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We have the most pro-union president in modern history. That’s the slogan we have going into 2024 that we need to hit over and over again – because it’s true – and it was true even before President Biden flew to Detroit on Tuesday to stand on the picket lines side by side with auto workers of the UAW, honoring an invitation to join them, and praised the workers for saving the auto industry back in 2008. There’s a reason the UAW endorsed Joe Biden for president months ago – the earliest that they’ve ever endorsed a presidential candidate in an election – and that’s because he’s gotten results: securing the benefits of railroad workers, averting a strike with UPS and now bringing Detroit’s big three automakers to the table.
There was some noise in the media that Donald Trump was going to meet with UAW workers in Detroit while skipping out on the second presidential debate last week, and some of us fretted that the former guy would beat President Biden to the punch. Not only did President Biden appear before welcome crowds, but Trump was never formally invited, so he’ll be making an appearance in some red county nowhere near the picket lines, where he plans to speak to non-members and some former UAW members, meaning he can’t even get his grifts to land effectively nowadays.
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In a statement released by the minister’s office, the claim was that Ben-Gvir had changed his mind as a result of “an announcement by the far-left protest leaders saying they wouldn’t repeat the antisemitic activity they led on Yom Kippur.”
“I’m happy the extreme Left understood that there is no place for antisemitism against Jews in the heart of Tel Aviv,” said Ben-Gvir. “We have one Jewish nation where Jews can pray in public spaces whenever and wherever they want.”
Ben-Gvir had announced the service following the events of Yom Kippur in which protesters disrupted a Kol Nidrei prayer service in Dizengoff Square as the holiday began because the congregants set up a partition to divide men and women despite the Tel Aviv Municipality and the High Court of Justice banning it.
A counter-prayer on Thursday was announced by the Kaplan Force protest organization soon after Ben-Gvir’s invitation for people to join his. The Kaplan Force’s service was set for an hour-and-a-half after Ben-Gvir’s and was supposed to take place in Dizengoff Square as well but was moved to Habima Square instead on Wednesday.
Jews pray while activists protest against gender segregation in the public space during a public prayer on Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the holiest of Jewish holidays, September 25, 2023. (credit: ITAI RON/FLASH90)
“Ben-Gvir’s provocation is staying in Dizengoff,” the announcement said.
Protests groups celebrate the win
After Ben-Gvir announced that he was cancelling the service, protest groups took credit for the decision.
“What led the national danger minister to cancel his ‘prayer’ provocation in Dizengoff was the decision of the protest organizations to ignore it,” they said. “Let this be a lesson to anyone who gives a stage to the public relations tricks of an incapable pyromaniac who only wants to divide people and make them hate each other.”
The view that Ben-Gvir was creating a provocation by holding his prayer service was held throughout the coalition as well, with many urging Ben-Gvir to cancel his event or move the service to a synagogue in the area.
“I want it to be clear to everyone that Jews are allowed to pray anywhere in the world without disruptions,” said Economy Minister Nir Barkat on Wednesday morning. “The truth is that [the Yom Kippur incident] broke my heart. I see the extremists in the State of Israel pulling us to the edges and ripping the extremely important social fabric that connects us.
“We need to work toward unity and love and work on our common denominators while not allowing extremists to lead us to the crumbling of our social fabric. Therefore, I call on Ben-Gvir as well not to provoke and not to go to Dizengoff. I call on everyone to focus on what connects us and not on the edges.”
When asked if he would attend the prayer service, Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said that Ben-Gvir would do better to move it to a synagogue so as to avoid a provocation in a public space.
Pressure to cancel the service had also come from the Religious Zionist Party with whom Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party had run in the last elections. RZP leader Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that the event would be playing into the hands of the protest and that this wasn’t the time for “unnecessary provocation.”
Some reports indicated that Ben-Gvir had been met with pushback even within his own party.
The cancellation of the event, however, was praised by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
“I’m happy that sanity won out,” he said. “In these days, there is no place for stoking the flames and hate among brothers. Tel Aviv will continue to respect the traditions and the religion alongside democratic values. The two together are an important basis for the State of Israel.”
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, U.S., September 23, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that a government shutdown is not evitable, but that if there is one, a lot of vital work could be impacted in science and health.
Speaking to reporters after remarks to a group of science and technology advisers in San Francisco, Biden said he did not think anything was inevitable in politics.
A government shutdown is looming as a possibility this weekend unless lawmakers can reach a budget deal.
“If we have a government shutdown, a lot of vital work and science and health could be impacted, from cancer research, to food safety. So the American people need our Republican friends in the House of Representatives to do their jobs: Fund the government,” Biden said.
Abortion rights protesters gather for a rally in Columbus, Ohio, after the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs v Women’s Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision, June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Megan Jelinger/File Photo
Ohio on Wednesday urged the state’s highest court to let a ban on abortion at about six weeks of pregnancy take effect, just weeks before voters in the state will decide whether to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution.
While the arguments before the Ohio Supreme Court focused on procedural questions and will not lead to a final ruling in the case, a decision reviving the ban even temporarily could draw attention to abortion rights in the weeks before the November referendum.
Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, in 2019 signed a law banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. The law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.
Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers at arguments on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court of Ohio to reverse a preliminary order blocking the law.
“The state sustains irreparable harm, no way to remedy it later, every day its law is enjoined,” Flowers said.
Jessie Hill, a lawyer for abortion providers challenging the law, said that “longstanding, well-established rules” in Ohio bar the state from appealing preliminary orders before final judgment.
A state court judge in Cincinnati last year blocked the law from taking effect while he considered a lawsuit by providers, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, finding that the ban likely violated the existing constitution by restricting the freedom to make healthcare decisions.
A mid-level appeals court refused to hear the state’s appeal of that decision, finding that only final judgments, not preliminary orders, can be appealed.
The Supreme Court of Ohio, which has a 4-3 Republican majority, is now weighing whether the state can appeal, and whether abortion providers can challenge the law on behalf of their patients.
Flowers said Wednesday that abortion providers did not have a close enough relationship with patients to sue on their behalf, meaning that they should never have been allowed to sue in the first place.
Hill countered that providers are in a better position to sue on patients’ behalf because pregnant women often “are not in a situation to hire an attorney, bring a lawsuit, seek an injunction.”
The court did not clearly indicate how it will rule. If the court sides with the state on both issues, it could allow the ban to be enforced for the time being.
Ohioans will vote in November on a referendum that would explicitly add a right to abortion to the state constitution. Voters in August rejected a proposal by abortion opponents that would have required 60% of the vote, rather than a simple majority, to amend the constitution.
A woman poses with a cigarette in front of Philip Morris International logo in this illustration taken July 26, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Philip Morris International (PM.N) has registered new lobbyists in at least 19 U.S. states this year, and plans to add some in four more in the next two weeks, according to a Reuters’ review of public records and information provided by the company.
The world’s biggest cigarette maker by market value is expanding its lobbying firepower as it gears up to launch its flagship IQOS heated tobacco device in a long-awaited entry to the United States, where vaping is already an established alternative to smoking.
State-level lobbying registers examined by Reuters showed that in at least three states – Georgia, Colorado and Oregon – disclosures specified that the lobbying activity would focus on heated tobacco products.
Elsewhere, the filings referenced broader topics including tobacco policy, taxation and business, and commerce.
IQOS heats up packets of ground tobacco but does not burn them, a process the company says potentially results in fewer health risks than traditional smoking. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorised PMI to market IQOS as offering reduced exposure to harmful chemicals compared to cigarettes.
PMI was spun off from U.S. cigarette giant Altria (MO.N) in 2008. It had not sold any products in the United States until the purchase of oral nicotine company Swedish Match in 2022. As a result, until this year its U.S. lobbying had been negligible.
PMI is trying to transform its image from a purveyor of cigarettes to a driving force behind the switch to healthier alternatives.
The company poured most of its $10.7 billion investment in what the industry refers to as “reduced risk” products between 2008 and 2022 into the development of IQOS.
IQOS’ success in United States could be significant because of the market’s size, said Sean King, research analyst at Colombia Threadneedle Investments, a top 20 PMI investor. He said the U.S. non-combustible industry accounts for a little over half of the global market.
