Voice of America
The death toll continues to rise in clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, despite a cease-fire and warnings of a humanitarian crisis. Ethnic Armenian officials in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region reported 17 military deaths on Monday, raising the military death toll to about 540 since renewed fighting started on Sept. 27. Azerbaijani authorities have not disclosed military fatalities, an indication the overall death toll may be much higher, but they reported on Monday at least 31 civilian deaths and hundreds of civilian injuries. The two countries have accused each other of violating a four-day-old Russian-brokered cease-fire, dimming chances that a peace agreement can be reached.
Middleestmonitor
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday he believed that only a change in Turkey’s stance on Nagorno-Karabakh could prompt Azerbaijan to halt military action over the tiny region. But, in his first interview since a ceasefire deal was agreed in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh was agreed in Moscow on Saturday, he gave no indication to Reuters that he saw any sign of Ankara shifting its position. Since fighting flared on September 27, Turkey has backed Azerbaijan strongly and said Armenian forces must leave the enclave, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians. Turkey said on Tuesday it should play a role in international discussions on the conflict, something Yerevan opposes. The ceasefire, brokered by Russia, is already badly frayed, with both sides accusing the other of attacks and crimes against civilians.
TehranTimes
Former Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak-A’een has said the Azerbaijan-Armenia clashes will continue as long as Azerbaijan’s seven cities remain occupied. “So long as Baku hasn’t liberated its seven cities, it sees itself entitled to their liberation and that’s why the Karabakh clashes will continue,” Pak-A’een said, IRNA reported on Tuesday. “In order to reach a truce that leads to permanent peace, we should see what measures should take place so that both countries, I mean the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia, feel satisfaction and think they have won,” the former diplomat commented. The breakaway of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been a source of conflict between Baku and Yerevan since the early years of the 1990s when the two sides fought a years-long war over the disputed region that led to the Armenian forces declaring independence from Azerbaijan and also occupying parts of Azerbaijan’s territories surrounding the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire starting on Saturday to exchange prisoners and bodies of those killed in the conflict. However, each side has since accused the other of breaking the agreement. Armenia and Azerbaijan also accused each other of bombarding civilian areas ahead of the ceasefire.
OrthodoxTimes
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow made a statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in which he expressed his desire that the ceasefire reached a few days ago is observed. “A bad peace is better than a good quarrel,” he said, adding that during the ceasefire there could be a dialogue through which disputes could be resolved, but, when war broke out, no such dialogue was possible. Addressing Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and Caucasus Sheikh ul-Islam Haji Allahshükür Hummat Pashazade, Patriarch Kirill noted: “My dear brothers, we have come a long way so that this dispute does not evolve into an inter-religious conflict and the problems can be solved in a peaceful manner. Today, every one of us and all together must do everything possible to stop the bloodshed.”
Thelevantimes
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the dispute region of Nagorno-Karabakh was frozen for a three decades in which it remained in Armenia’s hands. The deal has been reached by the international body “the OSCE Minsk Group”, that has been co-chaired by Russia, France, and the United States and was founding in 1992. Since September, when the fighting was broken out between Azerbaijan and Armenia where consequently the conflict has emerged again. Nagorno-Karabakh Evidently, Azerbaijan has been supported by Turkey as they both share ethnic and linguistic ties despite the Azeris are Shia whereas Turkey is Sunna, as one of the reasons for its intervention. Moreover, Turkey considers Armenia as “historical enemy” due to Armenian massacres that committed by Turkey in 1915 which Armenia had accused Turkey since that.
TheGuardian
Whenever there is a gap in the airstrikes and shelling, their elderly legs make the trip up the stairs to bring down enough provisions to survive what could turn into a siege as the two ex-Soviet neighbours go to war once again. About 70,000 Armenians in Nagarno-Karabakh have fled the poorly aimed Azerbaijani rockets and drones, which appear to have hit civilian neighbourhoods more often than infrastructure and military bases. Those who stay – many of them from older generations like Sergei and his friends – say they would rather die than abandon their homes to Azerbaijan.
