Weekly update
16 October
The following was released by the Artsakh Foreign Ministry. According to hetq.am in the recent days, Azerbaijan has been trying to artificially escalate the situation in the region, and this is taking place along with high-level meetings. Azerbaijan aims to achieve the exodus of Armenians from Artsakh through aggressive actions and intimidation. This policy is also a blow to Russia and the Russian peacekeeping mission. The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh qualifies Azerbaijan's policy as terrorism and manifestation of a destructive stance. We once again reiterate that Artsakh will not be threatened by such steps. The Armenians of Artsakh are determined to live in their historical homeland and defend their sovereignty and dignity.
https://hetq.am/en/article/136722
15 October
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan again noted that Azerbaijan hasn’t yet implemented the terms of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement on returning POWs, reported armenpress.am. “This is a purely humanitarian issue and we express hope that the issue will be solved swiftly. In this context we’d like to assure that Armenia is ready to complete the process of providing the minefield maps to Azerbaijan, which are located behind Azerbaijani military lines and pose humanitarian danger,” Pashinyan said in his speech at the CIS summit. He noted that there are some other factors which negatively impact the already tense situation in the region. The Armenian PM reminded the CIS leaders about the so-called “military-trophy park” which Azerbaijan opened in Baku. “They had the practice where the visitors would ‘admire’ the mannequins depicting captured, killed Armenian soldiers. They’d organize trips for school children, who would then post their selfies with the mannequins in social media,” PM Pashinyan said.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1065677.html
14 October
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of serious human rights violations at the UN court in The Hague on October 14. In line with rferl.org, Armenian representative Yeghishe Kirakosian made the accusation as a hearing opened at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) into a request by Armenia for judges to impose urgent interim measures to prevent Azerbaijan breaching an international convention to stamp out ethnic discrimination. In September 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive that resulted in Baku regaining control of the seven surrounding districts, and a significant chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. The conflict ended when Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian signed a Russia-brokered cease-fire agreement that granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia says more than 3,700 Armenians and Nagorno-Karabakh residents died in the war. Kirakosian said Armenia wasn't asking the court to rule on the root causes of the war, but “seeks to prevent and remedy the cycle of violence and hatred perpetrated against ethnic Armenians."
https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-accuses-azerbaijan-rights-violations/31509558.html
13 October
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian described his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as` very productive” but did not divulge its details early on Wednesday. According to azatutyun.am, the meeting was very productive, “Pashinian said in an overnight Twitter post. “We discussed both the bilateral agenda and the situation in the region. We will continue our contacts to implement the agreements reached,” he wrote in Russian. It was not clear if he referred to new or earlier understandings reached with Putin. Putin and Pashinian met in Moscow on Tuesday for the fourth time this year. The talks apparently focused on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. An Armenian government statement said they discussed “ongoing developments” in and around the conflict zone, efforts to shore up stability in the region and the implementation of Russian-brokered agreements to establish transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russian-Armenian relations were also on the agenda, added the statement.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31507106.html
12 October
Azerbaijan is stepping up its rhetorical counteroffensive against Iran, airing a seemingly orchestrated series of allegations of treachery on the part of Tehran. According to eurasianet.org in recent days Azerbaijani officials and semi-official sources have accused Iran’s armed forces of briefly invading southern Azerbaijan during last year’s war with Armenia, its clerics of running a network of secret agents in Azerbaijan, and its banks of using financial institutions in Karabakh to launder billions of dollars. The campaign appears to be a shift in tactics from Azerbaijan, which had previously been more on the defensive as Iran carried out unprecedented war games on the border between the two countries. The apparently unprovoked military exercises were accompanied by a series of harsh criticisms of Azerbaijan from Iranian officials, most of all concentrated on Azerbaijan’s close relationship with Iran’s archenemy, Israel. The increasing attacks from Baku come as the anti-Azerbaijan rhetoric from Iranian officials seems to have quieted somewhat. Baku isn’t letting the spat go, however. While its initial response was to defensively bat back the Iranian allegations, more recently it has regained its footing and is not shying away from the fight.
https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-retakes-offensive-in-rhetorical-war-with-iran
11 October
For the first time since the 2000s, tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran have dramatically escalated in recent weeks, reports english.alaraby.co.uk. They began when Tehran started conducting large-scale military drills codenamed ‘Fatehan-e Khaybar’ (Conquerors of Khaybar) near the Azerbaijani districts of Fizuli, Jebrayil, and Zangilan, the latter of which was captured from Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020. This took place just weeks after Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Pakistan undertook a two-week-long trilateral military drill in Baku called ‘Three brothers - 2021’. In turn, the location of Iranian military exercises pushed Azerbaijan to launch another joint drill with Turkey in the strategically important Nakhchivan enclave, a landlocked autonomous republic of Azerbaijan, citing security concerns. "Iran's concerns are not limited to the so-called presence of Israel, but also the growing footprint of Turkey in Azerbaijan in the post-Nagorno-Karabkah war period."
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/analysis/whats-driving-tensions-between-azerbaijan-and-iran
10 October
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili visited Yerevan and met with his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinian on Saturday as part of his attempts to improve Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan. In line With azatutyun.am Gharibashvili met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku late last month three weeks after receiving Pashinian in Tbilisi. He said he discussed with Aliyev “the importance of transforming the region” but did not elaborate. Gharibashvili also divulged few details of his latest “productive” talks with Pashinian. He tweeted on Sunday that they discussed a “new peace initiative for the South Caucasus and Georgia’s readiness to pursue active mediation to create more opportunities for sustainable peace and development in the region.” “Tbilisi has taken on an active mediating role in normalizing relations between its neighbors, notably Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Georgian premier told reporters on Monday. He again did not go into details.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31503597.html
9 October
The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) opposes the sale of 40 F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, emphasizing that it was that very same aircraft used against the Armenian people during last Fall’s 44-day Artsakh War, launched by Azerbaijan with the full backing of Turkey. According to en.armradio.am satellite images confirm F-16 fighters were secretly deployed to Azerbaijan prior to the war, which also saw heavy usage of Turkish strike drones against the Armenian people in Artsakh. According to numerous media outlets, the billion-dollar deal is in the Foreign Military Sales process, and will need to be approved by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Congress, both of which have the authority to block the sale. “Congress and the American people know that the Erdogan regime in Turkey has become not only an unreliable ally, but a treacherous danger to U.S. interests and human rights in the region and globally,” said Assembly Co-Chairs Van Krikorian and Anthony Barsamian. “Using F-16s to advance genocidal attacks against Christian Armenians in partnership with the autocrat Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan is not something the U.S. should advance.”
https://en.armradio.am/2021/10/09/assembly-urges-u-s-to-reject-turkeys-request-to-purchase-f-16-fighter-jets/
Sources: hetq.am, armenpress.am, rferl.org, azatutyun.am, eurasianet.org, english.alaraby.co.uk, armradio.am