PMI believes IQOS can win a 10% share of U.S. tobacco and heated tobacco unit volume by 2030.
Investors are closely watching which states PMI will select to launch IQOS first. Any it chooses will likely to be the focus of PMI’s strategy for years to come, given its slow and steady approach in other countries of launching IQOS in major cities and then building out from there.
“It’s going to be a multi-year process within some of these states… before they progress toward a national launch,” King said.
Corey Henry, PMI’s director of U.S. communications, said the company is expanding its government affairs capability across the U.S. as part of the normal course of business. PMI’s lobbying could relate to its Swedish Match business or more general engagement around smoking rates, Henry said.
PMI also plans to add lobbying capacity in four more states within the next two weeks, he said, meaning its overall lobbying efforts span states where the vast majority of smokers – and the U.S. population – reside.
“Viewing PMI’s work across all regions of the U.S. strictly through the lens of potential launch geographies for our electrically heated tobacco system is incorrect,” he said.
The publicly available lobbying registries showed that PMI has hired more than a dozen firms or individuals, some with high-level connections in legislatures including in Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
The high-level lobbyists include Park Strategies LLC in New York, a firm founded by former U.S. Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato, as well as Daniel Hodge, former chief of staff to Governor Greg Abbott in Texas.
Park Strategies and Hodge did not respond to requests for comment.
Euromonitor International, a London-based market research company, valued U.S. nicotine sales, excluding nicotine replacement therapies, at some $143.6 billion last year.
While cigarettes accounted for the vast majority of that, Euromonitor forecasts their value will shrink by 30% by 2027. The value of vapes, heated tobacco products and other alternatives will rise by 36% over the same period, it says.
Some rival heated tobacco products have struggled in the U.S. market, where vaping and other alternatives are already well established.
After initially test launching a heated tobacco product in the United States, British American Tobacco (BATS.L) said it would instead focus its efforts on these more established categories.
Gaurav Jain, a director of equity research at Barclays, said PMI has to prove IQOS will work in the United States after it struggled in other markets with similar dynamics.
“It will be a much more competitive market,” he said.
PMI’s Henry said the company estimates 19.4 million adults around the world have switched to IQOS and stopped smoking, and it is confident it can replicate its international success in the United States.
PMI is likely weighing a variety of factors – including smoking rates, openness to innovation and income levels – as it selects states for IQOS’ launch, according to Brett Cooper, managing partner and analyst at Consumer Edge, an equity research firm.
IQOS has a relatively high cost compared to vapes or oral tobacco, which could put off some price-sensitive consumers. For instance, the device costs between 39 pounds ($47.38) and 109 pounds in the United Kingdom, according to its website.
Users must also repeatedly buy the tobacco packets, which resemble small cigarettes, for it to heat.
But it will appeal to those looking for a more similar experience to smoking, especially if PMI can make it relatively cheap compared to heavily taxed cigarettes, Cooper said.
IQOS has a key advantage in that regard: the device and accompanying tobacco sticks are among only a handful of products to have been awarded “modified risk tobacco product” (MRTP) status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alongside some oral tobacco products and some low-nicotine cigarettes.
In some states like Colorado and Washington – where PMI registered lobbyists in February, March and September – products with an MRTP designation are already taxed at a lower rate than traditional cigarettes.
The FDA has sought to crack down on flavoured vapes, in particular, amid concerns around youth usage. Disposable vapes, often in sweet flavours, rapidly came to account for a significant portion of U.S. e-cigarette sales.
(NewsNation) — Over 30 members of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators representing 22 states are requesting the Biden administration approve a major disaster declaration for East Palestine, Ohio, which is still experiencing ongoing challenges nearly eight months after the train derailment.
“This community feels overlooked and left behind as they continue to deal with these impacts and the consequences of misguided early decisions in the cleanup effort,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to President Biden. “We are concerned that so many highly toxic and carcinogenic chemicals were released into the soil, water, and air, and recognize the need for concerted efforts to remove all immediate and persistent risks to people and the environment.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine submitted a request for a Presidential Declaration of Major Disaster on July 3. It would have provided additional federal aid to address the challenges faced by East Palestine residents and the natural environment.
The lawmakers are urging the approval of that request.
Since the Feb. 3 derailment, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and other members of the Ohio congressional delegation have made it a top priority to support the people of East Palestine, advance the cleanup effort and tackle the alleged railway safety neglect.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has ensured the provision of water testing from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection supported the fire crews who had their equipment damaged in the immediate aftermath, and worked to hold the railway accountable.
At the the derailment, Pittsburgh-based Big Pine Consultants concluded, based on results from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the exact chemicals may be butyl acrylate or ethylhexyl. Both compounds were reported to be in some of the rail cars and can cause skin irritation, eye irritation and respiratory irritation, according to the National Institutes of Health.
However, independent testing by Tsai shows traces of isopropyl benzene and methylcyclohexane.
Earlier this month, the Ohio EPA said, “It is unlikely” that a recent fish kill “is related to the train derailment or cleanup activities,” and that “The latest testing results in Leslie Run show no contamination downstream from the train derailment site.”
Many of the town’s residents continue to be disappointed by the federal government’s response to the disaster.
The indictment unveiled on Friday against Sen. Robert Menendez marks another chapter in a series of troubling allegations that have dogged the New Jersey Democrat for years, marking the second time in a decade that he has faced corruption charges. The question the indictment leaves unanswered is, did the Egyptian government target an influential United States senator to do its bidding on Capitol Hill?
Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are charged along with three businessmen in a complicated plot to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes including cash, gold bars, a Mercedes convertible, even mortgage payments. According to the indictment, Menendez accepted these payoffs in return for using his position as a United States senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because he agreed to use “his influence and power and breach his official duty in ways that benefited the Government of Egypt.”
It is alleged that Menendez used his political position to attempt to break a State Department “hold” on US aid to Egypt, push for the delivery of ammunition and weapons systems to the Egyptian military, and passed sensitive information about American and Egyptian personnel assigned to the US Embassy in Cairo. It should be noted that some of these actions are things that the senator could have done legally if they were not allegedly in return for cash and gold.
“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent,” Menendez said in a statement on Friday. “They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.”
The Egyptian government has not commented on the indictment and Menendez and his wife, as well as the others charged, have strongly denied the charges.
On the latest allegations, as someone who worked at the FBI, in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau, I am struck by the elephant that seems to be missing from the room: Nothing in the indictment describes what investigators know, if anything, about the role of Egyptian officials and whether they had direction or knowledge over the bribery scheme. Why is this important? Because the possible subtext of this story is that Cairo may have used agents in the US to try and recruit the top elected legislative official with influence over foreign policy to be its puppet. Yes, when you say it out loud it is shocking.
The use of foreign nationals, expats, dual citizens, or even Americans, who have a loyalty to a foreign country is a proven tactic in the spy game. Does Egypt, a country that has received billions in US aid, conduct sophisticated intelligence operations on US soil?
Another recent case suggests they might. In January of 2022, Pierre Girgis, an Egyptian-American banker, based in New York was charged by federal prosecutors who say he “acted in the United States as an agent of the Arab Republic of Egypt.” The indictment charged that Girgis “operated at the direction and control of multiple employees of the Egyptian government in an effort to further in the United States the interests of the Egyptian Government.” It alleged that Girgis cultivated close relationships with members of US law enforcement including members of the NYPD in an effort to gather information on opponents of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the United States.
After the indictment was unsealed, Girgis pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance. The case is awaiting trial.
The Egyptian government has been known to arrest, imprison, even torture those it considers enemies of the regime. Indeed, the very reason the US State Department had put holds on some aid to Egypt, the same holds Menendez was asked to break, was to press Egypt on human rights reforms relating to crackdowns on dissent. While Girgis has been charged with being an unregistered agent of Egypt, Wael Hana, the businessman charged with bribing Menendez to advance Egyptian interests, has not. Hana and two other businessmen are charged with bribery.
