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Artsakh Defense Ministry publishes footage of Azerbaijani rocket strike

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Nagorno-Karabakh’s (Artsakh) Ministry of Defense has published a footage featuring the Sunday ceasefire violations provoked by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the Line of Contact.

The adversary shot five mines, and a rocket from the anti-tank guided missile Spike to strike Armenian defense positions in the north-east of the frontline.

In an official statement released Monday morning, the country’s Ministry of Defense condemned the incident, promising a “painful and non-proportionate retaliation”.

Davit Babayan, the spokesperson of the Nagorno-Karabakh president, also voiced their criticism against the “Azerbaijani regime’s blatant anti-Armenian policy of hatred.”

Azerbaijani FM unveils plan for meeting with Nalbandian

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Azerbaijan’s foreign minister has announced a plan for meeting with the foreign minister of Armenia to discuss future peace efforts over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Elmar Mammadyarov did not unveil any timeframes or place as he addressed the topic at news conference held jointly with his Polish counterpart in Baku.

“We have talked about that with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. They have a range of proposals. The key purpose of the meeting with the foreign ministers is to conduct discussions,” Intefax Azerbaijan quotes him as saying.

 

It comes after Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev held a summit in Geneva under the auspices of the Minsk Group in an apparent effort to restart the negotiation process after more than a year’s interval.  In a statement released after the meeting, the two countries’ foreign ministers praised the negotiations as very constructive.

“The meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere.

“The Presidents agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions on the Line of Contact,” read part of the statement published on the OSCE website.

Azerbaijani citizens heavily involved 300 killed with Islamic State, Iraq holds 21 foreign children

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Azerbaijan intelligence services are investigating reports that hundreds of the country’s nationals had been killed fighting for Islamic State in Iraq.

Madat Guliyev, head of the State Security service (intelligence) told reporters they had received information that 300 Azerbaijani nationals had been killed fighting for Islamic State in Iraq. He said agency workers were sent to Iraq to verify the reports.

He said those had been “taken in by the propaganda and joined Daesh (IS)”, adding that their families and children accompanied them. “There are information of deaths, even among those children,” the official was quoted saying by Russian agency Interfax.

According to Guliyev, intelligence services in Azerbaijan had detained 85 people over charges of joining the extremist group. He put the total of Azerbaijani citizens who had joined the group since the start of the war at 900.

Citizenship has been stripped from 195 suspects, according to Guliyev.

Also on Sunday, the Iraqi government said it holds  21 foreign children linked to Islamic State members.

The Iraqi Labor and Social Affairs Ministry said it had handed over five Chechen children to their families. Ministry official Abeer al-Chalabi said they still do not possess exact statistics of foreign Islamic State fighters’ families, but were in continued efforts and contacts to deliver the rest.

Last Monday, authorities in Nineveh Province said they were preparing to deport over 500 wives of foreign Islamic State militants to their home countries after they had illegally entered the country three years earlier.

Iraqi forces had said they were holding nearly 1,400 family members of Islamic State fighters who had turned themselves in with Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

Bulgarian prosecutor orders probe of politician involved in Azerbaijani Laundromat

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Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered an investigation into Kalin Mitrev, a Bulgarian politician who is linked to Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme.

The prosecutor’s office said they had ordered an investigation that would have find out any information regarding tax evasion or money laundering, Sofia Globe reported.

The case of Mitrev – country’s representative on the board of directors of the EBRD, was also discussed during Bulgaria’s cabinet meeting on Thursday. The Cabinet decided to ask EBRD for its position on Kalin Mitrev.

According to Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation, Bulgarian politician, who is also husband of UNESCO director Irina Bokova, received 425 thousand euros from opaque British company that was engaged in Azerbaijani money laundering scheme.

Armenian, Azerbaijani religious leaders to meet in September

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Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and spiritual leader of Azerbaijan Allahshukur Pashazadeh will meet in September, spokesperson for Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Fr. Vahram Melikyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“According to preliminary information, the meeting is set for September 8 in Moscow,” he said.

The meeting is organized under mediation of Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus Kirill.

