Four Armenian soldiers were killed today in Artsakh by Azerbaijani forces, according to Artsakh authorities.
In the early morning hours of June 28, Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Artsakh Defense Army positions in Martuni and Martakert, deploying artillery systems and combat drones. Artsakh Defense Army soldiers Armo Abgaryan, Samvel Torosyan, Yervand Tadevosyan and Gagik Balayan were killed, according to the Artsakh Defense Ministry.
The Artsakh Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan spread “false reports” about a ceasefire violation by Artsakh in order to create an “informational basis for another provocation.” On June 27, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that its armed forces took “retaliatory measures” after an Azerbaijani soldier was injured in a ceasefire violation.
This is the largest death toll amid frequent reports of ceasefire violations in Artsakh and along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating the ceasefire nearly every day for months. Today’s attacks follow a week of ceasefire violations by Azerbaijani forces against Artsakh soldiers, as well as civilians.
On June 27, Azerbaijani armed forces launched a mortar in the direction of the Martakert region. Azerbaijani forces previously deployed small arms toward the Martakert, Martuni, Askeran and Shushi regions on June 25, and Martakert, Martuni and Askeran on June 22. Artsakh Defense Army soldier Mher Hakobyan received a gunshot wound in the June 22 attack.
Azerbaijani forces have also fired on civilians and civilian objects in Artsakh several times in the past week.
On June 25, 22-year-old Mikayel Mezhlumyan was fired on while working with a tractor near Myurishen village in Martuni. That same day, Azerbaijani forces fired on a tractor in the Avdur village of Martuni.
On June 22, the roof of a house belonging to Zori Arakelyan, a resident of Chankatagh village in Martakert, was damaged by Azerbaijani fire. Azerbaijani forces also fired on a tractor in the Chartar village in Martuni that day.
A coalition of all of the parties in the Artsakh parliament released a joint statement on June 28 urging the Armenian delegation conducting negotiations on an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty in Washington to immediately halt talks. It said the negotiations should not continue “until the establishment of a full ceasefire on the line of contact with Artsakh and the borders of Armenia.”
“Otherwise, the continuation of negotiations will mean encouraging the aggressive behavior of the Azerbaijani side and privilege at the international level,” the statement reads.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are in Washington this week for three days of talks mediated by the U.S. scheduled to end on June 29. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov held separate meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the first day of negotiations on June 27.
“We support Armenia and Azerbaijan working together toward a durable and dignified agreement. Dialogue is key to lasting peace,” Blinken tweeted on June 27.
Hosting peace talks this week with Foreign Ministers @AraratMirzoyan and @Bayramov_Jeyhun at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. We support Armenia and Azerbaijan working together toward a durable and dignified agreement. Dialogue is key to lasting peace. pic.twitter.com/zkOvYbRXK2
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) June 27, 2023
Mirzoyan and Bayramov previously met in Washington for marathon talks from May 1-4 to negotiate a peace deal titled “Agreement on normalization of relations.” American and Azerbaijani leaders struck an optimistic tone after the talks, stating that significant progress was made on a peace deal. Armenian authorities, however, said that disagreements remained on fundamental issues. Namely, Azerbaijan has not agreed to the creation of an international mechanism to oversee talks between Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Armenia is ready to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, which would include Azerbaijani control over Artsakh. He has also called for direct talks between Baku and Stepanakert, overseen by an international mechanism, and special guarantees for the rights and security of the Armenian population of Artsakh. Azerbaijan has so far rejected these measures, insisting that talks between Azerbaijan and Artsakh are a domestic matter.
During an interview with Reuters published on June 23, Bayramov said that special guarantees for the rights and security of Artsakh Armenians are unnecessary. He said that the Armenians of Artsakh would be subject to the same constitutional principles and international conventions as ethnic and religious minorities in Azerbaijan.
Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus at the International Crisis Group Olesya Vartanyan said that the outcome of the talks largely depends on Azerbaijan’s position moving forward. “Azerbaijan is undoubtedly aware that a mass exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh driven by fear and uncertainty would result in substantial global repercussions, potentially impeding the country in various ways,” Vartanyan said in an analysis for openDemocracy. “By heeding international appeals and entering the talks with Stepanakert, Baku can reassure Armenians that they would have a chance to continue living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In response to the June 28 escalation, Pashinyan warned of a “high risk of destabilization” in the region. “Urging international community to take practical steps to ensure rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh people. Meanwhile Lachin Corridor remains illegally blocked, tonight as result of Azerbaijani attack with use of UAVs there are four casualties,” Pashinayn tweeted.