Wael Hana, who has pleaded not guilty, is described in the indictment as being “originally from Egypt” and having “maintained close connections with Egyptian officials.” It was Hana, investigators say, who was friends with Nadine Arslanian “for many years before she began dating Robert Menendez,” whom she eventually married. The indictment charges that after Nadine began a romantic relationship with Menendez, she and Hana spent years working “to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez.” The indictment details how Nadine Menendez acted as the go-between who passed messages and picked up bribes.
This is where we come to another uncomfortable question, but one a trained intelligence officer would have to at least consider: Did Wael Hana have anything to do with his old friend Nadine Arslanian entering into a romantic relationship with the senator and marrying him?
Among the things an intelligence officer considers in planning the targeting of an asset is finding someone who has the access they need but also vulnerabilities they can compromise. It was widely publicized that Menendez had been the target of corruption charges and a senate ethics probe involving allegations of accepting free gifts, trips, and rides on private planes in return for using his influence to aid Dr. Salomon Melgen who was convicted on separate health care fraud charges in 2017. The criminal case against Menendez resulted in a hung jury and prosecutors did not pursue a second trial but the Senate Ethics Committee found that Menendez violated Senate rules and multiple laws. Menendez maintained his innocence.
Another thing an intelligence officer would grapple with is the sheer boldness of such a move. Targeting a staff member working on the Foreign Relations Committee team would be a logical plan but turning the chairman into an asset would be shooting for the moon. For a long-term, United States ally, like Egypt, a country that has played critical roles over the last 50 years in US Middle East policy, targeting and recruiting the United States senator who chairs the foreign relations committee would be an extraordinarily provocative move.
How will the Menendez case and the fallout from it affect US-Egyptian relations? As prosecutors prepare for a trial, will any connections between the businessman and others tied to the Egyptian government be revealed?
These are very sensitive issues that crossover from the Justice Department into the interests of the State Department and the White House. The lines may have to be drawn very carefully between the prosecution, US diplomatic interests and whether any larger story to come has larger implications for a vital diplomatic relationship.
There is no way that this continued illegal presence of Armenian armed forces in the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, as well as fake “state structures” could continue to exist, Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov told BBC, Azernews reports.
LONDON — At least 68 people were killed and 105 are still missing from an explosion that tore through a makeshift gas station being used by ethnic Armenians on Monday night as thousands sought to flee the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local authorities.The newly revised death toll followed a statement earlier from Armenia’s health…
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received U.S President’s special representative, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, U.S Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim and US State Department’s Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations…
The former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government was arrested as he tried to cross into Armenia on Wednesday, Azerbaijani authorities said.Ruben Vardanyan was one of more than 50,000 people to cross into Armenia from the separatist region, almost half of its 120,000 population, since Azerbaijan lifted its nine-month blockade on the enclave…
Azerbaijan has detained Nagorno-Karabakh’s former state minister, Ruben Vardanyan, as he attempted to cross the Lachin checkpoint into Armenia. Vardanyan, a Russian-Armenian businessperson and billionaire, was detained on Wednesday, as announced by Azerbaijan’s State Border Service. The announcement stated that Vardanyan had illegally entered Azerbaijan,…
Азербайджанская сторона задержала бывшего лидера Карабаха Рубена Варданяна. Как пишет BBC, бывшего лидера сепаратистского правительства арестовали, когда он покидал Карабах и пытался перебраться в Армению через Лачинский коридор. Жена Варданяна обратилась за поддержкой, чтобы обеспечить его безопасное освобождение. «Рубен поддерживал народ Арсаха во…
Former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan was reportedly apprehended by Azerbaijani border guards at the Lachin corridor on Wednesday, his wife, Veronica Zonabend said in a statement. “My husband, Ruben Vardanyan, the philanthropist, businessman and former minister of state of Artsakh, has been arrested and is being held captive by the Azerbaijani…
В Карабахском регионе Азербайджана обезврежены мины-ловушки – ВИДЕО Инженерно-сапёрные подразделения Азербайджанской Армии принимают меры по очистке от мин и неразорвавшихся боеприпасов территории в Карабахском регионе. Значительное…
Booby traps are being neutralized in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan – VIDEO The Azerbaijan Army’s engineer-sapper units are taking measures on clearing the territory of mines and unexploded ordnance in the Karabakh region….
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a network it said was helping procure sensitive parts for Iran’s drone program, and accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The network has facilitated shipments and financial transactions in support of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards…
The US has called for an international mission to be deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh as the region’s population flees en masse. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly made the call in a phone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday. According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, Aliyev agreed to an observation…
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received US President’s special representative, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, Principal Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim and US State Department’s Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations…
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received US President’s special representative, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, Principal Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State for E
Israel’s Massive Supply of Sophisticated Weapons to AzerbaijanOn March 5, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper published an astounding article titled, “92 Flights from Israeli Base Reveal Arms Exports to Azerbaijan.” The article reported that on March 2, Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines’ cargo plane landed in Israel’s Ovda military airport. Two hours later,…
As long as your Chabad rabbis (your money changers) claim that ziz iz NOT – NOT!!! what happened to the Jews, you can sleep soundly. Selected Articles – The News And Times47 thousand 115 people forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh crossed the border of Armenia. BaghdasaryanAs of 8 o’clock in the morning, 42 thousand 502 people forcibly displaced…
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – A former senior FBI agent pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge that he concealed $225,000 in cash payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer and…
Armenia applies to European Court of Human Rights over capture of Ruben Vardanyan by Azerbaijanposted at 13:58:53 UTC via armenpress.am 16:40, 27 September 2023YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over the capture of Ruben Vardanyan by Azeri authorities in the illegal checkpoint…
Azerbaijan has detained Nagorno-Karabakh’s former state minister, Ruben Vardanyan, as he attempted to cross the Lachin checkpoint into Armenia. Vardanyan, a Russian-Armenian businessperson and billionaire, was detained on Wednesday, as announced by Azerbaijan’s State Border Service. The announcement stated that Vardanyan had illegally entered Azerbaijan,…
US soldier Travis King, who fled to North Korea in July, is in American custody after being expelled by Pyongyang, officials say. According to US media reports, Private King was transferred to US custody in China. The 23-year-old reconnaissance specialist illegally crossed into North Korea in July. His condition and the details of his confinement…
16:40, 27 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over the capture of Ruben Vardanyan by Azeri authorities in the illegal checkpoint in Lachin Corridor. Hasmik Samvelyan, the spokesperson of the Office of the Representative of Armenia on International Legal Matters,…
Боевая техника, оружие и боеприпасы, конфискованные в Карабахском регионе – СПИСОК Информация о боевой технике, оружии и боеприпасах, конфискованных после завершения локальных антитеррористических мероприятий в Карабахском…
Military equipment, weapons and ammunition seized in the Karabakh region – LIST Information on military equipment, weapons and ammunition seized after the completion of local anti-terror measures conducted in Azerbaijan’s…
Units of Ukrainian troops continue the offensive operation south of Bakhmut. In particular, over the past day, successes have been achieved in the areas of Klischiyivka, Otradovka and Shumy, said Illia Yevlash, head of the press service of the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Armenian residents of Karabakh will be able to benefit from government services when the time comes, the Chairman of the State Agency for the Provision of Services to Citizens and Social Innovation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ul
A federal lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general accuses retail giant Amazon of strong-arming businesses and harming consumers. CBS News’ Jo Ling Kent has the details.
