Fighting continues in Nagorno-Karabakh, as both sides publish numerous videos of enemy aircraft and miltary vehicles, destroyed during the clashes. Russia, France, and many other countries have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to cease the hostilities and return to negotiations, while Turkey has supported Baku, promising aid "in talks and in combat", and warning that any aggression against Azerbaijani territory is an attack against Ankara.
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The European Union calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities and violence in conflict-torn Nagorno-Karabakh and resumption of the political dialogue, President of the European Council Charles Michel said on Friday.
“We call for the immediate cessation of hostilities. We are taking joint efforts with other international actors to resume the political dialogue within the OSCE Minsk Group,” Michel said at a press conference following the EU summit in Brussels.
“We also call for the stop of foreign interference that is complicating the situation, instead of easing the tensions,” Michel added.
US officials have spoken to Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders and urged them to cease hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview.
"We’re urging a ceasefire. We want them both to back up. We’ve spoken to the leadership in each of the two countries, asking them to do just that," Pompeo told Fox News on Thursday.
Pompeo urged third party states to remove themselves from the conflict amid Armenia’s allegations that Turkey is involved in the hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karabakh doctors have saved the life of a French journalist from Le Monde newspaper, who has been heavily injured in an artillery barrage in the Martuni town, the Foreign Ministry of the breakaway republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, two French journalists from Le Monde were reported to have been operated on, after having been injured by artillery fire. Two of their Armenian colleagues sustained light injuries.
"Artsakh doctors have managed to save the life of a French journalist, who was heavily injured during shillings by the Azeri armed forces in the town of Martuni," the ministry posted on its Telegram channel.
The government of Nagorno-Karabakh is negotiating to transport the injured journalists from Stepanakert to Yerevan with the French Embassy.
The European Federation of Journalists EFJ called on the authorities of Azerbaijan and Armenia to ensure not only the safety of journalists working in Karabakh, but also their freedom of movement and access to reliable information.
"The EFJ calls on Azerbaijan and Armenia authorities to ensure journalists’ safety and to prevent any act of violence against members of the media. The EFJ also recalls that all Council of Europe Member states should guarantee freedom of movement and access to information to media professionals in times of crisis and conflict", the organisation said.
IFJ Secretary General Ricardo Gutierrez also said urges all media workers in Armenia and Azerbaijan against participating in the ongoing information war around the conflict.
"Journalists should avoid manipulation and official propaganda. It is important to cross-check information, even when it comes from official sources. Journalists should never become soldiers in the information war", he said.
Yerevan got acquainted with the statement of Russian, US and French presidents Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, respectively, on Karabakh and will assess it later, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We have got acquainted with the statement, the assessment will be given later and not at my level", Naghdalyan said.
At the same time, she noted that the priority of Yerevan in the settlement process is the format of the OSCE Minsk Group, and the current main task is a ceasefire.
"You said that we are on opposing sides with Turkey on Nagorno-Karabakh. Yes, Turkey is unequivocally supporting Azerbaijan, we know that, but it doesn’t mean that we are on the other side supporting Armenia vis-a-vis Azerbaijan, that’s not the case", Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said in a press briefing. "We support a just settlement, we support the ceasefire, we support the end of hostilities. We want both countries to stop this escalation".
A group of US Senate Republicans issued a statement on Thursday calling for a immediate halt to hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh and a return to peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"Both Armenia and Azerbaijan should immediately cease the violence and return to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Minsk Group to negotiate a peaceful end to this decades-long disagreement", the statement said.
Yerevan is recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations over the supply of arms by this country to Azerbaijan, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said at a briefing on Thursday.
"Israel's supply of ultra-modern weapons to Azerbaijan is unacceptable for us, especially now, in the conditions of Azerbaijan's aggression with the support of Turkey [against Karabakh] ... Taking this into account, the foreign ministry decided to recall the ambassador in Israel for consultations", Naghdalyan said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday and stressed that foreign militants should not be involved in this conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"The ministers expressed serious concern over the continuing armed confrontation and spoke in favour of immediate ceasefire. It was stressed that militants from illegal armed groups in other regions must not be involved in this conflict", the ministry said in a press release.
Lavrov and Cavusoglu reiterated the readiness of both Russia and Turkey to work together to ensure the stabilisation of the situation in the Karabakh region.
"This is the information that we have. Therefore, in this case, you are right, it is and was presented in the media in the form of materials from social networks and relevant publications, but making a similar comment, which was published yesterday on the foreign ministry website, we certainly had our own developments, facts and information", Zakharova said at a briefing, answering a question about sources of information for the commentary.
