Category: Selected Articles

19 сентября Министерством обороны был представлен брифинг для представителей СМИ. Выступивший на брифинге начальник пресс-службы полковник Анар Эйвазов, заявил: «Антитеррористические мероприятия локального характера, проводимые Вооруженными Силами Азербайджанской Республики в Карабахском регионе Азербайджана, успешно продолжаются.В ходе проведенных мероприятий Вооруженными Силами Азербайджана были взяты под контроль более 60 боевых позиций формирований вооруженных сил Армении. В то же время были нейтрализованы более 20 автомобилей военного назначения, более 40 артиллерийских установок, более 30 минометов, 2 зенитно-ракетные установки, более 6 станций радиоэлектронной борьбы Мартира и другие средства военного назначения, принадлежащие формированиям вооруженных сил Армении.Опубликованная на некоторых армянских ресурсах в социальных медиа информация о том, что наши подразделения якобы подвергают обстрелу гражданские объекты, носит провокационный и дезинформационный характер. Цель – подорвать имидж нашей Армии и сформировать у международной общественности неправильное представление о локальных антитеррористических мерах. Из видеороликов, размещенных на официальном сайте Министерства обороны и в аккаунтах ведомства в социальных медиа, совершенно очевидно, что наши подразделения наносят удары только по законным военным целям.В ходе антитеррористических мер локального характера в Карабахском регионе Азербайджана неоднократно наблюдалось, что формирования вооруженных сил Армении размещают в населенных пунктах бронетанковую боевую технику и огневые средства различного назначения, а также привлекают гражданских лиц на объекты военного назначения для того, чтобы не попасть под прицел подразделений Вооруженных Сил Азербайджанской Республики.Как известно, в арсенале Азербайджанской Армии имеется высокоточное оружие и боевая техника, отвечающая самым современным требованиям. Во многих случаях задачи по уничтожению военных объектов, взятых под прицел нашими профессиональными военнослужащими, с применением этих оружий, были приостановлены после обнаружения гражданских лиц на военном объекте.Еще раз заявляем, что в результате высокоточного огня выводятся из строя и обезвреживаются только долговременные огневые точки, боевая техника и военная инфраструктура, используемая в военных целях, несмотря на то, что формирования вооруженных сил Армении размещают боевую технику в населенных пунктах или в их окрестностях. Общественности регулярно представлялись видеоматериалы, связанные с упомянутыми мною фактами, подобные материалы будут представляться и впредь. Призываем членов формирований вооруженных сил Армении, находящихся в Карабахском экономическом районе Азербайджана, сложить оружие и сдаться. Рекомендуем гражданским лицам, находящимся в этом районе, ни в коем случае не приближаться к ним и не оказывать им никакой помощи. Уведомления рекомендательного характера доносятся с помощью громкоговорителя и других технических средств».

В ходе брифинга представителям СМИ были представлены видеоматериалы.

The National Bank of Georgia issued a statement alerting the public to the amendment to its regulation that the Bank’s president promulgated and published in the official gazette today, and that would shield Otar Partskhaladze, sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, from his assets and transactions being targeted in Georgia. This represents the reversal of the decision published yesterday by the National Bank and follows the subsequent criticism of that decision by the ruling party chairman, Irakli Kobakhidze.

The new statement by the National Bank says while the Bank faithfully implements the international sanctions regime, sanctioning of Partskhaladze “sets a precedent when sanctions are applied to the Georgian citizen.”

Taking the line voiced by Kobakhidze yesterday, the statement reads, “The Georgian citizens are protected by the Constitution” the Bank, “being guided by the Constitution of Georgia and the presumption of innocence, considers that the Georgian citizen can not be subjected to international sanctions, in the absence of the conviction by the Georgian court.”

It continues to state that according to the amendment promulgated today, neither Georgian citizens nor the companies owned or co-owned by them can be sanctioned in the absence of a conviction by the Georgian court.