Azerbaijan has blockaded the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, the sole route connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the outside world, since December 2022, leading to critical shortages of food and medical supplies. Since June 15, Azerbaijan has tightened the blockade by prohibiting humanitarian shipments, which had been delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Russian peacekeepers.
The ICRC had also been prevented from transporting medical patients awaiting treatment from Artsakh to Armenia. On June 24, Russian peacekeepers transported a one-year-old child diagnosed with acute hemorrhagic encephalitis by helicopter to a medical center in Armenia. The ICRC resumed the transfer of medical patients to Armenia by ambulance on June 28.
Government-backed Azerbaijani protesters posing as eco-activists had closed the Berdzor Corridor from December 12, 2022 to April 23, 2023. They ended their protest after Azerbaijan set up a military checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor from Armenia, placing movement along the corridor completely under the control of Azerbaijani border guards. On June 23, Artsakh authorities published a video reportedly showing Azerbaijani guards installing concrete barricades along the corridor.
Lillian Avedian
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Azerbaijan shells and kills Armenian soldiers and civilians on the Armenian border, shells and kills Armenian soldiers and civilians in Artsakh, blockades and starves Armenians in Artsakh, occupies territory of Armenia and encroaches further, with total impunity, and no one from the “international community” protests and threatens Azerbaijan with sanctions.
What on earth are these Russian “peacekeepers” for, when Azerbaijan murders, blockades and starves Armenians under their noses? When this is happening under their five-year mandate, imagine what Azerbaijan will do, when this mandate ends in two years time. I am not pro-Russia/anti-Russia nor pro-West/anti-West, but no one can justify and defend Russia’s action, or more accurately, Russia’s inaction.
Putler thinks he is punishing us because we have a democratically elected government. Nothing scares Putler more than democracy. We should tell the evil Russians to leave Artsakh and Armenia ASAP. We are Armenians. We are strong. We will unite and no one will stop us.
I am not pro or anti any side either. I trust them as far as I can throw them. But it is quite clear to me that the Russian occupying forces disguised as “peacekeepers” are there to facilitate the Azerbaijani advances. The Russians do not want peace and harmony in this region and are there as agitators because if the two sides could live side-by-side in peace, an absolute impossibility in my opinion, then the Russians will have no business staying there and occupying that region once their “peacekeeping” mission is over in a few years’ time. They were kicked out of there when that criminal Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and now that they are back after thirty years of absence, this also of their own doing for collaborating with their terrorist Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani brothers-in-crime against the Armenian interests, they are not going anywhere! A few self-loathing pro-Russian individuals regurgitating the same repetitive stale nonsense, practically saying that Armenia must act not as an independent state but as a Russian satellite state and as a slave to save itself, will try to convince you that it is because of the Russian forces there that there have not been bloodshed in massive scales if not worse. But if you look into events taking place there and scrutinize the reaction and the behavior of the Russian “peacekeepers” towards the Azerbaijani criminal provocateurs you can clearly see they are not there to perform their duties as stipulated. They have wedged themselves in-between the Armenians and the enemy so that the Armenians will have no chance of neutralizing and eliminating the enemy criminal provocations by armed response while remaining indifferent, in the least, to enemy terrorist acts thus facilitating the enemy advance into Armenian territories. After all, they were the ones (Soviet Russians) who invented this artificial Azerbaijani terrorist cesspool, in collaboration with their terrorist Turkish brothers-in-crime of course, and handed over Armenian territories to them as if they were their own personal properties, and they are never going to act against their own creation on Armenia’s behalf.
Today’s Russia run by an iron-fisted dictator and an ex-KGB agent could care less about what happens to Armenia because Russia acts for Russia only and their interests today overlap with those of their terrorist Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani criminal collaborators. From EU-sanctioned Russian oil & gas deliveries through Azerbaijani pipelines to having Turkish terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an as their secret NATO double agent working more for the Russian interests than the interests of the alliance to which his terrorist state belongs. All these acts are done at Armenia’s expense. What makes these acts even more disgusting than they already are is the fact that while the two other South Caucasus states humiliated the Russians by closing their military bases some thirty years ago and by kicking them out of their lands, their loyal Armenian ally not only kept their bases on Armenian soil open but is also paying for their operational expenses!