Azerbaijan reportedly lost 558 troops and 1293 wounded during the “Four Day War” in April 2016

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According to Armenpress, Armenian political scientist Hrant Mélik-Chahnazarian published on the site voskanapat.info a letter issued on 28 April 2016 by a senior Azerbaijani army official, General Nedjmedin Sadikov, to Zakir Hasanov, the defense minister of Azerbaijan in which he reported Azeri losses during the “4-day war” against the forces of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

In this letter N. Sadikov writes that the losses of the Azerbaijani army between 2 and 6 April during the war against the Armenian forces on the frontier of Artsakh are 558 Azerbaijani soldiers killed and 1,293 wounded. Of these injured, 58 were in serious condition. It should be noted that on the Talish-Martakert front alone, Azeri losses were 98 soldiers. On the Armenian side the casualties were 102 soldiers and civilians.

Krikor Amirzayan

 

Interpol rejects Azerbaijani request for arrest warrant against MEP

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European Parliament for visiting Nagorno Karabakh, Radio Prague reports.International police cooperation agency Interpol has rejected a request by Azerbaijan for an international arrest warrant to be served on a Czech Member of the European Parliament for visiting Nagorno Karabakh, Radio Prague reports.

Interpol refused to arrest of MEP Jaromír Štětina following a request from authorities in Azerbaijan.

The move followed a visit by the MEP to Karabakh in February during which Štětina denounced moves by authorities in Azerbaijan.

They said his comments helped fuel tension in the region.

The Czech said the demand for an arrest warrant was aimed at scaring off international experts and commentators against speaking out against the Baku government.

Previously, a Russian-Israeli blogger was arrested in Belarus on Baku’s request. Alexander Lapshin, who divided his time in several countries, was arrested for visiting Karabakh and condemning the Azerbaijani authorities.

Related links:

Radio.cz: Интерпол отказал Азербайджану в объявлении чешского евродепутата Яромира Штетину в розыск

Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs discuss ways of furthering Karabakh talks, agree to meet in September

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The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov held a meeting in Brussels upon the initiative of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov (Russia), Stephane Visconti (France) and Richard Hoagland (the US). The meeting was also attended by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

‘The parties conntinued discussions on the creating conditions conducive to furthering the negotiation process on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Minister Nalbandian emphasized the need to stabilize the situation along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh. He pointed to the need to implement the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits.

“The Co-Chairs asked the Ministers to convey to the Presidents their proposal on organizing a Summit in the course of this year,” the statement added.

An agreement was reached to convene the next meeting between the Foreign Ministers in September in New York in the margins of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Azerbaijani journalist sentenced to 30 days in prison

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New York, May 24, 2017—Azerbaijani authorities should immediately release freelance journalist Nijat Amiraslanov, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A district court in the northwestern Azerbaijani city of Gazakh yesterday sentenced the journalist to 30 days in prison on charges of resisting police.
The journalist’s lawyer, Elchin Sadygov, told CPJ that police arrested Amiraslanov on May 22 with no explanation as he quietly drank tea in a Gazakh café, and that Amiraslanov denied charges of resisting arrest. “If one is a journalist working with [independent media], one expects to be detained any time. And nobody can defend himself. It’s useless,” Sadygov said, adding that he had no doubt that Amiraslanov’s journalism was the reason for his arrest.
One of Amiraslanov’s colleagues, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said Amiraslanov is well-known in Gazakh for his critical reports for local and regional media about poverty in the region and corruption among local officials. Four other Azerbaijani journalists, also speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, also told CPJ that they believe Amiraslanov was arrested for his critical reporting.
“We call on Azerbaijani authorities not to contest Nijat Amiraslanov’s appeal of this verdict, and to cease harassing and jailing critical reporters,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on Azerbaijan to reverse its record of jailing journalists on trumped-up, retaliatory charges.”
At least five journalists were imprisoned in Azerbaijan for their work on December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its annual census of journalists imprisoned around the world. In April, the government blocked access to at least five critical news websites by decree and sought a court order to make that censorship permanent, according to media reports.