting equipment, fuel and humanitarian aid will be supplied,” the delegation said, according to the national news agency AZA.
There are fears over what “reintegration” entails, however. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and international experts have repeatedly warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the enclave.
The United Nations secretary-general “remains deeply concerned about the impact of the escalation on the humanitarian situation,” UN senior political official Miroslav Jenca said in a speech at the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been under blockade for nine months. In December 2022, Azerbaijan-backed activists established a military checkpoint along the Lachin corridor, the only route connecting Armenia to the region, preventing the import of food and prompting fears that residents were being left to starve.
The blockade has also prevented humanitarian organizations and foreign media from accessing the region, meaning that it is difficult to independently verify reports of further Azerbaijani attacks and the movement of the Armenian population.
Siranush Sargsyan, a journalist in Nagorno-Karabakh, told CNN she could hear “intensive” shelling from a suburb in Stepanakert Thursday, while the negotiations between Karabakh and Baku officials were ongoing. “Most of the population were in panic, running and frightened,” she said.
Following the truce, thousands of Karabakh residents reportedly fled to the airport, where Russian peacekeepers have a base.
Sargsyan also said “there are more than 20 villages under siege” in the more rural areas of Nagorno-Karabakh. “There is no electricity and phone connection doesn’t operate, so we don’t know if our relatives are safe.”
Olesya Vartanyan said the movement of Azerbaijani troops into these areas displaced thousands. “These people, they don’t have a place to live. Many of them are in the streets,” she said.
While many Armenians, fearing further escalation, have already made up their minds to leave, Vartanyan said it is unclear who will organize routes out of the country, if the Lachin blockade is finally lifted. “Will it be Russian peacekeepers, the ICRC, or will it be Azerbaijani authorities?” she said.
“Then, does it mean people will have to go through filtration camps? And then will people get detained – for example, the local men who took part in the fighting in the past, or those who were part of the local de facto authorities?” she asked. “It’s a mess.”
It is also unclear where Karabakh Armenians will travel to, if evacuations are able to begin.
“The Government of Armenia doesn’t seek the displacement of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and believes that the rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live safely and in dignity in their homes must be guaranteed,” Pashinyan’s office told state media Armenpress Thursday. But, if this is “impossible, the necessary decisions will be taken,” the statement added, without adding further details.
Farid Shafiyev, chair of the Center of Analysis of International Relations in Baku, told CNN that the choice confronting Armenians who chose to stay was clear.
“Those who don’t want to accept Azerbaijani jurisdiction, they have to leave. Those who would like to stay and get the passports, they are welcome to stay,” said Shafiyev, whose center was involved in Baku’s plans for “reintegration.”
Asked whether she would also attempt to evacuate, Sargsyan said she wanted to stay in Stepanakert as long as possible. “But if they attack again I don’t know what we will do,” she said. “What I know is I can’t trust them, their fake promises.”
Beyond the immediate attempt to provide shelter and other aid to the thousands of Armenians attempting to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, there is the question of how Baku intends to dissolve existing institutions in the region and erect its own.
“This is an entity that has been self-governing as a de facto state. Prior to that it was part of Soviet Azerbaijan. It has a very long experience and practice of autonomy,” Anna Ohanyan, a senior scholar in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told CNN.
Ohanyan warned that attempting to tear down existing institutions, which Baku has claimed it intends to, would be “an attack on the capacities for genuine peace-building down the road. If Azerbaijan was genuine about integrating, there would be some integration of these institutions.”
More gravely, Ohanyan warned there is “no question” that Azerbaijan would use force, if Armenians in the enclave refused to accept Azerbaijani citizenship.
“If the Armenian community will not leave, but also will not take up Azerbaijani passports, I think that basically would be suicidal,” Ohanyan told CNN.
The best case scenario, according to Ohanyan, would be “a Potemkin village… to continue to gaslight the West,” referring to fake settlements once used to impress the Russian empress Catherine the Great.
“But in the long term, I think there will be a systematic push, continued demographic engineering to push Armenian communities outside the region.”
Previous reporting from CNN’s Tim Lister, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Anna Chernova, Nick Paton Walsh, Katherina Krebs, Mariya Knight, Chris Liakos, Maya Szaniecki, Radina Gigova and Alex Hardie.
On September 24, at 17:35, a KamAZ-banded military vehicle
belonging to the Azerbaijan Army hit an anti-tank landmine,
Azernews reports, the press service of the Defense
Ministry.