P.S. Ask yourselves, why would Russia exact vengeance on its ‘brotherly” Ukraine razing it to the ground and turning its towns and villages into dust killing thousands of innocent civilians and creating millions of refugees and all that merely under the suspicion of Ukraine wanting to join the NATO alliance while the same vengeful Russia had no problem allowing genocidal terrorist NATO member Turkey to show its ugly fascist face in the South Caucasus and conduct military actions against Armenia on behalf of artificial criminal Azerbaijan right under the noses of the Russians? Pro-Russian people will tell you because Armenians elected western puppet Pashinyan, an incompetent and unpatriotic loser at that in my opinion, as their leader which is in effect saying a free and independent Armenia can only elect a leader that is approved by Russia! Otherwise the majority pro-Russian Armenian population in Armenia will receive collective punishment from their own military ally Russia! How many countries can anyone name whose military allies with military bases operating on their soil collaborate with their enemies against them instead of acting on their behalf and defending them? Pathetic!
Armenians forgot Khrimian hayrigs’ famouse phrase of the payper laddle, it is time that we depend on ourselves.
I’m not sure if my post will be published. I don’t know what the moderators may have against my harmless posts, but if it is published, here’s what I’d like to say.
@ Ararat. I’d like to point out to several blunders in your emotional post.
1. “Russians were kicked out of the South Caucasus when that criminal Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and now they are back after thirty years of absence.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Russian presence was in Armenia throughout thirty years. Russian presence was in Azerbaijan until 2012 when Gabala Radar Station, operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces, was closed at the end of the year. And why do you think the Soviet Union was “criminal”? From a historical perspective, it can already be said that Armenians experienced their third golden age during the Soviet era. Whether you like it or not.
2. “Armenia must act as an independent state …” Do you seriously believe that a landlocked impoverished country like Armenia, situated in a most volatile geopolitical neighborhood and in an area where almost no communications exist, can act as an “independent state”? If you do, you must be smoking something really strong.
3. “Soviet Russians were the ones who invented this artificial Azerbaijani terrorist cesspool”. You exhibit limited knowledge of the period related to the so-called “Russian Revolution” and its immediate aftermaths. There was no such thing as “Soviet Russians”. Major political actors during that period were the Bolsheviks, the prevailing majority of whom were ethnically NON-Russians. Several amongst them, by the way, were ethnic Armenians (Stepan Shaumian, etc.). Besides, Azerbaijan is an artificial creation whose authors were not only the Bolsheviks but, most importantly, the British.
4. “Today’s Russia is run by an ex-KGB agent”. George H.W. Bush was not just an agent, but the Director of the CIA. But somehow we don’t often see that he’s labelled as an “ex-CIA agent” on these pages.
5. “Pro-Russian people will tell you because Armenians elected western puppet Pashinyan”. The fact remains that the majority of Armenia’s eligible voters did elect and re-elect (!) Pashinyan, a defeatist, anational, incompetent, and unpatriotic loser, who succumbs to pressure from whoever it originates from, attending Erdogan’s inauguration, mending fences with genocidal Turkey, preparing the Armenian public for changes in the national emblem (Mount Ararat) and hymn, etc. So, one might ask, where are the Russians in this equation?
Arabo
You are now nitpicking and playing with semantics to prove a point or disprove what I said. I don’t believe I said anything that was untrue.
1. The fact that artificial Azerbaijan’s closest allies today are Turkey and hypocritical Israel which has recently replaced Russia in most weapons delivers to the enemy and the fact that the Russians and the Georgians fought a war in 2008 is a proof of what I claimed. It does not matter when and how long it took for the Russians to be kicked out of those two, unlike Armenia, is a proof that Russians are not wanted there!
2. The republic of Armenia, like other former Soviet republics, declared its independence from the now-defunct Soviet Union and is now a UN member state representing Armenia with an Armenian flag and not the Russian or Soviet hammer & sickle flag, unlike the past, and therefore it is an independent state. Where Armenia is located, surrounded with which neighborly or enemy states, and who is running Armenia and how competent he is, becomes irrelevant and secondary. If the leaders of Armenia don’t know how to run an independent state that is our problem and no one else’s unless you believe the world is still run according to the jungle laws in which case no country can claim independence. The rest is politics of interests. Our leaders should be smart enough to make use of our geographical and political importance in the region and make use of the superpowers in our favor instead of being political pawns in their hands. Don’t confuse the lack of competence displayed by some of our leaders to run an independent state with whether or not we can run an independent state regardless of how volatile our neighborhood may be.
