REPORTS IN ENGLISH

26 October, 2020 08:53 90,000 Civilians Have Fled Their Homes in Karabakh Over 90,000 civilians or roughly 60 percent of the population of Nagorno Karabakh have fled their towns and villages amid continuous missile attacks by the Azerbaijani army, reports Karabakh Human Right Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan.

“International community must make efforts to stop the Azerbaijani atrocities and help these people return to their homes,” Beglaryan said.

The Karabakh capital Stepanakert as well as towns and villages throughout Karabakh have been under continues aerial attacks since the beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive on September 27. 26 October, 2020 06:50 Day 29, Diary of War, Nagorno-Karabakh The war does not end. The death toll keeps growing, mothers keep living without news from their sons, nurses and doctors don't sleep day and night.... The only thing I can do amid this chaos is to feed the fish. Unfortunately, I only have enough strength and energy to keep them from starving.

The worst thing we go through right now is normalization. We have been getting used to the war. This is utterly unfair. I remember when the elders talked about the first Artsakh (Karabakh) war, they used to say, “You know? We got used to living in war. It's as if our heart had turned into stone. We heard new names of the fallen each day, it was sad, but it seemed that there were no tears left. We had wept them all out." I'm afraid that soon we'll turn into the same stones. Or maybe partially, we have already become.
26 October, 2020 00:06 U.S.-Brokered Karabakh Ceasefire to Take Effect October 26, 8AM Local Time The text of the following joint statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 25, 2020.

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E. Biegun on October 24, 2020 and reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to implement and abide by the humanitarian ceasefire agreed in Moscow on October 10, which were reaffirmed in the statement issued from Paris on October 17, in accordance with the October 1, 2020 joint statement of United States President Donald J. Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 25 October, 2020 23:51 "Eat it and don't ask", War Soup in Karabakh The good thing about eating bad food in a conflict zone is when you have something that hits the spot, well, it’s like a slap upside your head reminding you that food isn’t just fuel.

After succumbing to war food, I got that slap Sunday in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabakh, aka Artsakh, where the Azerbaijanis are attacking the Armenians.

I had the soup at Samra restaurant on Tumanian Street. The soup, the owner tells me, is called Gerusoos, which roughly translates to “Eat it and don’t ask.” So I don’t ask. It’s a soulful chicken soup with a little rice, potatoes and it hits the spot. So much that I loudly announce to the owner, Hovik Asmaryan, and a few others present that Samra is the best restaurant in Stepanakert. He reluctantly agrees, but insists on telling a story related to my bold announcement. 25 October, 2020 20:59 U.S. Says Armenia Has Accepted Ceasefire but Azerbaijan not Yet “Under the President’s direction, we have spent the entire weekend trying to broker peace between Armenia & Azerbaijan. Armenia has accepted a ceasefire. Azerbaijan has not yet. We are pushing them [Azerbaijan] to do so,” said U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien on Face the Nation.

Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers traveled to Washington on October 23 for a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. State Department officials.

Hostilities began between following an Azerbaijani offensive on the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh on September 27. 25 October, 2020 07:51 In a Bombed-Out Church, Karabakh Soldier Leaves the Battlefield to Marry Sweetheart When American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in Monaco in 1956 there was a lot of media covering the wedding. A quarter century later, at the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer to Prince Charles in London there were throngs of press clamoring for photos. And in 2014, the media hullabaloo to get to the marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in Italy reached a feverish pitch.

But, all those weddings – and likely every other wedding in history – can’t compare to the percentage of media present at the October 24, 2020 wedding of Miriam, 25, and Hovik, 25, in Shushi, Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).

Accompanying the couple were two friends plus the priest. Surrounding them were 60 members of the press from at least nine countries. That works out to 92% of those in attendance were media, a record unlikely to be ever broken. 25 October, 2020 07:23 Sermons On the Mount I have spent my adult life as a political professional and a secular leftist living in the United States, and the past four weeks have shattered many of my illusions about the world. What we need to understand, living in this moment, is not political language, but moral and prophetic language. What we need is a modern Sermon of the Mount and the Sermon of the Damned.

1- Blessed are the people of Artsakh, who in their resistance, are the true modern heirs of the Spanish Republic and the besieged civilians of Sarajevo.

2- Blessed are the 18 and 19 year old conscripts who have given their lives defending the graves of their ancestors and temples of their Gods.

3- Blessed are the old people and the children living in the basements of Stepanakert refusing the fate of their ancestors to be driven off their land. 25 October, 2020 05:42 Day 28, Diary of War, Nagorno-Karabakh Shortly after I wrote yesterday’s diary, Stepanakert was shelled again. The continuous bombing of Stepanakert had stopped for some time, but yesterday it again began. Apart from Stepanakert, other towns and villages across Artsakh have been shamelessly bombed since the start of the war on September 27.

Every person has a special, favorite place in the country where they live. So do I. Among all the towns and districts of Artsakh, Martuni is the most close to my heart. There are certainly some reasons for my special love. 25 October, 2020 02:07 On Karabakh Frontline, Faith Remains a Key Weapon If you can imagine a priest who was a badass, you’d get Father Varazdat, a priest who wears two uniforms.

Father Varazdat Najaryan stands - a rock solid 6-foot, two inches - in front of the Holy Savior Church in downtown Stepanakert dressed in his black priest robe and pulls it aside revealing his army fatigues. He’s heading today to the front lines of the war. He knows war well. He was in two of them as a member of Armenia’s Special Forces Unit.

But, these days he goes to the front in hopes of inspiring the spirituality of the men fighting the invading Azerbaijanis.

“First, we go to the front to inspire the soldiers, to strengthen and encourage their faith, to expel fear from them,” Najaryan says. “But what often happens is the opposite. They inspire us. We see their honor and courage and we are strengthened.”

On the morning of September 27, Najaryan was at home in Yerevan preparing for service at St. Anna Church when someone yelled out, “They are shooting at Armenia.” 24 October, 2020 23:03 U.S. Embassy in Baku warns of Terror Threat, Kidnappings Against Americans The U.S. Embassy in Baku said on October 24 that it has received credible reports of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in Baku, including against hotels such as the J.W. Marriott Absheron, as well as potentially other locations in Baku.
24 October, 2020 09:42 Genocide Emergency: Azerbaijan in Artsakh In September 2020, Azerbaijani troops crossed the "Line of Contact" dividing Karabakh. Turkey intervened on the side of Azerbaijan. Armenia supports Artsakh. Azerbaijan uses laser guided drones supplied by Turkey and Israel to target Armenian troops, villages and civilians. Azerbaijani military offensives against civilians are war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. 24 October, 2020 01:23 Day 27, Diary of War / Nagorno-Karabakh Sounds of explosions were heard again in Stepanakert today, they were small, but still. There was no siren, so we don't even know what it might have been. When there is no siren, we think it might not be anything dangerous, it could mean we shot down the drone. We comfort ourselves. Seems like it works.

A former Los Angeles Times reporter arrived in Stepanakert. He is a freelancer and he also writes for CIVILNET. He is a cool man with a tender heart. He is Armenian. I have been accompanying him, helping with translation. Today we went into one of the shelters. I've been there before and made some friends. As soon as we entered, the children ran up to me, and I forgot why I was there and also ran up to them, leaving behind everything and everyone. Elmira, one of the women in the shelter, was cooking tanav. 23 October, 2020 20:47 U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo meets Armenia, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministers US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began talks on Friday with his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan in a new international bid to halt an eruption of fighting, AFP reports.

At the State Department, Pompeo met separately with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.

The foreign ministries on both sides have ruled out a three-way meeting in Washington.

Ahead of the talks, Pompeo kept expectations in check, noting that previous ceasefire bids have not held.

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