В Сенате США предложили одобрить проект временного бюджета на 45 дней. В проекте предусмотрено выделение более 6 миллиардов долларов на помощь Украине. Об уменьшении помощи Украине не говорится, Штаты продолжат поддерживать наше государство в полном объеме. Полный текст новости
Russia’s ministry of defence is recruiting former Wagner Group members for its own affiliated private military companies (PMCs), according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). It cites a Russian military blogger, who claimed former Wagner personnel that left the organisation with founding member Andrey Troshev after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ill-fated…
By Felix LightGORIS, Armenia (Reuters) – A former head of the breakaway ethnic Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh was arrested by Azerbaijan on Wednesday as he tried to escape into Armenia as part of an exodus of tens of thousands of people that has triggered a humanitarian crisis.Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker and philanthropist, headed…
“O grande desafio que a Geórgia enfrenta atualmente é a desocupação dos territórios ocupados pela Rússia. Os problemas com a Abcásia e a Ossétia só serão resolvidos por meios pacíficos”, escreveu o chefe do Governo georgiano nas redes sociais no 30.º aniversário da queda da capital da Abcásia, Sukhumi, para os separatistas. Garibashvili, juntamente…
Առավոտյան ժամը 8-ի դրությամբ Լեռնային Ղարաբաղից բռնի տեղահանված 42 հազար 502 անձ է հատել Հայաստանի սահմանը, որից 22 հազար 800 արդեն հաշվառվել են, իսկ կեսօրի դրությամբ սահմանը հատածների թիվը 5 հազարով ավելացավ՝ դառնալով շուրջ 47 հազար 115, այսօր հայտարարեց Հայաստանի վարչապետի մամուլի քարտուղար Նազելի Բաղդասարյանը։ Կոռնիձոր կայանը հատելուց հետո քաղաքացիները…
14:28, 27 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Aurora Humanitarian Initiative co-founder and former State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Ruben Vardanyan has been arrested by Azerbaijani authorities, his wife said in a statement on September 27. Ruben Vardanyan’s wife Veronika Zonabend’s statement is presented below. “My husband,…
12:27, 27 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. 42,500 forcibly displaced persons have crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, the government of Armenia said citing data as of 08:00, September 27. 22,800 of the 42,500 have already been registered. The registration process continues. “4,002 persons were provided with accommodation…
Ukrainian soldiers ride on top of an armored personnel carrier in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, on September 25. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed new Ukrainian action against Russia following a missile strike last week against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters that Kyiv said killed nearly three dozen officers,…
The United States and Germany added to calls for international observers to be allowed into the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as Azerbaijan said Wednesday that 192 of its soldiers were killed in an operation to retake the area from ethnic Armenian separatists. The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Azerbaijan President…
By Euronews with AP Azerbaijan regained control of its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a deadly two-day military offensive. On Thursday, it held initial talks with representatives of its ethnic Armenian population to discuss reintegration. Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s…
The recent capitulation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic-Armenian leadership to Azerbaijani authorities raises the likelihood of domestic instability within Armenia and renewed military conflict between Yerevan and Baku. Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan’s profoundly unpopular decision not to intervene in Nagorno-Karabakh will trigger sustained unrest…
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) delivers remarks, after he and his wife Nadine Menendez were indicted on bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen, in Union City, New Jersey, U.S., September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Charges that Senator…
Share on facebook (opens in new window)Share on twitter (opens in new window)Share on linkedin (opens in new window)Share on email (opens in new window)Aliyev (L) with Erdoğan in 2018. Photo: Adem Altan/AFP via GettyTurkey and Israel both played key roles in Azerbaijan’s recent victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now, several weeks after the ceasefire,…
The announcement of federal corruption charges against Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on Friday leading up to him stepping down as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), was met by snarky reactions in Turkish news outlets and social media, a response to the lawmaker’s strong and persistent criticism of Turkey.Menendez, a well-known…
Serving as president of Russia between 2008 and 2012, Dmitry Medvedev was always a placeholder for Vladimir Putin. Still, his presidency illustrated Putin’s high trust that Medvedev could serve competently. In 2023, however, Dmitry Medvedev is a sad shadow of his former presidential self. President Medvedev sought to balance Putin’s power structure…
The caravan of vehicles from Artsakh enter Armenia As of 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the number of displaced Artsakh residents crossing into Armenia had reached 28,120, government officials reported. Artsakh residents displaced after last week’s large-scale attack by Azerbaijan began leaving their homes and heading to Armenia over the weekend, most…
Today in Kornidzor, Armenia, Administrator Samantha Power announced more than $11.5 million in urgently needed humanitarian assistance to help communities in the South Caucasus region, including those affected by the ongoing crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. This funding from the United States includes $1 million through USAID and $10.5 million…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey’s chances of acquiring F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. have been boosted by Sen. Bob Menendez stepping down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations CommitteeByANDREW WILKS Associated PressSeptember 26, 2023, 7:50 AMISTANBUL — Turkey’s chances of acquiring F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. have been…
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense has released footage from a stronghold abandoned by the Armenians in the territory of the Khojaly region, Report informs citing the Ministry.
Türkiye and Israel cooperate in many fields, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists on the plane when he returned from an official visit to Azerbaijan, Report informs.
Generalsvr_en@generalsvr_en#Patrushev vs. #Kadyrov. The time of unrest is coming Last night, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev insisted on holding an urgent online meeting with the participation of Russian President Vladimir #Putin. In addition to Patrushev and Putin, three more representatives of the leadership of the…
A meeting was held in Brussels between the Armenia’s Secretary of Security Council Armen Grigoryan and Advisor to Azerbaijan’s President on Foreign Policy Hikmet Hajiyev. The meeting was attended by the diplomatic advisors of the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as the EU Special Representative for the…
High-level government representatives from Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Brussels on Tuesday to further discuss the normalization of relations between the two countries, as tens of thousands of Armenians fled Artsakh after Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack there last week, killing and injuring hundreds and displacing thousands of civilians….
Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Samvel Shahramanyan։ these four people must be brought to justice and stand trial, they brought Artsakh to destruction with their 22 deputies, former Secretary of the Council of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, hero of Artsakh Samvel Babayan said in an interview to Public Television. “Besides, they announced…
LONDON — At least 125 people were killed in an explosion on Monday night at a makeshift gas station being used by ethnic Armenian refugees as thousands sought to flee the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local authorities, as senior U.S. officials visited Armenia to signal concern over the humanitarian crisis affecting the region’s…
Sixty-eight people have been confirmed dead as a result of the fuel depot blast near Stepanakert, Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender informs. Only 21 bodies have been identified. The number of wounded citizens is 290, of which 168 were transported to Armenia’s medical institutions today by helicopters of the Republic of Armenia and the Russian peacekeepers…
09/26/2023September 26, 2023Azerbaijan is not forcing anyone to leave Nargono-Karabakh, says Hikmet Hajiyev, Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of Azerbaijan. Speaking to DW, he insisted that it was the “personal and individual decision” of people, to leave.
ANKARA — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that Iran is now warming up to a joint Turkish-Azeri plans to set up a transport corridor connecting Turkey to Azerbaijan via Armenia.Speaking on his way back from the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, Erdogan reiterated his country’s resolve to set up the corridor through which Ankara is…
Ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh have agreed to fully disarm, ending two days of fighting in the disputed region. Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday launched what they called anti-terrorist operations in the area, which is home to thousands of ethnic Armenians. On Wednesday, the Armenian side announced it had accepted the terms of a ceasefire….
Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first such high-level public visit to the kingdom amid talks to secure bilateral ties. “Katz is the first Israeli minister to head an official delegation in Saudi Arabia,” his ministry said in a statement, adding he would attend a United Nations World Tourism Organization…
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) aims to increase and diversify Europe’s energy supply by bringing gas resources from the Caspian Sea to European markets. Continuing her series analyzing energy issues in post-Soviet states, including in Uzbekistan, Moldova, and Kazakhstan, the author answers key questions about the economics of Caspian gas in this…
In the past few days there has been a steady stream of ethnic Armenians fleeing the contested region of Narogno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour assault on the Armenian enclave, which is surrounded by Azerbaijani territory, on September 19 and, following a ceasefire brokered the following day, refugees have been allowed to leave via the narrow…
Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Vaqif Sadiqov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Mission to EU talk to reporters in Brussels, Belgium September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Bart Biesemans Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan has no intention…
21:07, 26 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan on September 26 met with Charles Fries, the Deputy Secretary General for Common Security and Defense Policy and Crisis Response of the European External Action Service. Grigoryan and Fries discussed the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Azernews reports. To be updated.. — Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Tags: Ilham Aliyev Anthony Blinken
Today’s talks were quite constructive. This was stated by Hikmet Hajiyev, the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, following his meeting Tuesday with the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, Reuters reports. Now there are more opportunities to move towards the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, added the…
As the dramatic images emerge of thousands of Karabakh Armenians forced away from their homes in a mass exodus, some in the west are beginning to rethink their relationship with Azerbaijan.Through a mixture of skilled diplomacy and lobbying, the resource-rich country has for years promoted itself in the UK and EU as a reliable security partner and vital…
Azerbaijan launched a large-scale offensive in blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 19, 2023. What Azerbaijan framed as an “anti-terrorist operation” was its final attempt to establish full and unconditional control over the contested territory at the heart of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh, an Armenian-populated…
Lachin Corridor (Azerbaijan) (AFP) – Azerbaijani border guards on Tuesday sought out “war crime” suspects among the Armenian refugees flooding out of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku claimed control of the separatist statelet in a lightning offensive last week. Thousands of Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh in the wake of Azerbaijan’s offensive…
VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES – 2002: Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. (Photo by Diana … [+] Walker/Getty Images)Getty Images Earlier this month I interviewed exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to discuss what’s happening in Iran. You can watch the 25 minute video here. We cover a lot of topics mostly to do with economics. The first thing I asked…
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday expressed hope that the next decade would bring the “much-dreamt” European Union and NATO umbrella above the Georgian sky. In his address at the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre in Bucharest, Papuashvili highlighted Georgia as a “reliable and responsible” EU and NATO partner, noting the country…
Under the auspices of President Michel, his Diplomatic Advisers Simon Mordue and Magdalena Grono hosted a meeting between Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan – Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Ha
The climate crisis, war, attacks on reproductive rights, book bans—these threats aren’t looming. They are here now. If you think Democracy Now!’s reporting on these issues is essential, please sign up for a monthly gift of $10 or more. Right now, a generous donor will DOUBLE your gift, making your donation twice as valuable. We don’t have a paywall…
17:09, 26 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. 19,000 forcibly displaced persons have entered Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as of September 26, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan said at a press conference. 2,500 of them, who applied to the government for accommodation, have been provided accommodation. The accommodation process…
Baku, Azerbaijan – After Azerbaijan’s one-day military operation in Karabakh last week, thousands of ethnic Armenians who dominated the region are fleeing, citing concerns about their rights and safety. After declaring victory over the long-troubled mountainous area, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev promised to protect them, describing them as “our…
Thousands more Armenian refugees fled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday (26 September) as officials in Azerbaijan’s war-scarred separatist statelet raised the death toll from a fuel blast to 20. Nearly 300 are injured, some severely burned. The number of deaths from Monday’s disaster threatened to grow much higher because dozens were being treated in critical…
Those injured in the explosion of a gasoline depot in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) have been transferred from Sisian, Armenia to the National Burn Center in capital Yerevan. At this moment, six ambulances have come to the aforesaid center and the injured are being placed in the hospital. Those at this medical center are waiting for the other ambulances…
Separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said at least 20 people were killed and nearly 300 others injured by an explosion at a gas station as people seeking to flee to Armenia lined up for fuel.(Image credit: Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account via AP)
Armenians flee Nagorno Karabakh as fears grow of an ethnic bloodbath following Azerbaijan’s military takeover. Also: a deal to end the Hollywood writers’ strike after almost 150 days, and Lego’s plastic bottle recycling plan: why people won’t be lining up for blocks.
A growing stream of ethnic Armenian refugees are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s seizure of the disputed region last week. Amidst fears of ethnic cleansing, more than 3,000 people have so far crossed into Armenia from the enclave, which is home to a majority of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians. Also in the programme: American…
Armenia’s prime minister blames Russia for failing to ensure security after as Azerbaijan took control of disputed Nagorno Karabakh. Nikol Pashinyan says the security arrangements in Nagorno Karabakh were ‘ineffective’. We hear from the Armenian ambassador in UK and the US Senator Gary Peters, who is in the region. Also on the programme: We hear…
The Red Cross has managed to deliver seventy tonnes of aid to Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time since Azerbaijan captured the disputed territory this week. Some have sought refuge in the main city amidst dwindling food, medicine and fuel supplies. Also on the programme: the head of Sudan’s army tells the BBC he’s open to talks to try and end…
Demonstrators are demanding a humanitarian corridor to be opened for Karabakh Armenians. Also: The Indian parliament passes a bill that will reserve a third of seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women, and 7 years after blasting off – a rocket prepares to deliver what scientists hope will be the secrets of how life began on Earth.
The events of the last week are triggering a debate on the need for a deep reset of Europe’s policy toward Azerbaijan. It’s all about Karabakh, but it’s even bigger than that. On September 19, Azerbaijan used military force to retake the Armenian-populated territory of Nagorny Karabakh, crossing a red line drawn for it by both the European Union and…
In late September Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an article Nagorno-Karabakh: A Year of U.S. Failure in the South Caucasus.Michael Rubin worked previously at the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense where he was staff adviser for Iran and Iraq (2002–04) and served as Political Adviser for Coalition Provisional…
16:17, 8 November 2020 YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian signed a decree on appointing Armen Abazyan Director of the National Security Service. The President signed the respective decree based on the Prime Minister’s proposal. The decree is posted at the official website of the President. Earlier today Prime…
Haaretz | Israel NewsAnalysis | When one of Israel’s best friends in Congress warns that a far-right government will harm bipartisan support for the country, a responsible leader should listen. Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t fit the descriptionGet email notification for articles from Alon Pinkas FollowOct 3, 2022Get email notification for articles from…
Sen. Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who is a stalwart of the mainstream pro-Israel lobby in the Senate, told Benjamin Netanyahu that his partnership with an extremist leader could shatter support for Israel in the United States.Menendez raised what he said were “concerns” about Itamar Ben-Gvir with the former — and hopeful — Israeli prime…
Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a press conference after announcing that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was indicted on corruption charges charges at the SDNY office on September…
The chief of the State Security Service, Colonel-General Ali Naghiyev, made a speech at the international conference on “Increasing national and global efforts to clarify the fate of missing persons”, Azernews reports. “I invite the official Yerevan to closer cooperation in matters related to captives and hostages,” Naghiyev said at the conference….