3. I use Soviet Russia to distinguish it from Tsarist Russia. Those who created it were Russian citizens and therefore they were Russians regardless of their ethnicity. In fact, the majority (85%) of the early Soviet leadership was Russian-speaking ethnically non-Russian Jews and not Armenians. The Soviets in collaboration with the remnants of genocidal Ottoman empire, i.e. the brother of Enver the war minister of the Ottoman empire and one of the masterminds of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, invented this artificial Azerbaijani state as a Turkish outpost in the South Caucasus and as a Soviet base of expansion into Persia and the Middle East and later financed and armed the defeated Turks in return for kicking their Rival, WWI ally, British out of the region. Needless to say, this Soviet-assisted Turkish military mobilization led to the loss of Armenian territories in Western Armenia. The Soviet Red Army then moved in the last minute, acting as Armenian “saviors”, and took over what was left of Armenia!
4. It is TRUE that today’s Russia is run by an ex-KGB agent just like US president George Bush senior was an ex-CIA director. I don’t get your point on this. Facts are facts regardless.
5. You did not say anything different about Pashniyan from what I said and I always believed he was not fit to run a country let alone one in a state of war for the last thirty years. And I do believe he is all that you mentioned and I knew about the points you made and I just did not list all his failures as I had already mentioned them in my other posts. However, what I disagree with you on is if Russian leadership can treat an overwhelmingly pro-Russian loyal Armenian population in such manner, i.e. collective punishment, because of an incompetent leader who may very well be a western tool and a puppet then the Russian leadership itself is responsible for anti-Russian sentiments in the country. Their traitorous actions showed they can not be trusted and that they only care about what is good for Russia and what serves the interests of Russia and no one else’s and that they can lift us up or sink us anytime depending on which way the wind blows so to speak. That is what happens when you put all your proverbial eggs in one basket. That’s when they own you!
@Greg
“we have a democratically elected government”
But we don’t. Armenia has a government of street thugs that was installed by the CIA (“color revolution”).
Stand firm & believe in Mr. Ara Papian’s proposal about our ‘de jure’ rights & borders, regarding the decision of the League of Nations & Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award to Armenia regarding our borders. Reject the illegal decisions of Stalin & the Bolsheviks about the forced administrative changes to 🇦🇲 Armenia’s borders. Reject the 1975 Soviet borders, these are all illegal according to International Law. If we don’t claim our rights now, we may lose them forever. We will lose our Hay Tad, our past as well as future. Who’s to say that if Turkey is broken up one day – the sooner the better – Western Armenia won’t end up as Kurdistan? Armenia must strike while the iron is hot!! Have the courage to claim our true borders. Send Putler & the rest to the devil where they belong.
I bleieve you have a point there, Armenia must strike while the iron is hot!! Have the courage to claim our true borders. Send Putler & the rest to the devil where they belong.
The trend will continue as long as toxic Pashinyan government rules.
Why are their no women serving in the Armenian armed forces like Israel has done? Separatists Kurdish insurgents have women in their ranks (given the total count mostly propaganda) but there is still decent amount of them actually fighting.
Pashinyan’s wife even did a photo op better then nothing.
Actually, Armenian women have already been serving in a military capacity; and, last April, new measures were taken to deeply integrate into the armed forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Anush_Apetyan
https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-women-military-service/32374803.html
The anti Pashinyan factions especially the ones also pro Russia although the two opinions aren’t necessarily in concordance with eachother, Often accuse Pashinyan of estrangement from the diaspora especially the historical one not merely recent emigres/expatriates. Yet it’s worth noting that Russia sees the diaspora as a challenge to its influence upon Armenia, how many pro Russia anti Pashinyan care to recall this? Also the anti Pashinyan and anti Russia persons should at least acknowledge that for different reasons Russia and Pashinyan wish to lessen the influence of the diaspora. Does that make him by this action a friend of Russia?
Regardless of Yerevan policies towards Moscow, since Russia has become embroiled in Ukraine, Turkey continues to allow Russian civilan flights to cross it’s territory the only NATO member to do so hence must be getting some rewards for this, if this includes actions in Turkeys and Azerbaijan favour at Armenia expense that shouldn’t surprise either.
During the Arlington meeting, I still did not hear about their recognition of Armenia’s 29.8 thousand sq km territory. You notice they have never said it. What’s going on?