Defense Ministry said that as a result of the explosion the
military servicemen of the Azerbaijan Army Akram Shadmanov Yunis
oghlu and Tural Seyidov Islam oghlu were martyred.
The third serviceman Elvin Aliyev Taleh oghlu was injured with
various degrees of bodily injuries. After providing first aid to
Azerbaijan soldier, he was immediately evacuated to a nearby
military medical facility. His condition is stable, there is no
threat to his life.
—
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Mme.President,
We thank Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Mr.Miroslav Jenča for the briefing on the situation regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. We note the participation in this meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On 19 September the armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated dramatically. The humanitarian situation has worsened, and there are risks of a steep increase in the number of refugees. Armed clashes have caused civilian casualties.
Unfortunately, Russian peacekeepers again took the brunt of it when performing their duties. Some of them were killed in a shelling. We have taken note of the Azerbaijani side expressing readiness to carry out an immediate thorough investigation of this tragedy and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Despite this difficult situation, the Russian Peacekeeping Contingent (RPC) proceeds with its tasks in good faith and does everything possible to protect the peaceful population. Since the hostilities resumed, the command of the RPC has been in contact with Armenians from Karabakh and Azerbaijani authorities making active efforts to immediately stop the bloodshed and hostilities, as well as to ensure compliance with the norms of humanitarian law with regard to civilians. About five thousand civilians have been evacuated from the most dangerous areas, more than a thousand of them children. People found protection in the camp of our peacekeepers, where they took shelter from artillery and mortar fire. The victims are receiving medical assistance, temporary accommodation and hot meals.
Under active mediation of Russian peacekeepers, an agreement was reached on September 20 on the complete cessation of hostilities from 1 p.m. and the beginning of negotiations on September 21 between representatives of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and the central authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The talks are taking place today in the town of Yevlakh with the participation and coordination of Russian peacekeepers. At this point, the priority task is to preclude resumption of hostilities and to bring the situation in the political and diplomatic framework.
Mme.President,
Russia continues to play the leading role in promoting normalization between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We are interested as no one else in having this crisis situation resolved as soon as possible.
President of the Russian Federation held talks with Prime Minister of Armenia N.Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan I.Aliyev. During the talks, hope was expressed that the situation would move towards de-escalation and stabilization. We believe that Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation should be accompanied by reliable and clear security guarantees and respect for the rights of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh on the basis of universally recognized international principles.
The framework for the actual parameters of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement was set by Yerevan’s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan’s territory in October 2022 and May 2023 at summits under the auspices of the European Union. At the same time, statements that were made after the above-mentioned EU summits, to which Yerevan also subscribed, simply skipped the need to uphold the rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
We trust that the contacts between representatives of Baku and Stepanakert/Khankendi will be effective and will make it possible to immediately launch measures to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the region and ensure stability for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. We will contribute to this in every possible way. A step-by-step road map for the integration of the Karabakh people into the legal field of Azerbaijan with firm guarantees of their rights and security must be worked out. We will actively support these processes through the RPC. Security and the rights of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians are pivotal.
We proceed from the understanding that the set of trilateral statements made at the highest level in 2020-2022, which created the legal basis for the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, remains the only real foundation for a sustainable settlement in the South Caucasus. Also, the region knows no alternative to the role of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
We intend to facilitate the speedy resumption of work at all tracks of the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization that is envisaged by the agreements of the three leaders, including the elaboration of a peace treaty, unblocking transportation, delimitation of the border, establishment of humanitarian contacts between the two neighboring nations.
Thank you.
Amirabdollahian’s remarks came on Sunday, two days after Netanyahu called for a “credible nuclear threat” against Iran in an address to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. However, the hawkish premier’s office later clarified that he misread the line and meant to say a “credible military threat.”
Amirabdollahian said that Tel Aviv is only capable of issuing threats but not acting upon them.
“Firstly, Netanyahu and the fake Israeli regime are only capable of making threats against the Islamic Republic. That is, if they were able to do something, they would not resort to such rhetoric. Today, they (the Israelis) are grappling with multi-layered crises inside the occupied territories,” he added.
“Secondly, the prime minister of a fake and occupying regime uses the language of threats from the UN podium disrespecting the world body rules; a fact that shows the Zionist regime is taking advantage of international tools.”
The top Iranian diplomat also noted that some officials from different countries, who had attended the General Assembly meeting, referred to Netanyahu’s behavior as a joke.
