YEREVAN: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned Friday of the risk of a new war with Azerbaijan, accusing Baku of “genocide” in the breakaway Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Baku and Yerevan have fought two wars over the mountainous enclave and the signature of a peace treaty remains a distant prospect.
Talks under the mediation of the European Union, United States, and Russia have brought about little progress.
“So long as a peace treaty has not been signed and such a treaty has not been ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, of course, a (new) war (with Azerbaijan) is very likely,” Pashinyan said.
Tensions escalated earlier in July when Azerbaijan temporarily shut the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
The closure sparked concerns over a humanitarian crisis in the region, which experiences shortages of food, medicines, and energy.
“We’re talking not about a preparation of genocide, but an ongoing process of genocide,” Pashinyan said in an interview, referring to the Karabakh crisis.
The growing diplomatic engagement of the European Union and United States in the Caucasus has irked traditional regional power broker Russia.
As the latest round of peace talks on July 15 in Brussels failed to bring about a breakthrough, Pashinyan said that both the West and Russia needed to increase pressure on Baku to lift its blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“If, according to the logic of some circles in the West, Russia is not meeting all of our expectations because it is not fulfilling its obligations, similarly Russia also tells us (the same) about the West,” he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a decades-long dispute between the two countries, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory — in the 1990s and in 2020.
In autumn 2020, a Russian-brokered cease-fire deal saw Armenia cede swathes of territories it had controlled for decades, while Moscow deployed peacekeepers to the Lachin Corridor to ensure free passage between Armenia and Karabakh.
New war with Azerbaijan ‘very likely’: Armenian prime minister
https://arab.news/zvbbe
New war with Azerbaijan ‘very likely’: Armenian prime minister
- Talks under the mediation of the European Union, United States, and Russia have brought about little progress
- Tensions escalated earlier in July when Azerbaijan temporarily shut the Lachin corridor
Greek police detain 313 in raid at university after mob attacked police
- Such attacks against riot police near the university campus are not uncommon
- Riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to beat back the attackers
THESSALONIKI, Greece: Authorities in Greece on Saturday detained 313 people in a raid on the university campus of the country’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, after riot police were attacked by mobs of people hurling more than 100 Molotov cocktails.
Greek police said roving groups of people wearing hoods emerged from the campus of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the predawn hours Saturday to attack a squad of riot police. The unit is usually deployed some distance from the campus to quell any disturbances after all-night parties that take place on university grounds.
Police said all 313 people were released without being charged.
Such attacks against riot police near the university campus are not uncommon but it’s the first time that so many people were detained after such a clash during which an unusually high number of firebombs was used.
Riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to beat back the attackers. One officer was taken to a military hospital for burns to his face and leg while a 21-year-old civilian was treated for respiratory problems, police said.
The university said in a statement that off-campus “extremists” in conjunction with some individuals from within university grounds had committed the attacks. They said an investigation is underway to determine if any students had taken part. They added that no permission had been granted for any party to take place on university grounds.
