Karabakh fighting, developments. October 20

Information from Baku

• The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reports on battles in the Agdere-Aghdam, Fizuli-Hadrut-Jebrail and Gubadli-Zangelan areas of the front, the Armenian army uses small arms, mortars and cannons.

• It is also reported that the Armenian military is shelling the territories of the Terter and Aghdam regions.

• President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made another address to the people, saying the Azerbaijani army had taken control of 24 more villages and the city of Zangelan in the zone of the Karabakh conflict.

• The Russian Orthodox Church of Azerbaijan issued a statement:

“Armies fight armies, a real warrior will never raise his hand against children, women and the elderly. The atrocities committed by the Armenian armed forces can be openly called terrorist acts. The international community has a duty to condemn these flagrant acts of aggression and punish those responsible.”

The statement refers to the shelling of a funeral procession in the city of Terter and rocket attacks at night in residential areas of the city of Ganja. As a result of both attacks, dozens of people were killed and up to a hundred were injured.

• New data on civilian casualties: 61 people killed, 291 were injured.

Information from Yerevan and Stepanakert

• The Ministry of Defense of Armenia reported that Azerbaijan is using aircraft and artillery in the northern sector, intensive fighting continues in the south (near the border with Iran).

• Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan and discussed steps to counteract “the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has developed as a result of the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression.”

• The same agenda has been announced regarding Pashinyan’s meeting with representatives of parties that are not represented in parliament and are tough opposition to the authorities.

• After the meeting, the representative of the Dashnak party Ishkhan Saghatelyan stated that the Armenian people have no right to retreat, since the question of the existence of the state is being resolved in this war.

• “For the Dashnaktsutyun, a settlement without recognition of the independence of Artsakh is unacceptable. And as before, and now, any version of a step-by-step solution is unacceptable.”

• Representative of the Republican Party of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov stated that “Nagorno-Karabakh will never be a part of Azerbaijan. The realization of the right of the Artsakh people to self-determination has no alternative.”

• Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharian stated in parliament:

“Everything is being decided on the battlefield.  As for the reaction of the world community, the UN, etc., it is extremely painful for us to see all this. But we must realize that when it comes to ensuring security, then, first of all, it is our duty and our responsibility.

 Armenia is in a state of war, in which Turkey is also involved, which means the threat of a new genocide.”

• The Prime Minister of Armenia on his Facebook page said that during the war the Karabakh defense army shot down about a dozen Turkish Bayraktar drones and that the Armenian side “seems to have fragments of“ Bayraktar”.

The Armenian prime minister called this a proof of Turkey’s involvement in the terrorist war against Karabakh and called on the countries that supply 

Turkey with the components necessary for Bayraktar to follow Canada’s example and suspend further supplies.