By Sabina Mammadli The revanchist forces in Armenia and the foreign circles patronizing them must accept the new realities that have formed in the region, Chief of the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan, Col-Gen Ali Naghiyev said, Azernews reports. He made the remarks in an article published in the Azerbaijan newspaper. Ali Naghiyev…
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has again announced the so called Zangezur corridor. He made the statement after the meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhichevan. “The construction of the railway connecting Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and Turkey is progressing successfully. Most likely, the works in the territory…
The US is concerned about the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, US Department of State Spokesman Matthew Miller said at a daily briefing today. “The most important now is that the ceasefire be maintained, that there is no further military action. Secondly, the humanitarian needs of the Nagorno Karabakh people must be addressed. Third, it’s important…
The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the countries with friendly relations generally offer condolences and support to the states in a difficult situation, and do not blame them, and this is only the moral side of the issue. NA Vice President Ruben Rubinyan said in an interview with Public TV Company Monday, referring to the statement of the Russian…
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey issued a veiled threat to Yerevan on Monday after he met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Nakhichevan, where the two hinted at advancing the so-called land corridor through Armenia. Aliyev and Erdogan chose Nakhichevan as the venue for their meeting a week after Azerbaijani forces launched a…
An address by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who further accused Russia of faltering in its responsibilities toward Armenia, has angered Moscow, which on Monday said the Armenian leader, with his “unacceptable attacks,” was seeking to ruin Russian-Armenian relations and is looking to the West for support. In a statement issued on Monday, the Russian…
The day the shelling began, Genadi Hyusunts had just taken his four-day-old son home from the hospital.Within hours, he had to hustle his wife, the newborn child and his six other children to the shelter in his native Martakert, which sits in Nagorno-Karabakh on the frontline of a three-decade conflict with Azerbaijan.There, his breastfeeding wife and…
Armenians take part in an anti-government protest in central Yerevan on September 24. Thousands of ethnic Armenians continue to clog roads leading to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, where new reports say a powerful explosion at a fuel depot has led to multiple deaths and injuries, with local health officials struggling to deal…
By By Kathryn Armstrong & Nataliya Zotova for BBC Refugees load their cars as they leave the Red Cross registration center, in Goris, on September 25, 2023. Photo: AFP / Alain Jocard More than 6,500 people have so far crossed into Armenia from the enclave, which is home to a majority of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians. They left after…
Following the ceremony of signing documents, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made press statements. First, the head of state made his statement. Statement by President Ilham Aliyev – My dear brother. Distinguished guests. Welcome to Nakhchivan. I am sincerely…
Official Yerevan on Thursday hit back at Moscow’s assertion that the actions of the Armenian government, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, are to be blamed for Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Artsakh. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a press briefing on Thursday that…
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev Monday. The Prime Minister’s Office informed that Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the close cooperation and consistent work between the Ministries of Internal Affairs of the two countries in the fight against crime and in other fields. Kolokoltsev touched…
“Following the recent victory, new windows of opportunity have been opened for a comprehensive normalization of the situation in the region. I believe this opportunity must be appreciated,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a press statement
19:46, 25 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met on Monday with the delegation led by USAID Administrator Samantha Power, which included U.S. State Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim. PM Pashinyan welcomed Power’s visit in this difficult period for Armenia,…
20:25, 25 September 2023 STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. A Russian-mediated meeting took place on September 25 between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The meeting took place in Ivanyan (Khojaly) at the base of Russian peacekeepers, the Nagorno-Karabakh InfoCenter reported. A number of humanitarian issues were discussed,…
Azerbaijan’s military victory in the extended 35-year conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is a notable geopolitical setback for Russia, traditionally Armenia’s partner and ally.Moscow’s post-Soviet strategy has often been to stoke conflicts to weaken its near neighbours, creating crises in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. But on this…
21:05, 25 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. There must be an international presence in Nagorno-Karabakh to assess whether Azerbaijan is implementing its commitments, USAID Administrator Samantha Power said at a press conference in Yerevan. “We call on Azerbaijan to adhere to the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the…
Changes in Armenia’s foreign policy course After the September military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, expert circles in Armenia are increasingly talking about the uselessness of the Russian presence in the region. Analysts focus on the inactivity of Russian peacekeepers stationed on the territory of the unrecognized NKR. There are statements that…
The Administrator of the US International Development Agency, Samantha Power, conveyed the letter of US President Joe Biden to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The letter reads: Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I send my best wishes to you and the people of Armenia as you celebrate your Independence Day. This year, as we mark this proud occasion, we are…
The explosion of a gasoline tank near Stepanakert has left several dozen injured with various burns, the press secretary of the Minister of Health of Artsakh told NEWS.am. “At the moment, we do not have information about the casualties and the injured. At the moment, we have several dozen wounded with various burns. Right now, that’s all, if there…
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has again announced the so called Zangezur corridor. He made the statement after the meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhichevan. “The construction of the railway connecting Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and Turkey is progressing successfully. Most likely, the works in the territory…
Mr. President, Secretary-General, Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends, It is an honor to address the United Nations General Assembly once again. I represent Georgia, a strong nation that values freedom, cherishes its rich heritage and embraces progress amid an ever-changing geopolitical landscape. As you are aware, my country experienced a full-scale…
Shocking images of Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh as the murderous Azerbaijani army takes control of the mountainous enclave have emerged on social media today. Images show the queues of cars, all heading in one direction, attempting to leave Stepanakert, the capital of ethnically and historically Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, for the Republic of…
Armenians are hard-wired to fear genocide – and many fear the worst Diana Magnay Moscow correspondent @DiMagnaySky Seeing the images of Karabakh Armenians fleeing, suitcases in hand, makes for sombre viewing. This region has seen mass exodus before, but there is a degree of finality to this latest episode. The local Armenian authorities in…
Davit Galstyan, who owns a company that imports, sells weapons, has been released, his lawyer Armen Harutyunyan told NEWS.am. He said that the court rejected the motion to extend Galstyan’s detention.Davit Galstyan was under arrest for several months. Former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan is also under arrest within the same case. Armenia News…
What will happen to peacekeepers in Karabakh After the counter-terrorist operation of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in Karabakh on September 19-20, the country fully ensured its territorial integrity. But at the same time the question of relevance of the presence of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the region has arisen due to the absence of…
Kosovar police officers secure a road leading to the monastery in the village of Banjska on September 24. Authorities in Kosovo say the situation around a Serbian Orthodox monastery complex in the mostly Serb-populated north of the country was calm on September 25, which President Vjosa Osmani has declared a day of mourning,…
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that it rejects Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s accusation that his country was abandoned by Moscow after Azerbaijan last week launched a military operation in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan on Sunday blasted the Russian-Armenian strategic partnership as “insufficient,” signaling…
With the mediation of the Russian side, on September 25, the representatives of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan met in Ivanyan, the place of permanent deployment of Russian peacekeepers, Artsakh InfoCenter reports. “A number of humanitarian issues were discussed, including the process of searching and rescuing those killed and missing after…
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stood out by his hypocrisy during the meeting with his “big brother,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Nakhichevan on Monday. Aliyev announced “successful reintegration” amid the mass departure of the indigenous Armenian population from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which has been handed over to Azerbaijan….
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 1of4In this handout photo released by Turkish Presidency, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, right, welcomes Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. Thousands of Armenians streamed out of Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani military…
“A few days ago, a meeting was held between representatives of ethnic Armenians of Karabakh and representatives of state bodies of Azerbaijan in the city of Yevlakh. The second meeting is being held today,” President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a p
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow, Russia May 25, 2023. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Sept 5 (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Tuesday…
76.4% of respondents in Azerbaijan support the signing of a peace treaty with Armenia, according to the Social Research Center’s opinion poll among citizens, Report informs. 22.8% of the respondents took the opposite position and said that they do not support the peace treaty. 0.8% found it difficult to come up with any opinion on the issue. The…
People living in the Karabakh region are citizens of Azerbaijan regardless of their ethnicity, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a press statement together with President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Report informs via AZERTAC that the head of state said that their safety, security and rights would be ensured by the state of Azerbaijan….
After 32 years, the de facto independence of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh is reaching its end. The tense and often-violated ceasefire that had governed the region since the end of the 2020 Second Karabakh War was overwhelmingly violated by Azerbaijan around 1pm local time on Tuesday. Azerbaijani military units, which had been gathering near the…
Search operations for servicemen and civilians who died and for those who are considered missing since the military operations have been ongoing in the entire territory of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since September 21, reports the Artsakh State Service for Emergency Situations. On September 21, a dead body of a civilian was found in Stepanakert, capital…
Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived Monday in Armenia to affirm US. support for Armenia’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and democracy, and to address humanitarian needs stemming from the recent violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from…
The same day that Azerbaijan celebrated the surrender of separatist Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh, many in the breakaway region’s capital spent the evening throwing stacks of paper onto a fire. “One of the main things that people were doing in Stepanakert was burning all the possible documentation…
On September 24, at 17:35, a KamAZ-banded military vehicle belonging to the Azerbaijan Army hit an anti-tank landmine, Azernews reports, the press service of the Defense Ministry. Defense Ministry said that as a result of the explosion the military servicemen of the Azerbaijan Army Akram Shadmanov Yunis oghlu and Tural Seyidov Islam oghlu were…
Mme.President, We thank Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Mr.Miroslav Jenča for the briefing on the situation regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. We note the participation in this meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. On 19 September the armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated dramatically. The humanitarian situation…
Amirabdollahian’s remarks came on Sunday, two days after Netanyahu called for a “credible nuclear threat” against Iran in an address to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. However, the hawkish premier’s office later clarified that he misread the line and meant to say a “credible military threat.” Amirabdollahian…
As of Monday morning, 2906 forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh have arrived in Armenia. 2,100 of them have already been registered, the needs assessment for 794 is in process. Out of 2,100 registered, about 1,000 people went to their preferred laces of residence, and the government provided the other 1,100 with accommodation. The…
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Sunday signalled a major foreign policy shift away from Russia, following Moscow’s refusal to enter the latest conflict with Azerbaijani over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.Pashinyan told the nation in a televised address that his former Soviet republic’s current foreign security alliances were “ineffective”…
Almost 3,000 ethnic Armenians have crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh in the wake of last week’s Azerbaijani military offensive in the disputed region, which left hundreds of people dead, wounded or missing.By 5am local time on Monday, more than 2,900 refugees had arrived in Armenia, according to an Armenian government statement cited by Russia’s…
The perpetrators of the terrorist act that killed 4 police officers in Khojavand were detained, Report informs, citing the State Security Service (SSS). On September 20, 2023, the relevant people who were suspected of committing terrorist acts resulted in the death of two civilians and four policemen by planting mines on the newly constructed tunnel…
Washington called on Azerbaijan to halt the military action it launched into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, while Russia urged both sides in the conflict to stop the bloodshed in the mountainous and disputed region. After months of rising tensions in the Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan sent…
Published 09/25/2023Published September 25, 2023last updated 09/25/2023last updated September 25, 2023Fearing revenge from Azerbaijan, ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began leaving en masse. More than a thousand refugees have already arrived in Armenia.Armenia on Monday prepared to receive more ethnic Armenians fleeing from neighboring Azerbaijan’s…
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 1of32Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, center, listens during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Thursday Sept. 21, 2023 at U.N. headquarters.Bebeto Matthews/APShow MoreShow Less 2of32Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun…
It was hard to imagine any of Russia’s neighbors deciding this was a good time to start a war, given the bloody spectacle of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Yet Azerbaijan did exactly that on Tuesday, launching a “local anti-terrorist operation’’ against the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. And it may already have won….
Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan is to meet his ally Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Monday (25 September), as thousands of ethnic Armenians began an exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan defeated the breakaway region’s fighters last week. Erdoğan will pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nahichivan exclave – a strip of Azeri territory…
08:19, 25 September 2023 YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenia never agreed and will never agree to any extraterritorial corridor logic, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan told ARMENPRESS in response to a query. ARMENPRESS: Mr. Sanosyan, recently Turkish and Azerbaijani officials have been more frequently…
A Kremlin insider source claimed that Putin reportedly gave Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a deadline of one month until early October 2023 to improve the situation on the frontlines, stop Ukrainian counteroffensives, and have Russian forces regain the initiative to launch an offensive operation against a larger city, said US Institute for…
On September 24, in New York, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India. According to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, issues of security and stability in the South Caucasus were discussed. Ararat Mirzoyan stressed that…
Iran/DiplomacyAmwaj.mediaIran’s foreign minister has left the United States after unsuccessfully seeking to visit Washington DC over the weekend, Amwaj.media has learned. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had spent most of last week in New York, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly. If the endeavor to travel to the US capital had been successful,…
On the sidelines of 78th United Nations General Assembly, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar met the Armenian foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan in New York on Sunday, September 24, as the two leaders affirmed a strong bilateral partnership. The meeting comes amid thousands of Nagorno-Karabakhs’s ethnic Armenians who have started crossing over…
STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday as ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightening military operation that has changed the contours of the South Caucasus.The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised…
STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday as ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightening military operation that has changed the contours of the South Caucasus.The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part…
Moscow-Tehran cooperation is reaching new highs, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said, Report informs referring to TASS. “We are determined to implement the entire set of our planned activities despite opposition from the US and its Western allies. The pressure of sanctions on Russia and Iran is proving to be futile, while Russia-Iran cooperation…
By Sabina Mammadli The revanchist forces in Armenia and the foreign circles patronizing them must accept the new realities that have formed in the region, Chief of the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan, Col-Gen Ali Naghiyev said, Azernews reports. He made the remarks in an article published in the Azerbaijan newspaper. Ali Naghiyev…
The chief of the State Security Service, Colonel-General Ali Naghiyev, made a speech at the international conference on “Increasing national and global efforts to clarify the fate of missing persons”, Azernews reports. “I invite the official Yerevan to closer cooperation in matters related to captives and hostages,” Naghiyev said at the conference….
The leader of Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave has resigned, ceding control over a fiefdom he has ruled for almost three decades. Known for running the most repressive corner of authoritarian Azerbaijan, 62-year-old Vasif Talibov cited health issues, though rumors had been circulating for weeks that the central government in Baku wanted greater control. …
There is no way that this continued illegal presence of Armenian armed forces in the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, as well as fake “state structures” could continue to exist, Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Special Assignments Elchin Amirbayov told BBC, Azernews reports.
LONDON — At least 68 people were killed and 105 are still missing from an explosion that tore through a makeshift gas station being used by ethnic Armenians on Monday night as thousands sought to flee the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local authorities.
The newly revised death toll followed a statement earlier from Armenia’s health minister, Anahit Avanesyan, saying 125 bodies from people killed in the blast had been brought to Armenia.
But Avanesyan later said those bodies were casualties from fighting. The Stepanakert Forensic Medical Examination Bureau in the enclave’s regional capital said Tuesday the number of confirmed dead from the gas station blast remained at 68, with nearly 300 injured.
Many of the injured have been evacuated to Armenia, carried by Armenian and Russian military helicopters, local officials said. Avanesyan said most of the patients had extremely severe to severe injuries.
The explosion and fire ripped through the fuel store on Monday night as hundreds of refugees were lining up for gas for their vehicles to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local officials.
Thousands of ethnic Armenians have been leaving the enclave following a successful military offensive last week by Azerbaijan that defeated the local Armenian authorities and restored Azerbaijan’s rule over the region.
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh sit in a truck on their way to Goris in Syunik region, Armenia, on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023.
More than 28,000 people have crossed from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia since Sunday, according to a statement from Armenia’s government. It’s feared the enclave’s entire population — estimated at 120,000 — may seek to flee in the coming days.
Armenia’s prime minister on Monday said what was happening was the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population.
Long traffic jams of people seeking to leave were visible snaking miles along the only road out of Nagorno-Karabakh to a checkpoint in the “Lachin Corridor” that links the enclave to Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a decadeslong conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized as Azerbaijan’s territory, the two countries fought a bloody war over the enclave amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which Armenia backed local ethnic Armenian separatists, who succeeded in establishing control over most of the region. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were driven from the region during that war.
Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, launching a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and forced it to largely abandon its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia helped broker a truce and dispatched a peacekeeping force there that remains deployed. Last week, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive that swiftly forced the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian’s leadership to surrender.
Medics of the Russian peacekeeping troops treat people injured in an explosion at a fuel depot outside Stepanakert, in an unknown location in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, in this still image from video published Sept. 26, 2023.
Russian Defence Ministry via Reuters
Since then thousands of ethnic Armenians have been preparing to leave the enclave, which has been under Azerbaijani blockade for nine months, unwilling to live under Azerbaijan’s rule and fearing they will face persecution.
Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, have expressed concern for Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population and warned Azerbaijan it bears responsibility for their rights and security.
The Biden administration has dispatched Samantha Power, currently administrator of USAID and senior another State Department official to Armenia to express U.S. support for the country amid the crisis.
Power on Tuesday visited the checkpoint at Armenia’s border with Nagorno-Karabakh where refugees have been arriving, and called for international monitors and aid groups to be given access to the enclave and for Azerbaijan to facilitate the evacuation of injured civilians from there.
“It is absolutely critical that independent monitors as well as humanitarian organizations get access to the people in Nagorno-Karabakh who still have dire needs,” Power told journalists at the checkpoint. “There are still tens of thousands of Ethnic Armenians there living in very vulnerable conditions,” announcing the U.S. would provide $11.5 million in humanitarian assistance that would include everything from food to psychiatric support.
A medic of the Russian peacekeeping troops treats a man injured in an explosion at a fuel depot outside Stepanakert, in an unknown location in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, in this still image from video published Sept. 26, 2023.
Russian Defence Ministry via Reuters
Power, who has been a high-profile campaigner for human rights, said she was in Armenia to also hear testimonies from people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh and that she would be reporting back to the Biden Administration as it considers how to respond to the crisis.
Power and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Yuri Kim met with Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday. Power delivered a letter from President Joe Biden in which he expressed condolences for the loss of life in Nagorno-Karabakh and promised help on addressing humanitarian needs.
“I have asked Samantha Power, a key member of my cabinet, to personally convey to you the strong support of the United States and my Administration for Armenia’s pursuit of a dignified and durable regional peace that maintains your sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and democracy,” the letter read.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, center, speaks to the Red Cross members while visiting ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh at a temporary camp in Armenia’s Goris in Syunik region, Armenia, on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023.