“The Zionists, who are themselves in possession of hundreds of nuclear warheads, brazenly continue their threatening programs,” he said, adding, “But basically, the fake Israeli regime is not in a position where people take its words and threats seriously. The Zionists are today in their weakest state.”
Israel, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear weapons, is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the Middle East’s sole possessor of non-conventional arms.
The usurping entity has, however, refused to either allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities or sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
On the contrary, Iran has long been cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a signatory to the NPT.
Iran showed the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers.
As of Monday morning, 2906 forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh have arrived in Armenia.
2,100 of them have already been registered, the needs assessment for 794 is in process.
Out of 2,100 registered, about 1,000 people went to their preferred laces of residence, and the government provided the other 1,100 with accommodation.
The flow of forcibly displaced persons continued throughout the night.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Sunday signalled a major foreign policy shift away from Russia, following Moscow’s refusal to enter the latest conflict with Azerbaijani over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Pashinyan told the nation in a televised address that his former Soviet republic’s current foreign security alliances were “ineffective” and “insufficient”.
He added that Armenia should join the International Criminal Court (ICC) — a tribunal which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his actions in Ukraine.
“The systems of external security in which Armenia is involved are ineffective when it comes to the protection of our security and Armenia’s national interests,” Pashinyan said.
His address aired just days after Azerbaijan claimed full control over Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightning offensive that forced rebels in the ethnic Armenian territory to agree to disarm.
The separatists’ apparent capitulation could mark the end of a conflict between the Christian and Muslim Caucasus rivals that has raged — off and on — through the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — a Russian-dominated group comprised of six post-Soviet states.
The group pledges to protect other members that come under attack.
But Russia is bogged down in a war in Ukraine and has grown more isolated on the international stage.
It argued that Yerevan itself had recognised the disputed region as part of Azerbaijan, and refused to come to Armenia’s aid.
“It has become evident to all of us that the CSTO instruments and the instruments of the Armenian-Russian military-political cooperation are insufficient for protecting the external security of Armenia,” he said.
“We must transform and supplement the instruments of Armenia’s external and domestic security, in cooperation with all the partners who are ready for mutually beneficial steps,” Pashinyan said.
– ‘Respect our sovereignty’ –
Pashinyan’s address came after days of increasingly strong criticism in Moscow of what has been Russia’s main ally in the volatile Caucasus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday accused Armenia of “adding fuel to the fire” with its public rhetoric.
Moscow had earlier this month summoned Armenia’s ambassador following its decision to host US forces for small peacekeeping drills.
Russian state television commentators have been attacking Pashinyan and other Armenian leaders for their criticism of Moscow.
Pashinyan’s comments about the ICC threaten to generate particular anger in the Kremlin.
ICC judge Tomoko Akane issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for the war crime of allegedly unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
Putin has avoided visiting other ICC member nations to avoid the possibility of arrest.
Pashinyan sent the Rome Statute — a founding document of the ICC — for parliamentary ratification earlier this month.
The Armenian leader said the ICC could help “ensure our security”.
“The decision is not directed against CSTO and the Russian Federation,” Pashinyan said of his desire to join the tribunal.
He concluded his address by calling “on our colleagues to respect out sovereignty”.
– ‘Aggravating tensions’ –
Independent Armenia analyst Beniamin Matevosyan said Pashinyan was “deliberately aggravating tensions with Russia”.
“He is openly telling Russia: if you don’t help keep Armenians in Karabakh, I’ll quit CSTO,” he said.
Matevosyan said the Nagorno-Karabakh supporters and people with roots in the region were leading the protests that have been simmering across Armenia in the past few days.
“He is afraid of the 120,000-strong mass of people (from Karabakh). He is seeing that so many Karabakhis are taking part in the street protests these days,” Matevosyan told AFP.
Pashinyan’s new diplomatic line is also running up against the hard reality that Russia still has a military base in the Armenian city of Gyumri that offers Moscow important geopolitical influence.
The base is believed to house 3,000 soldiers and has existed since World War II.
Armenia analyst Hakob Badalyan added that, in view of the war in Ukraine, Western powers may be unwilling to become more involved in the region.
“The West doesn’t want to assume the responsiblity,” Badalyan said. “It is telling Armenia: negotiate and make peace with (rivals) Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of mostly Muslim Azerbaijan.
But its status has been under dispute for centuries.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)
Almost 3,000 ethnic Armenians have crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh in the wake of last week’s Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed region, which left hundreds of people dead, wounded or missing.
