Pashinyan & Aliyev to meet? Beheading reports. Attack near pipeline – Karabakh on Oct. 19

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev both announced on the evening of October 19 that they were ready to meet in Moscow for negotiations after weeks of bloody fighting in and around Karabakh.

This was said during parallel interviews with Russia’s TASS.

Nikol Pashinyan:

“The conflict should be resolved exclusively by peaceful means. And I am ready to make all the necessary efforts to achieve such a result, including traveling, meeting, talking,” Nikol Pashinyan said stressing that the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is of paramount importance for the Armenian side:

“This is the official position of Armenia at all times: the right to self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh has a strategically important role for us.“

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev:

“We are always ready to meet in Moscow and anywhere else to put an end to the confrontation and find ways of settlement.

We also want peace, but unlike Armenia, we also want territories that rightfully belong to us,” Aliyev said.

On October 19, 2020, for 23 days already, the Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces continue fighting in the territory of Karabakh and the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan, which have been under the control of the Armenian troops since the war in the early 1990s. 

During this time, the parties signed a truce twice, on October 10 and 18, and both times it was immediately violated. The parties accuse one another of violating the truce first.

What happened on October 19 – an overview of events from all sides.

• ‘Peace in exchange for territories’ – an opinion from Baku about the seven regions around Karabakh

• Was war in Karabakh avoidable? Armenian PM Pashinyan answers 6 questions

• Turkey at the negotiating table – to be or not to be? Commentary

Information from Baku

Messages from the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan on the battlefield:

 • Since the night, combat operations continued in the Agdere-Aghdam, Fizuli-Hadrut-Jabrayil areas, as well as along the Araz River.

 • Armenian armed forces fired at Geranboy Terter, Agdam and Agjabedi regions of Azerbaijan

 • “The enemy [uses] small arms, mortars and cannons, Azerbaijani troops control the operational situation along the entire length of the front.”

 • “From the side of the occupied Kelbajar region, units of the Armenian armed forces from 82 and 120 mm mortars and large-caliber weapons fire at the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the Goygol region.”

 • New aggravation on the border with Armenia. From the territory of the Berd and Vardenis regions of Armenia, there was shelling from large-caliber guns on the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the Tovuz and Dashkesan regions.

13 more villages taken under control

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his Twitter listed 13 villages of the Jabrayil region, which came under the control of the Azerbaijani military: Soltanli, Amirvarli, Mashanli, Hasanli, Alikeikhanli, Gumlag, Hajili, Geyarchinveiselli, Niyazgullar, Kechal Mammadzhi, Shah Isagveli, Isagveli.

The threat to the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan reported that missiles fell at a distance of 250 meters from the strategic Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline.

Fire after missile strike on the city of Tartar

In the afternoon, as a result of a missile strike by the Armenian armed forces from the territory of Armenia in Terter, a fire broke out at a cotton processing plant. By the time this information was published, the fire could not be extinguished, there is no data on the victims.

Civilian casualties

The data on the losses of Azerbaijan among the civilian population have been updated. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the country, from September 27 to October 19, as a result of shelling by the Armenian armed forces, 61 civilians were killed, 282 people have been injured.

Information from Yerevan and Stepanakert

Battle messages

The morning of October 19 began with a message from the Defense Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh that “despite the agreement on a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, enemy forces resumed shelling in the northern and southern directions.”

The Armenian Defense Ministry confirmed the information about heavy fighting in the southern direction and reported that ‘the Armenian units are exhausting the enemy’.

The Armenian Defense Ministry called the message of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office about the attempt of the Armenian armed forces to strike at the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline “a lie”.

Post on social media claims Armenian officer beheaded by Azerbaijani military

Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan published on his Facebook page information that the Azerbaijani military had beheaded an Armenian soldier.

He said that on October 16, a soldier of the Azerbaijani army called the brother of an Armenian soldier, and said that the latter was with them – they beheaded him and intend to post this photo on the Internet. A few hours later, this photo was posted on the victim’s page on social media.

“The brother of the deceased spoke twice on the phone with the Azerbaijani military, who mocked him and tried to humiliate him. Calls were made from the deceased’s phone number. These are cruel and barbaric, openly terrorist methods,” the ombudsman writes.

Armenia has applied to the European Court of Human Rights over several videos and photos that have surfaced in recent days of captured Armenian soldiers being shot and treated inhumanely, Armenia’s representative at the European Court Yeghishe Kirakosyan said.

Female squad is formed

 A female detachment has been formed to participate in the defense of Karabakh, said Artsrun Hovhannisyan, representative of the Armenian Defense Ministry:

 “A hundred people have already signed up, there are many applications.”

Protest rally in Yerevan

Women from Nagorno-Karabakh together with their children held a peaceful rally in front of the UN office in Yerevan.  They demanded that representatives of the UN office go to Karabakh and see with their own eyes what is happening there.

“We are ready to provide all the facts that prove the inhuman actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces and terrorists involved in hostilities. I am ready to take them to Hadrut and Martuni.  Every day my children and I wake up from a mine explosion.  The world must react,” said the organizer of the action, Siranush Sargsyan.

The protesters chanted the slogans “Recognize Artsakh”, “Stop being silent”, “Stop Turkey”.

 “Ankara persuaded Baku to attack Nagorno-Karabakh” – Nikol Pashinyan’s statement

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Ankara had persuaded Baku to attack Nagorno-Karabakh.

“This conflict would not have started without Turkey’s intervention. Turkish troops take part in the attacks.  Azerbaijan uses jihadist militants brought from Syria.”

“The Turks want another genocide of the Armenian people.  I ask myself and the international community: what kind of ceasefire can we sign with these terrorists?  We are under attack, we must defend ourselves like any people threatened with destruction.”

 Pashinyan says the Armenian side has evidence of the use of mercenaries in Karabakh, and they are officially recognized by Russia, France and other countries.

Demand to recognize Karabakh “in the name of salvation”

Recently, the Armenian side has been appealing to the global community with a demand to “recognize Karabakh in the name of salvation”.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page:

“The principle of ‘separation for the sake of salvation’ [is] a modern manifestation of the principle of self-determination of peoples […] when there is a risk of discrimination, massive violation of human rights or genocide.”

The principle of “secession for the sake of salvation” also does not allow a territory to be included in the state, if there is a threat of such consequences, the Prime Minister wrote.

Armenia’s representative at the European Court of Human Rights Yeghishe Kirakosyan said in this regard that “Artsakh’s separation from Azerbaijan happened a long time ago, [during the collapse of the USSR],” and recalled that “Nagorno-Karabakh has never been a part of independent Azerbaijan.”