Day: September 11, 2023

Illegal Armenian armed forces attempted to carry out a terrorist attack against the Azerbaijani military units by sending a bomb-laden dog in the Khojavend area, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said Armenian forces sent the bomb-laden dog toward Azerbaijani soldiers on guard in the Khojavend region at 8:30 a.m. local time.

They placed an improvised explosive device on the dog and forced it to walk toward the Azerbaijani soldiers, who noticed the bomb on the dog and foiled the attack.

The ministry condemned the provocation, saying it violates the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The ministry also said using animals as tools for suicide attacks is an unethical act and amounts to terrorism.

Armenian armed groups have been using similar methods to carry out attacks in the region.

For instance, they placed an improvised explosive device inside a toy dog and threw it in the Tovuz River in July 2011. A 13-year-old child by the name of Aygün Şahmaliyeva in the Alibeyli Village found the bomb-laden toy and died after it exploded, while her mother Elnare Şahmaliyeva was critically injured as a result of the explosion.

Baku has been blaming Yerevan for a gridlock in peace efforts since tensions escalated in December over a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor.

The mountainous region has been at the center of a decades-long territorial dispute between the two countries. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, broke away from Azerbaijan resulting in the deaths of some 30,000 people.

The sides fought two wars to control Karabakh in the 1990s and again in 2020. Six weeks of fighting in autumn 2020 ended with a Russian-sponsored cease-fire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territories back to Azerbaijan it had illegally controlled for decades.

In April this year, Azerbaijan set up the border checkpoint at the entrance to its Lachin corridor, which Armenia alleged was a “blockade” of Karabakh. Tensions soaring over the move left another half a dozen killed from both sides since December.

Baku denied the claims, saying the checkpoint was installed in response to security threats from Armenia and citing the smuggling of weapons and ammunition to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region by Armenia. Earlier this month, it temporarily halted operations at the checkpoint pending an investigation into the Armenian branch of the Red Cross for taking part in the alleged smuggling of contraband.

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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke by phone on Saturday with his Georgian counterpart Irakli Garibashvili to discuss issues related to the current situation in the region, the Prime Minister’s Office reported.

PM Pashinyan and PM Garibashvili discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh due to the illegal blocking of the Lachin Corridor, the accumulation of Azerbaijani troops around Nagorno-Karabakh, and the increase in tension on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.

“Prime Minister Pashinyan emphasized his commitment to the Prague agreements of October 6, 2022 and Brussels agreements of May 14, 2023, as well as to the approaches to solving all issues exclusively through diplomatic means and in a constructive atmosphere.

The Prime Minister of Georgia stated that he is ready to make necessary efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.

The sides emphasized the settlement of existing problems through peaceful negotiations.

PM Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed that he is ready to have urgent discussions with the President of Azerbaijan,” the Prime Minister’s Office added.

The exercises come amid mounting frustration in Armenia over what it sees as Russia’s failure to act as a security guarantor amid mounting tensions with its historic rival Azerbaijan.

Exercise Eagle Partner opened with some 85 US soldiers to train around 175 Armenian soldiers through September 20, according to the US Army Europe and Africa Command.

Armenia’s defence ministry said the exercises aimed to “increase the level of interoperability” with US forces in international peacekeeping missions.

The US military said the drills would help Armenia’s 12th Peacekeeping Brigade meet NATO standards ahead of an evaluation later this year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Armenia’s decision not to conduct drills with the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) alliance and instead work with the United States required “very deep analysis”.

“Of course, we will try to comprehend and understand all this. But in any case we will do so in close partnership dialogue with the Armenian side,” he said.

The United States brushed off the Kremlin critique and pointed to Russia’s wars with both Ukraine and Georgia.

“I think that given Russia has invaded two of its neighbours in recent years, it should refrain from lecturing countries in the region about security arrangements,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

He said that the United States has had security cooperation with Armenia since 2003 and called the latest drill “a routine exercise that is in no way tied to any other events.”

But Moscow last week summoned Armenia’s ambassador to complain about “unfriendly steps” the country was taking.

The ministry said Armenia’s envoy was given a “tough” rebuke but insisted that the countries “remain allies.”

“It sounded more like a threat to Yerevan than a description of reality,” said Gela Vasadze, an independent political analyst.

“In fact, Russian-Armenian relations have reached a strategic impasse,” he told AFP.

‘Weakened Russia’

In Yerevan, residents expressed frustration over Russia’s lack of military and political support as tensions with Azerbaijan flared again.

Mariam Anahamyan, 27, told AFP that Armenia had made a mistake by “pinning its hopes on the Russians”.

“So now let’s try with the Americans. The consequences may be bad but not trying would be even worse,” she said.

For Arthur Khachaduryan, a 51-year-old security guard, “Russia failed to keep its commitments during the war and has even made our situation worse.”

He was referring to a brief but bloody conflict in 2020 for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist region in Azerbaijan.

Russia brokered a ceasefire and deployed 2,000 peacekeepers to the Lachin corridor, which connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently said Moscow was either “unable or unwilling” to control the passage.

His government has accused Azerbaijan of closing the road and blockaded the mountainous region, spurring a humanitarian crisis in Armenian-populated towns.

Pashinyan also recently claimed that Armenia’s historic security reliance on Russia was a “strategic mistake”.

Bogged down in its invasion and isolated on the world stage, “weakened Russia is rapidly losing influence in its Soviet-era backyard”, said independent analyst Arkady Dubnov.

“Armenians are frustrated with Russia, which failed to help them during the Karabakh war and its aftermath,” he said, adding that Moscow “also seems to be lacking a clear plan, strategy in the Caucasus”.

‘New allies’

Nagorno-Karabakh was at the centre of two wars between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In the 1990s, Armenia defeated Azerbaijan and took control of the region, along with seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan.

Thirty years later, energy-rich Azerbaijan, which built a strong military and secured the backing from Turkey, took revenge.

After the 2020 war, Yerevan was forced to cede several territories it had controlled for decades.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains volatile and Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of moving troops near the region recently, raising the spectre of a fresh large-scale conflict.

The European Union and United States have taken a lead role in mediating peace talks but have so far failed to bring about a breakthrough.

“The Kremlin has no resources — neither the will — to help Armenia and is letting Azerbaijan and Turkey to pursue their objectives,” Dubnov said.

“In that situation, Armenia is trying to forge strong new alliances.”

© 2023 AFP

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday spoke by phone with President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister’s Office reported. 

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout that Pashinyan and Erdogan discussed “Armenian-Turkish relations and regional issues.”

“During the conversation Armenian-Turkish relations and regional issues were discussed. Both leaders underlined that achieving a lasting peace and stability in the region will contribute to the development and prosperity of all countries of the region, and stated that they shall continue diplomatic efforts to this end,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.