AlJazeera
The new war over Nagorno-Karabakh is a conventional one, being fought by professional armed forces. But this time, hi-tech 21st-century weaponry has the capacity to make this decades-old conflict more destructive than ever before. If official battlefield statistics are to be believed, the death toll is staggering. Azerbaijan has yet to confirm the number of its war dead. But Armenia claimed to have killed or wounded 5,000 Azeri personnel at the time of writing. Armenia has regularly updated its military body count, which so far stands at almost 500. Azerbaijan has estimated the real number is many times higher.
Euobserver
Great hopes and optimism were placed in the ability for a Moscow-brokered ceasefire to hold this weekend. Such misplaced optimism highlights an unwillingness to accept what the current problem actually is. Azerbaijan has tired of negotiations and concluded that its aims are best served, at least for now, by the use of force. Convincing it otherwise is the real task at hand. Finding a negotiated peace to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has occupied the OSCE for nearly 30 years. This fact alone serves for some as reason enough to dismiss its role. Indeed, president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has himself taken to criticising its function in recent months and during one public address, even declared the process "meaningless".
France24
Tonight we look at Nagorno Karabakh through the eyes of the powers behind the conflict. A war has been going on since September 27th. The death toll can only be put as an estimate: at least 600 so far have been killed. While Armenia and Azerbaijan are at loggerheads over the ownership of the enclave there are other powers who also are taking a keen interest. Notably Turkey. Nagorno Karabakh named by the Russians in pre-Soviet times. It has always been an enclave of Armenians separated from Armenia by a mountain range. By the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 it was, as now, an enclave of mostly Armenians in Azerbaijan. It is demands and declarations of independence have largely led to the conflict. Why is Recep Tayyip Erdogan making this a key issue for his foreign policy? What exactly is Ankara's angle in this story? Can an Erdogan world view of Turkey be achieved through conflict, like Syria, like Libya, and like Nagorno Karabakh? Caught in the middle, civilians, mostly Christian Armenians, under fire in the enclave which has been under dispute almost as long as it has existed. Estimates say over 70 civilians so far are among the dead in Nagorno Karabakh.
ECFR
EU diplomacy could facilitate a conflict settlement process by pressuring Armenia and Azerbaijan to start implementing the Madrid Principles. As Armenia and Azerbaijan engage in another mini war around Nagorno-Karabakh, many eyes have turned to the European Union and its member states in expectation of some diplomatic initiative that could help end the conflict. Approximately 15 years ago, the EU made a serious attempt to mediate the dispute between the two countries. And it largely failed. After this failure, the EU largely gave up trying to influence the course of the conflict. If the EU is serious about preventing another war around Nagorno-Karabakh in a few months or years, it will have to be much more systematic about pressing both Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a negotiated solution – a solution whereby control of land takes place through talks in negotiation rooms, not on the battlefield.
Reuters
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Tuesday of violating a ceasefire agreed three days ago to quell fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, drawing warnings from international groups of a humanitarian crisis. The Russia-brokered truce is buckling despite mounting calls from world powers to halt the fighting, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo among those urging greater commitment to the ceasefire terms. Turkey and Armenia exchanged recriminations, each blaming the other for exacerbating the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians.
TheTehranTimes
Iran backs any initiative to stop the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Tuesday, reiterating the position that Tehran is ready to mediate between Baku and Yerevan. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Rabiei said, “We support any initiative that brings the Azerbaijan-Armenia war to an end, establishes ceasefire, and prevent the killing of humans.” The spokesman said Iran had expressed readiness to act as a go-between and help de-escalate tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. “Iran is one of the few players with good relations with the two warring sides and other regional parties. From now on, we will be in a special position and will have an important mission. Accordingly, we sought to be in constant contact with both capitals in a mutual way. Due to our previous correct policies, we have equal access, and we are in contact with regional players,” Rabiei noted. He added, “We welcome the cessation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a step towards peace, and ask our neighbors to engage in serious dialogue based on respect for international law and territorial integrity, and to refrain from any action that violates the ceasefire and undercuts the first steps towards diplomacy and peace.”