In June 2023, the ruling Georgian Dream voted to override the Presidential veto on the amendments to the Law on the National Bank. The President agreed with the National Bank’s view that the amendments would have risked its independence. According to the amendments that entered into force, Natia Turnava, former Minister of Economy, was appointed the First Vice-President of NBG.

In April 2023, the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on four top Georgian judges, saying “these individuals abused their positions as court Chairmen and Members of High Council of Justice, undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in Georgia’s judicial system” 

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan sent troops backed by artillery strikes into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday in an attempt to bring the breakaway region to heel by force, raising the threat of a new war with its neighbour Armenia.

Karabakh, a mountainous area in the volatile wider South Caucasus region, is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory. But part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who say the area is their ancestral homeland.

Karabakh has been at the centre of two wars – the latest in 2020 – since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Azerbaijan to halt its operation immediately, saying it was worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in Karabakh – a reference to a lengthy de facto blockade of the region by Baku.

The European Union, France and Germany also condemned Azerbaijan’s military action, calling on it to return to talks on the future of Karabakh with Armenia.

Loud and repeated shelling was audible from social media footage filmed on Tuesday in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, called Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said Baku had deployed ground forces which he said had broken through Armenian lines in several places and achieved some of their main goals, something Armenian separatist forces denied.

A Baku defence ministry statement said Azerbaijani forces had so far seized more than 60 military posts and destroyed up to 20 military vehicles with other hardware.

Karabakh separatist authorities said 25 people had been killed, including two civilians, and 138 injured due to Baku’s military action. Inhabitants of some villages had been evacuated, they said.

Reuters could not verify either side’s assertions.

It was not clear whether Baku’s actions would trigger a full-scale conflict dragging in Armenia. But there were signs of political fallout in Yerevan where Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan – viewed as too pro-Western by Russia, Armenia’s traditional supporter – spoke of calls for a coup against him.

Some Armenians gathered in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to demand action from the government amid reports of violent clashes between police and crowds which resulted in injuries on both sides.

The fighting in Karabakh could alter the geopolitical balance in the South Caucasus, which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, and where Russia – distracted by its own war in Ukraine – is seeking to preserve its influence in the face of greater activity from Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan.

‘CLOSE A CHAPTER’

Azerbaijan’s Hajiyev said the army was using guided munitions against military targets to try to avoid collateral damage to civilians.

“The intention of Azerbaijan is to close a chapter of animosity and confrontation,” said Hajiyev.

“Enough is enough. We cannot tolerate any longer having such armed forces on our territory and also a structure which, on a daily basis, challenges the security and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry spoke in a statement of its intention to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories, (and) neutralise their military infrastructure”.

It said it was acting to “restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan” and that civilians were free to leave by humanitarian corridors, including one to Armenia.

Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s prime minister, said the offer looked like another attempt by Baku to get Armenians to clear out of Karabakh as part of a campaign of “ethnic cleansing”, an accusation Baku denies.

Armenia, which had been holding peace talks with Azerbaijan, including on questions about Karabakh’s future, condemned Baku’s “full-scale aggression” against the people of Karabakh and accused Azerbaijan of shelling towns and villages.

APPEAL FOR HELP

Armenia, which says its armed forces are not in Karabakh and that the situation on its own border with Azerbaijan is stable, called on members of the U.N. Security Council to help and for Russian peacekeepers on the ground to intervene.

Russia, which brokered a fragile ceasefire after a war in 2020 which saw Azerbaijan recapture swathes of land in and around Karabakh that it had lost in an earlier conflict in the 1990s, called for all sides to stop fighting.

Russia is in touch with both Azerbaijan and Armenia and has urged negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding that Moscow considered ensuring civilian safety the most important issue.

Armenia has accused Moscow of being too distracted by its own war in Ukraine to protect it and said Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh were failing to do their job. Protesters unhappy about what they saw as Moscow’s failure to stop Azerbaijan chanted anti-Russian slogans outside Russia’s embassy in Armenia on Tuesday evening, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported.

The United States was pursuing crisis diplomacy over what it believed was a particularly dangerous flare-up, U.S. officials said, saying Blinken was likely to get involved in the next 24 hours in trying to defuse the crisis.