Moscow the city that gets periodic drone attacks from Ukraine, and was recently threatened by a mutiny/coup attempt, also under massive international sanctions, currently head of a nation entangled in Ukraine. Last and not least Moscow gets on well enough with Baku and Ankara so if Pashinyan sells out to them it wouldn’t matter as an Armenia as part of Russia would automatically follow Moscow’s policy towards Baku and Ankara. Check Kremlin shill Andrew Korybko for a sense of their view of Armenia. The defunct Saker blogger was very much of the Armenia lost in 2020 because of Pashinyan and distance from Russia but was unable to explain away without admitting failure about Russian setbacks in Ukraine he would also chide the often anti Pashinyan California community whilst living in Florida. Armenia took Russian strength and support for granted and found out the hard way in 2020. Russia has taken Armenian loyalty for granted and wonders why it’s not so much the case anymore, after the lack of protection in 2020 and it’s ongoing loss of reputation since 2022. In short unless Armenia is going to be protected by a powerful ally which has sustainability issues one’s fate is tied to theirs or somehow become a major regional power it’s not viable to have an acrimonious confrontational relationship with Turkey and Azerbaijan without the means to support such a position. Georgia also Christian and non Turkic manages a comfortable relationship with both. Whilst the California community had been supportive it had far from the homelands been rather outdated and out of touch in its sentiments, however had been resented by Russia as a USA aligned rival influence and support.
The turkification of Armenia has begun. Armenians chose turkish degeneracy over Russian security.
Most of the idiots that will bash Russia are disgusting, mentally challenged individuals, who are highly materialistic, and have been given over to a reprobate mind
Reading some of the comments here remind me that we Armenians as a whole are incapable of understanding geopolitics. It may be genetic. Simple mindedness (seeing the world in black and white terms), cognitive dissonance (being out of touch with reality), arrogance (thinking you know better) is a receipe for failure. Couple all this with an army of Western and Turkish agents who are embedded throughout Armenian society and who’s main task is to spread disinformation and tug on people’s emotions, and what you get is a disaster. This is how we Armenians have been perennial losers. The last 30 years is proof. The quicker we move back under Moscow’s umbrella, the sooner will this nightmare end.
At Concerned,
….and reading your comments reminds me of, taxi cab drivers, who ramble on and on, about how they would fix the world problems but unfortunately they’re too darn busy….TAXI 🖐✋️
At reader,
They’re recognition of 29.8 means nothing, zilch. The Sevres Treaty which calls for, return of 77,000 square km of Western Armenian territory by today’s Turkey, is not dead, still in force. The return of these territories will stretch Armenia’s borders clear to the Black Sea, absorbing Trabizond, Van,and Batum, including Javakh, Nakicevan, and Artsakh plus some.
Also todays so called fake states lraq and syria is belongs to Assyrian state not arab invaders nor kurds Armenians and Assyrians ancient neighbours and owners of those lands just like copts in egypt we must force western states unrecognize these countries
More reason to recognize the 29.8K. Yet they have not. Generally try to stay focused.
Jay,
The more you guys talk, the funnier you sound. It’s funny how little you know about Armenian society. Something like 90% of taxi drivers in Armenia listen to the CIA financed “radio liberty”. They therefore sound a lot like some of you people here. Believing that the defunct treaty of sevres is “still in force” is like beliving in Santa Claus. In other words, fluff designed to tug on people’s emotions and mislead them. Like concerned said, political illiteracy, cognitive dissonance and blinding arrogance is a serious problem in Armenian society. Sad…
…Their…
Thw best thing for the Armenians to leave there ,in this way they will take over thw whole planet and the graet powers that have mocking them for years now,just with declarations of friendship
Gurgen,
FYI, on June, 07 1945 , then Soviet Minister. Vyacheslav Molotov, informed the Turkish ambassador in Moscow that the Armenian provinces of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin should be returned to Soviet Union in the name of Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic. As always in the past, such as the Crimean War in 1855, the British government came to the rescue of the Turks. The British government opposed the Soviet territorial claims against Turkey, for a practical reason; it would’ve given the Soviets the upper hand in controlling the Black Sea and weakening British influence in the Mediterranean, and the Cold War began. As far as the Treaty of Sevres, it is still in force. Hint, Can you say, Partitioning of Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of Sevres (1920) OUT LOUD?
@ ‘Arabo’: in number 3 did you write “(Stepan Shaumian, etc.)”? Here is the thing… his name in Armenian spelling has an extra letter which is absent in Russian language and the way you spelled it. But you wouldn’t know that, would you:)
@ “reader”. I intentionally wrote “Shaumian” as it appears in Wikipedia, and not Shahumian (Շահումյան), so that uninformed readers could find information by typing his surname the way it appears in this online encyclopedia. What is your point? Are you trying to say that I’m not an Armenian? Pitiful. And remember that it was the British who killed the 26 Baku Commissars, the majority of whom were ethnic Armenians.