Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to pursue a diplomatic solution over Nagorno-Karabakh as fresh clashes were reported despite a US-brokered truce. Violations of the ceasefire were reported minutes after it was set to take effect on Monday, and fighting continued throughout Tuesday.
Pompeo spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev separately on Tuesday. According to the State Department, Pompeo “pressed the leaders to abide by their commitments to cease hostilities and pursue a diplomatic solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The two sides accused the other of launching attacks outside of the conflict zone in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku accused Armenia of shelling the Barda region within Azerbaijan, killing four civilians, including a two-year-old girl. Armenia’s defense ministry denied the accusation, calling it “an absolute lie and a dirty provocation.”
Yerevan accused Azerbaijan of firing at Armenian border guard positions on Armenia’s southern border with Iran, a charge Azerbaijan denied. Armenia also conceded that Nagorno-Karabakh forces withdrew from areas between the enclave and Iran’s border, meaning gains were made by Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s defense ministry reported additional military casualties on Tuesday, bringing the total ethnic Armenian soldiers killed in the battle that erupted on September 27th to 1,009. As of Monday, 41 civilians were reported killed on the Nagorno-Karabakh side, and 65 were reported killed on the Azeri side. Azerbaijan has yet to disclose military casualties.
Hopes of a diplomatic solution to the conflict are bleak after three ceasefires failed to hold. The truces were meant to foster more substantive talks mediated by the US, Russia, and France. The three countries co-chair the Minsk Group, which was set up in 1992 to bring an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian enclave that has acted as a de facto independent state with Armenia’s support since a ceasefire was reached in 1994 after a war in the region killed tens of thousands. Azeri President Aliyev has called on Armenia to withdraw all of its forces from within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.
Pompeo urging diplomacy… ???
That’s as wild as the MSM not screaming intervention NOW and bomb, bomb, bomb the designated bad guy. Maybe they haven’t chosen a side yet.
Postponing the election may not be possible but may have had perks. The Democrats can’t look war hungry and Trump certainly doesn’t need to be tarred by a new conflict.
On the ground it appears to be a stalemate and Armenia has yet to deploy its military. Armenia has not requested Russian assistance as they do not require it.
The attack by Azerbaijan would not of happened unless the rules based order signed off on it. ie NATO is again the aggressor. Azerbaijan now realises the foolishness of going along with them. Azerbaijan clearly went to negotiate a peace deal in Russia to end the war they started as they now realise it will not be a quick victory. This is the way out for them and Turkey has been sidelined.
The Armenia people voted to open the door to the rules based order. Pashinyan will sell Armenia out, that is what neo liberals do. Will Armenians learn this lesson?
Remember the war in South Ossetia…….same modus operandi, Saakashvili sold Georgia out, that is what neo liberals do. Georgia and the breakaway republics needed to be subjugated first. The rules based order signed off on that attack too so that NATO could occupy Georgia.
Remember the war in the Donbass……same modus operandi, Yatsenyuk/Poroshenko sold Ukraine out, that is what neo liberals do. Ukraine and the breakaway republics needed to be subjugated first. The rules based order signed off on that attack too so that NATO could occupy Ukraine.
Anyone see a pattern here? The pattern, of course, is unmistakable. It begins with sanctimonious finger-wagging, economic sanctions and incendiary rhetoric, and quickly escalates into stealth bombings, drone attacks, unlawful detention and torture, massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, millions of fleeing refugees, decimated towns and cities, death squads, wholesale human carnage, vast environmental devastation, and the steady slide into failed state anarchy; all of which is accompanied by the repetition of state propaganda spewed from every corporate bullhorn in the western media. As we know from past experience, Washington will pursue its strategy relentlessly while shrugging off public opinion, international law or the condemnation of adversaries and allies alike.
After all isn’t this how it happened in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria etc etc etc
As Pompeo expedites emergency aid for Israel to replenish their stock of drones and cluster bombs being used to kill Armenian Christians as Israel then rushes to keep selling them to Azerbaijan.