France, which said it wanted a U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday, said it was working with its partners to respond strongly and Germany said Azerbaijan had broken a promise not to resort to military action. Turkey said it supported Baku’s drive to preserve its territorial integrity.

Speaking inside Karabakh with artillery rumbling in the background, Ruben Vardanyan, a top official in Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian administration until February, appealed for Armenia to recognise Karabakh’s self-declared independence from Azerbaijan.

“A really serious situation has unfolded here,” Vardanyan said in a video clip. “Azerbaijan has started a full-scale military operation against 120,000 inhabitants, of which 30,000 are children, pregnant women and old people,” he said.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Daniel Wallis)

Azerbaijan increased its military build-up around Nagorno-Karabakh in the run-up to Tuesday’s operation

The situation in the South Caucasus, mainly in the Garabagh
region, is becoming more tense lately. This tension is felt not
only in the region, but also in the brotherly country Turkiye.
Thus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a statement on
the way to the solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani issue in
Garabagh at a press conference held in Istanbul before leaving for
the UN General Conference. President Erdogan proposed a tripartite
meeting with Azerbaijan and Armenia on the Garabagh issue. In
addition to the tripartite meeting, he also sent a proposal to
Russia for a quadrilateral meeting.

It should also be noted that before this speech, a bilateral
meeting between the President of Turkiye and the President of
Russia Vladimir Putin took place. It is no secret that the Garabagh
issue was also touched upon in that meeting.

As we know, except for Russia, the Western countries that do not
belong to the region also have a special interest in the South
Caucasus, especially in the Armenia-Azerbaijan issue. However, this
interest mostly consists of pro-Armenian and biased policy against
Azerbaijan. It is likely that Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who is aware of this, put forward a proposal to Russia,
not the West, to resolve the Garabagh issue. If this is the case,
the reaction of the West is extremely important.

Also, the European Parliament presented a report on Turkiye’s
withdrawal from the European Union. Most likely, this report is
related to Turkiye’s legitimate concern about the Garabagh issue.
However, Erdoğan, in his turn, also noted that Turkiye can part
ways with the European Union in the future if necessary.

“First of all, I would like to note that a big risk is emerging
in the region. Especially the so-called elections held by Armenia
in Garabagh, the collection of weapons and ammunition, 10,000
soldiers stationed in Garabagh, the militarization of the civilian
population into terrorists, the armed conflicts that occur day by
day, all have a meaning. President Erdogan’s speech is an effort
intended to eliminate the risk arising from all this. I hope this
threat will be averted. However, I would like to point out that the
situation is extremely delicate and critical. I think this has
already reached a very dangerous level.”

Turkish expert Abdullah Aghar mentioned these words in his
comment to AZERNEWS while clarifying the ongoing
processes.

According to him, the goal is to build peace through
negotiations. That is, it means the restoration of full sovereignty
of the territories returned by Armenia after the 44-day war.
Otherwise, the matter will be extremely sensitive. Because the
processes have become so dangerous that they hinder Azerbaijan’s
sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unitary structure. All this
should be taken into account.

As for the interest of the West in the processes in the region
and the fact that President Erdogan invited Russia, not the West,
to discuss the solution of the Garabagh issue, the expert noted
that the Western countries are keen to take the initiative in the
South Caucasus and Central Asia. However, the West should not
forget that it does not belong to this region. Therefore, this
issue should be discussed first by countries living in the same
geography.

“This approach of the West makes the problem worse. Moreover, it
leads to the emergence of greater risks. Therefore, it is extremely
important to try to resolve this process in some way through
countries that have influence, effectiveness and borders in the
region,” the expert said.

In conclusion, the Turkish expert clarified the report on
Turkiye at the EU Parliament.