"In line with the Council of Europe Guidelines on protecting freedom of expression and information in times of crisis, the authorities in both countries should allow accredited media professionals access to crisis areas and see to it that journalists covering the conflict are safe", the commissioner said in a statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The International and European Federation of Journalists on Thursday called on Baku and Yerevan to ensure safety of reporters in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where the reporters are covering the ongoing conflict.
"Three journalists from the Azerbaijan Public Television ITV who were reporting from the Azerbaijani-Armenian frontline have been fired upon by Armenian armed forces on 29 September. The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ) call on Armenian and Azeri authorities to secure journalists' safety", the IFJ said in a statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The vice president of the security and intelligence committee in the Turkish parliament, Mehmet Altay, on Thursday rejected in a comment to Sputnik allegations that Turkey sent mercenaries from Syria to fight against Nagorno-Karabakh republic forces alongside Azerbaijani troops.
"The Turkish chiefs of staff and the Ministry of Defence alongside the leadership of Azerbaijan have indicated in the necessary statements regarding the allegations of Turkey sending Syrian fighters to the Nagorno-Karabakh region", Altay said, adding that "these allegations are unfounded."
Erdogan Toprak, an adviser to the head of the Turkish opposition Republican People's Party, told Sputnik he doubts that Turkey would send Syrians to fight in the breakaway region as Azerbaijan was fully capable of fighting on its own.
"I find it unlikely that Ankara would send Syrian fighters to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and believe that these allegations are unfounded and untrue, as Azerbaijan has a powerful military, unlike the Armenian army with regards to the number of personnel and structure. I therefore rule out this possibility", he said.
"In response to Afghanistan's statement about supporting the Turkish-Azeri aggression, the National Assembly of Armenia has officially asked the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation to start the procedure of stripping this country of its CSTO observer status", the Armenian parliament said in a statement.
ANKARA (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday discussed the situation in the Karabakh region, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The two ministers had had another conversation on 27 September.
"Our minister has spoken to his Russian colleagues Sergey Lavrov about Armenia's aggression", the source told reporters, adding that the two ministers discussed Libya as well.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Media reports about the mass recruitment of militants in northern Syria and their transfer to the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cause concern, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
"The circulating information about the mass recruitment of militants in northern Syria and their transfer to the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict causes concern. Relevant video and photo materials are published on social networks", Zakharova said at a briefing.
"The Minsk Group, which includes the US, Russia, and France, has been unable to solve the Karabakh issue for 30 years. And today it is trying to find a way toward a ceasefire amid the current negative events, and this is unacceptable. If you really want [to solve this], the occupiers must leave these territories, this is the only way to find a solution", Erdogan said in an address to the Turkish parliament.
Заявление президентов Америки, России и Франции. #Армения #обсе #ArtsakhStrong pic.twitter.com/B3SNX4MbPM
— TatevWeb (@TatevWeb) October 1, 2020
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – During a Thursday meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin and permanent members of the country's Security Council pointed to the extreme danger emerging in Nagorno-Karabakh due to the deployment of militants from Syria and Libya there, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Putin and the Russian Security Council also discussed cooperation with neighbouring countries, "which, according to the president, is a priority of Russia’s foreign policy", the Kremlin spokesman added.
Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence has published footage of night artillery strikes inflicted on the positions of the Armenian Armed Forces in Karabakh #SputnikUpdates https://t.co/J1yOz4fmfC pic.twitter.com/IBtQdt4eA7
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 1, 2020
Live: Absolutely massive protest taking place in Los Angeles right now in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate. The diaspora unequivocally stands with the homeland. #ArtsakhStrong #StopAliyev pic.twitter.com/MPivhScnVB
— Gev Iskajyan (@geviskajyan) October 1, 2020
Protest outside the Azerbaijani Consulate General against Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenia and Artsakh. #protest #Armenia #Artsakh #Azerbaijani #losangeles #california #protest @NikonUSA #photography pic.twitter.com/dYVsDgXWCk
— Keith Birmingham (@photowkb) October 1, 2020
The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry claimed on Thursday that Armenia's armed forces lost up to 200 tanks and other armoured vehicles, 228 artillery installations, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, 30 air defence systems, six command control centres and command and observation posts, ammunition depots, more than 110 automotive equipment items, and one S-300 air defense missile system.
The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said on Thursday that the country’s Armed Forces had destroyed Armenian military convoys in conflict-torn Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The enemy military convoys moving in different directions were destroyed by our military units,” the ministry said.
The Defence Ministry also published a video showing the alleged strikes on the Armenian positions.
Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence reports destroying military columns of the Armenian Armed Forces#SputnikUpdates https://t.co/7oEzm52zrj pic.twitter.com/WbCYTRhSiz
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 1, 2020