By 5am local time on Monday, more than 2,900 refugees had arrived in Armenia, according to an Armenian government statement cited by Russia’s Tass state news agency.
Several hundred refugees began crossing over from Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, becoming the first civilians to reach Armenia in nearly a year and reuniting families after a 10-month blockade by Azerbaijan that has led to desperate shortages of food, fuel and water in the local capital, Stepanakert, and surrounding areas.
Officials in the breakaway Armenian government in the region have said they plan to evacuate thousands of displaced people from the region into Armenia.
The local government said evacuees would be accompanied across the border from the disputed region into Armenia by Russian peacekeepers.
“Dear compatriots, we would like to inform you that, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, the families who were left homeless as a result of the recent military operations and expressed their desire to leave will be transferred to Armenia,” a statement read.
“The government will issue information about the relocation of other population groups in the near future.”
Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said in a live address on Sunday: “Our government will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh still face the danger of ethnic cleansing. Humanitarian supplies have arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh in recent days but this does not change the situation.
“If real living conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in their homes, and effective mechanisms of protection against ethnic cleansing, then the likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out.”
The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control – were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much-larger Azerbaijani military.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years – with Azerbaijan regaining swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is due to meet Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, on Monday to discuss the situation.
Last week, Erdoğan – an ally of Aliyev who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry in the 2020 conflict – said he supported the aims of Azerbaijan’s latest military operation but had played no part in it.
Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in last week’s operation, which was condemned by the US and other western allies of Armenia.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it had confiscated more military equipment from Armenian separatists, including rockets, artillery shells, mines and ammunition.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians do not accept Azerbaijan’s promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated. Armenia has called for an immediate deployment of a UN mission to monitor human rights and security in the region.
“Ninety-nine point nine per cent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the breakaway state, which is also known as Artsakh, told Reuters.
The perpetrators of the terrorist act that killed 4 police officers in Khojavand were detained, Report informs, citing the State Security Service (SSS).
On September 20, 2023, the relevant people who were suspected of committing terrorist acts resulted in the death of two civilians and four policemen by planting mines on the newly constructed tunnel road in the 58th kilometer of the Ahmadbayli-Fuzuli-Shusha road and in the Tagaverd village of the Khojavand district on September 19 by participating in an illegal organized armed group were disarmed and detained during those anti-terrorist measures.
Washington called on Azerbaijan to halt the military action it launched into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, while Russia urged both sides in the conflict to stop the bloodshed in the mountainous and disputed region.
After months of rising tensions in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan sent troops backed by artillery strikes into the region in an attempt to bring the breakaway region to heel.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory, but part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who say it is their ancestral homeland.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held calls with both Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, urging Baku to de-escalate the situation.
“I spoke to Azerbaijani President Aliyev today and urged him to immediately cease military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Blinken said on social media.
In a readout of the call, the US Department of State said that Aliyev “expressed readiness” to stop hostilities and hold a meeting with representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Blinken told Pashinyan in their call that Armenia has Washington’s full support.
Armenia took control of large swathes of territory in a war that unfolded as the Soviet Union collapsed. Azerbaijan took most of it back in a six-week conflict in 2020, ended by a Russian-brokered truce.
It was not clear whether Baku’s actions would trigger a full-scale conflict dragging in Armenia, but the fighting in Karabakh could alter the geopolitical balance in the South Caucasus.
RUSSIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS
Russia – distracted by its own war in Ukraine – is seeking to preserve its influence in the region, crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, in the face of greater activity from Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan.
Karabakh separatist authorities said 27 people had been killed, including two civilians, and more than 200 injured due to Baku’s military action on Tuesday. Residents of some villages had been evacuated, they said.
Moscow called early on Wednesday on both sides to stop the bloodshed and hostilities and return to the implementation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.
“We urge the conflicting parties to immediately stop the bloodshed, stop hostilities and eliminate civilian casualties,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its Telegram messaging platform.
Relations between Russia and Armenia – traditional allies – have frayed badly since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and further deteriorated in recent months over what Yerevan says is Moscow’s failure to fully uphold the 2020 ceasefire deal.
Yerevan, which had been holding periodic peace talks with Azerbaijan, including questions about Karabakh’s future, condemned Baku’s “full-scale aggression” against the people of Karabakh and accused Azerbaijan of shelling towns and villages.
Baku said its intention was to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories, (and) neutralise their military infrastructure”.