Pashinyan told Power the international community and Armenia had failed to prevent the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.
“Unfortunately, at the moment the process of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing, it is happening right now. It’s a very tragic fact. We tried to inform the international community that this ethnic cleansing would happen, but, unfortunately, we did not manage to prevent it,” Pashinyan told Power and Yuri Kim, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, according to the prime minister’s press service.
Armenia and Azerbaijan were due to hold talks mediated by the European Union in Brussels on Tuesday, the first talks between the sides since Azerbaijan’s retook Nagorno-Karabakh.
Refugees queue in vehicles near the border town of Kornidzor, arriving from Nagorno-Karabakh, on Sept. 26, 2023.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Monday’s blast at the fuel station added a horrific complication to the exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, with local authorities pleading for people to hold off leaving as the traffic-choking the roads out was preventing the evacuation of the severely injured.
Helicopters from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, were reported to have flown to Nagorno-Karabakh to help evacuate some of the worst injured. A long line of ambulances was also filmed by Russian media crossing into the enclave.
The enclave’s Armenian health authorities said the hospitals in the enclave, already short of medicine and other equipment, were not equipped for the disaster.
Russia’s peacekeeping contingent said it was also providing medical assistance and showed videos of its soldiers evacuating some of the injured.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received U.S President’s special representative, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power, U.S Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim and US State Department’s Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Louis Bono.
The former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government was arrested as he tried to cross into Armenia on Wednesday, Azerbaijani authorities said.
Ruben Vardanyan was one of more than 50,000 people to cross into Armenia from the separatist region, almost half of its 120,000 population, since Azerbaijan lifted its nine-month blockade on the enclave on Sunday.
It marks a fundamental shift in ethnic control of lands that had been disputed by mostly Christian Armenians and predominantly Muslim Azerbaijanis for the past century.
Despite Azerbaijan’s promises to respect the rights of the region’s ethnic Armenians, they have rushed to flee the region en masse, fearing reprisals.
It follows Azerbaijan’s 24-hour blitz last week to reclaim control of the region, involving heavy artillery, rocket launchers and drones, which forced the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and sit down for talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.
Mr Vardanyan, a billionaire businessman who made his fortune in Russia where he owned a major investment bank, moved to Nagorno-Karabakh last year and served as the head of the regional government for several months before stepping down this year.
Azerbaijan’s border security service said Mr Vardanyan was escorted to the country’s capital of Baku and handed over to “the relevant state bodies”. It posted a picture of him being held by two border guards next to a helicopter.
His wife Veronika Zonabend said on his Telegram channel that he had been arrested while trying to flee. She asked for people’s “prayers and support for my husband’s safe release”.
It was not known on what grounds Mr Vardanyan had been held but Azerbaijan has signalled it will seek to prosecute prominent figures in the Karabakh leadership.
“We have accused elements of the criminal regime and we will bring them to justice,” Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said last week, without naming anyone or specifying any crime.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the arrest of Mr Vardanyan, who renounced his Russian citizenship after moving to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia’s attempts to absorb the rush of ethnic Armenians come with officials still trying to identify the whereabouts of more than 100 people reported missing in a fuel depot blast on Monday that claimed 68 lives.
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh sit in the back of a vehicle after crossing the border on their way to an Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs registration centre in Kornidzor, Armenia. EPA
The fireball erupted as refugees were stocking up on fuel for the long drive along the mountain road leading to Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s Health Ministry said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops have been killed and 511 wounded in the offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. One Azeri civilian also died in the hostilities, the ministry said.
Nagorno-Karabakh officials earlier said at least 200 people on their side, including 10 civilians, were killed and more than 400 were wounded in the fighting.
Azerbaijan’s swift onslaught followed a nine-month blockade of the road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. The Armenian government in Yerevan claimed the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to the enclave’s residents, while Azerbaijan countered by alleging the Armenian government was using the road for mineral extraction and transporting illicit weapons to the region’s separatist forces.
The Armenian government on Wednesday said it had received 50,243 Nagorno-Karabakh refugees since Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive.
It has prepared living arrangements for 40,000 families since last week’s fighting broke out.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s spokeswoman said late on Tuesday the government had so far been able to find housing for only 2,850 people.
Western governments fear a humanitarian disaster and are pressing for Azerbaijan to allow international observers into Karabakh to monitor its treatment of the resident population.
“What is needed now is transparency and the eyes and ears of the international community on the spot,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X, formerly Twitter.
“It would be a sign of confidence that Azerbaijan is serious about its commitments to the security and well-being of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh if it allows international observers.”
independent political analyst Boris Navasardyan said: “The influx of refugees will have a serious impact on the domestic political situation in Armenia.”
The Red Cross and the UN’s refugees agency are trying to organise immediate help.
Moscow is now firing daily barbs at Mr Pashinyan for his vow on Sunday to pivot away from Armenia’s long-standing alliance with the Kremlin.
Mr Pashinyan has blamed Russia for failing to avert the Azerbaijani offensive and called Armenia’s current foreign security alliances “ineffective” and “insufficient”.
The comments underscored the extent to which the Kremlin’s influence has shrunk across former Soviet republics since it became bogged down in its war on Ukraine.
But Moscow still has an important military base in Armenia and has indicated that it will try to keep Yerevan in its sphere of influence.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said Moscow expected “all agreements on developing bilateral co-operation … to continue to be implemented” in full.
Azerbaijan has detained Nagorno-Karabakh’s former state minister, Ruben Vardanyan, as he attempted to cross the Lachin checkpoint into Armenia.
Vardanyan, a Russian-Armenian businessperson and billionaire, was detained on Wednesday, as announced by Azerbaijan’s State Border Service. The announcement stated that Vardanyan had illegally entered Azerbaijan, and cited his work as Nagorno-Karabakh’s state minister as factors in his arrest.
The Border Service stated that Vardanyan is currently in Baku, and is awaiting a decision by ‘the relevant state authorities’.
Vardanyan’s arrest was confirmed by his wife, Veronika Zonabend, via his Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon.
‘My husband, Ruben Vardanyan, the philanthropist, businessman, and former Minister of State of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was arrested and detained by the Azerbaijani authorities at the border this morning as he tried to leave with thousands of Armenians’, wrote Zonabend.
Speaking to Russian newspaper RBC, Zonabend clarified that Vardanyan was detained while crossing the Hakari Bridge, where an Azerbaijani checkpoint has been located since April.
The Armenian government has reportedly applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), demanding that Baku provide information on Vardanyan’s location and condition.
Ruben Vardanyan was appointed Minister of State by Nagorno-Karabakh’s then-President Arayik Harutyunyan in November 2022, and given substantially wider powers than his predecessorw. While previous state ministers only coordinated the work of four ministries, Vardanyan oversaw all ministries.
His appointment proved controversial from the beginning, in part due to his business links in Russia. Vardanyan also gained attention and notoriety for his frequent live broadcasts from Nagorno-Karabakh during the first months of the blockade, and for repeated criticism of him by the Azerbaijani authorities.
In February, Vardanyan was dismissed from his post by Harutyunyan. Nagorno-Karabakh’s then-President stated that the decision was attributable to ‘strategic’ differences in his and Vardanyan’s approaches to internal and external issues, although some speculated that the move was also aimed at appeasing Azerbaijan.
Following his dismissal Vardanyan remained vocal in Nagorno-Karabakh’s politics, with Harutyunyan’s resignation in August coming soon after Vardanyan had demanded that he step down.
Harutyunyan’s successor, Samvel Shahramanyan, was alleged by several political commentators to represent a political group consolidated by Vardanyan.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
Target is the latest company to shutter outlets in liberal cities amid rising crime.
The shopping giant will close nine stores in Portland, Ore.; Seattle; New York City; and San Francisco at the end of October.
“We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,” Target said in a press release.
The company added that it “can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.”
Three of the stores are in the San Francisco area, which has seen businesses flee amid rising crime and homelessness. The city’s office market hit a record 33.9 percent vacancy rate, according to data from the real estate company CBRE reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Almost 30 million square feet is listed for lease or sublease in the city.
Homicides in San Francisco have increased nearly 40 percent from 2020 to 2022, and deaths from fentanyl have spiked.
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