“The European Parliament recently published a report. The report
stated that it is impossible for Turkiye to become a member of the
European Union under their certain required conditions. However,
they want to exclude Turkiye from normal membership and proposed to
develop real and parallel cooperation. I think this is not an
accepted membership forum. Turkiye’s declaration of will regarding
the European Union, especially at the Vilnius summit, is not
limited only to the European Union. This is an extremely important
geopolitical development that builds trust and strengthens the
geopolitical and strategic partnership with the West. But it seems
that the EU’s behavior with double standards does not meet the
requirements of this report. If the European Union continues to
behave like this, Turkiye may eventually have to approach from a
completely different paradigm,” Abdullah Aghar added.

—

Rena Murshud is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Provocations continued by Armenian separatist forces for months
have greatly aggravated the situation in the region. On the eve of
the steps taken in the process of peace negotiations, Armenia has
again ignited the threat of war. For more than a month, the
terrorist groups, which have been continuously firing at the
positions of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces from the areas where the
peacekeeping units are temporarily located in Azerbaijan’s Garabagh
territory, have more gone astray this time and tried to violate the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan by preparing a provocative
attack plan.

In addition, terrorist military units belonging to the
separatist regime in Garabagh and engaged in secret mining caused
the death of 7 Azerbaijani police officers and 2 employees of AAYDA
(an Azerbaijani agency of road construction) working in the area as
a result of a mine explosion.

It should be noted that since the signing of the capitulation
document on November 10, 2020, Armenian terrorist groups have been
engaged in aggressively mining in Garabagh. As a result of these
provocations, a total of 314 Azerbaijanis have become victims of
landmines. The unfortunate fact is that almost half of the victims
were civilians.

Another problem is that Armenian separatist groups are wreaking
havoc in the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, in front of the
peacekeepers. Armenia, trying to avoid peace talks under various
pretexts, did not hesitate to resort to all dangerous means. And
finally, at the last moment, it made Azerbaijan to start
anti-terrorist activities.

The military situation that arouse today in the morning showed
that the Armenian side is once again engaged in provocations in the
region and that despite the so-called recognition of Azerbaijani
territories, it is always prone to armed terrorism in the region.
Not content with its destructive policy, Armenia also opened fire
on civilian areas in Garabagh, and as a result, civilians lost
their lives from the mortars fired in the direction of Azerbaijan’s
Shusha.

Separatists’ dens were blown up

The tense and dangerous situation in Garabagh forced the
Azerbaijani Army to strengthen its anti-terrorist activities.
Attack attempts of the other side were successfully silented, and
as a result, a number of illegal military facilities secretly built
by Armenian terrorists were destroyed by the Azerbaijani Army. The
Azerbaijani side also warned the population living in Garabagh
during military interventions. It should be noted that during the
Armenian provocations, non-military units armed themselves and
tried to fire against the Azerbaijani army.

In general, the attacks of the separatist regime and attempts to
claim territory against Azerbaijan in the last few months, as well
as the artificial hunger games created in Garabagh constitute the
core of all this tension. This was actually a scenario created by
both Armenia and some external governing forces, which once again
was destroyed by the victorious Azerbaijani Army.

Turkiye’s objectivity and West’s ambiguity

As always, the first reaction to the processes in the region
came from brother Turkiye. President Erdoğan’s 4-way negotiation
proposal was actually aimed at ensuring peace and stability of the
interested parties in the region. However, it is a pity that the
European Union, which openly expressed its opinion in favour of the
invader Armenia, tried to use more means of pressure instead of
supporting Turkiye in this direction. However, Turkiye insists on
the security of the region and supports the coming together of the
parties regarding the peace talks.

As for the headlines in the Western media, the situation is not
as encouraging as usual. Unfortunately, Europe, which does not take
a single step back from its biased position, tries to show events
in a way that suits them, not as they are. Such an inadequate step
also shows once again that in the future, the participation of
Europe and the West in general in the processes is useless.

Thus, the events that took place today showed that Azerbaijan is
not only honest in words, but also in deeds. The retaliatory
measures of the Azerbaijani Army proved once again that terrorism
and arbitrariness are unacceptable on the territory of
Azerbaijan.

—

Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ deputy editor-in-chief, follow him
on @ElnurMammadli1

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz