Last week, the New York Times ran a news story on inflatable jets and missile launchers being added to the Kremlin’s arsenal. Using balloons as weapons of war may sound strange and lead one to think Moscow has concocted a novel method of war. Upon deeper analysis, what the Russians are doing is nothing particularly new.
“I know, that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev is ready to work around negotiations and proposals on the table, as well as he is ready for further discussions with Armenia’s leader. We’d like to follow responsibilities, assumed in Vienna and St. Petersburg, although some details are available towards which it’s necessary to continue the work. We’ll discuss it at the forthcoming presidential meeting,” he said.
“We see that the tension hasn’t been eliminated, state of affairs on the negotiation table have more sharpened,” the analyst said, not excluding though that new outbreak on Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact may be recorded.
During the confrontation with the sabotage unit the Defense Army did not sustain losses. In addition to the sabotage infiltration attempts, overnight October 20-21 Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire regime more than 50 times, firing around 2800 shots at Armenian positions from various caliber small arms.
An integral part of Azerbaijan – Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts are under Armenian occupation for more than 20 years, says the article, adding that as a result of Armenian military aggression, 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories was occupied and more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.
“Although Armenian public discontent is clear, it’s partially clear for Russia as well, which provided Armenia “Iskander” missile systems to restore military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Pavel Felgenhauer said.
“Appropriate period is necessary to get ready. I also said, it constructs plants to produce rockets, shells, they are solving the issue with the railway. Azerbaijan is going to a war—wide-scale and lasting, we just don’t want to properly analyze it,” Samvel Babayan said.
“We confirm the necessity of exclusively peaceful settlement of Nagorno Karabakh issue, we express our support to the efforts of OSCE MG Co-Chairs, tended to Karabakh conflict settlement, which will be based on the norms and principles of international law, the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, namely the non-use of force or the threat of force, the territorial integrity of states and the right of peoples to self-determination,” the statement reads.
It has been revealed that the supplied ballistic equipment belongs to an export variant of Iskander—namely Iskander-E, with a maximum engagement range of 280 kilometers instead of the classic five-hundred-kilometer Iskander-M. It definitely might have a game-changing effect in the case of a new phase of escalation.
The goal of the Council of Europe is to promote the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout the European continent, and the unresolved Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict should not serve as an excuse for ignoring the rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.
