Latest

According to the information received from the press service of the NKR Defence Army, on the 4th of September at around 06:50 am in the Northern side of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani contact line (about 2km East of Jraberd) a recurrent attempt of attack by the enemy’s intelligence-saboteur forces was recorded. Due to the respective activities of the Defence Army’s advanced units and a close fight the Azerbaijani assaults were thrown back, leaving one casualty in the Defence Army’s combat post. While escaping, the members of the sabotage group were blown up by mines – some are wounded. According to some intelligence information, one of them is a commander of Azerbaijani AF intelligence and another – the Azerbaijani AF miners’ company.

There are no casualties from the Karabakh side.

The gun with a silencer and the handcuffs found at the corpse of the Azerbaijani assault prove that the armed intelligence unit entered the NKR territory in order to realize saboteur activities and, in case of success, they were also to take Armenian servicemen captives.

The details of the incident are being studied.

Source: Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense Department of Information and Public Affairs

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

YEREVAN -- Armenia's religious leaders have decided to boycott an upcoming landmark liturgy at a medieval Armenian cathedral located in southeastern Turkey because of Ankara's refusal to restore a cross on its dome, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Mass will be celebrated at the 10th-century church of Surp Khach (Holy Cross) for the first time in nearly a century on September 19, three years after the church was reopened following a $1.5 million renovation funded by the Turkish government. The government has allowed Turkey's surviving Armenian Christian community to hold religious services there once a year.
 
Ankara has promoted the decision as proof of its commitment to tolerance and a gesture of goodwill toward Armenians. Still, it has resisted calls to return the church, on the legendary Akhtamar island in Lake Van, to the Armenian community led by Archbishop Aram Ateshian.
 
Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Church, decided last month to send two high-ranking representatives to the event. His spokesman, Father Vahram Melikian, described the one-day reopening of the shrine as a positive but insufficient step.

In a statement issued on September 4, Garegin's office said the Turkish authorities had broken a pledge to the Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the country's main church, to allow the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul to place a cross on the temple one week before the ceremony. It added that the justification cited for that decision was unfounded, and the church representatives -- an Echmiadzin-based bishop and another high-level cleric -- will not after all attend the Mass.
 
Garegin's initial decision to send them to the high-profile event had caused controversy in Armenia. Many political groups there regard the event as a Turkish publicity stunt designed to mislead the international community. President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party on August 10 spoke out against any Armenian participation in the "imitation show."
 
Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister, Ertugrul Gunay, insisted on September 5 that his government initiated the ceremony in good faith.

"The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate introduced the idea of holding a Mass in the church once a year and we accepted it. This brings us one step closer [to rapprochement with the Armenians] and will be followed by others," he told "Hurriyet Daily News."
 
"I grew up with Armenians, my best friend is Armenian. We never knew enmity...Whether Greek, Turkish, or Armenian, we are all children of these lands," Gunay said, accusing "nationalists" in both Armenia and Turkey of exploiting the Mass for political purposes.
 
The minister did not comment on the Turkish government's apparent reluctance to restore the church cross.
 
Built between 915 and 921 A.D., the Akhtamar church is one of the few surviving examples of the ancient Armenian civilization in what is now eastern Turkey. Hundreds of Armenian churches built there since the early Middle Ages were destroyed, ransacked or turned into mosques during and after the 1915 slaughter of more than 1 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

(Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

Համաձայն ԼՂՀ պաշտպանության նախարարության մամուլի ծառայության տարածած հաղորդագրության,  սեպտեմբերի 4-ի լույս  5-ի գիշերը  և օրվա ընթացքում ղարաբաղա-ադրբեջանական զորքերի շփման գոտու ողջ երկարությամբ արձանագրվել է հրադադարի ռեժիմի խախտման աննախադեպ ակտիվություն, որի ընթացքում Ադրբեջանի ԶՈՒ առաջապահ ստորաբաժանումների կողմից տարբեր տրամաչափի հրաձգային զենքերից, դիպուկահար հրացաններից և նռնականետերից ղարաբաղյան դիրքապահների հենակետերի վրա արձակվել է 5000-ից ավելի  կրակոց:

Առավել ինտենսիվ կրակահերթեր են արձանագրվել հատկապես Հադրութի, Ասկերանի և Մարտակերտի պաշտպանական ուղություններում: Միայն Վերին Չայլու գյուղի առաջնային բնագծի վրա գիշերվա ժամը 04:45-ի սահմաններում հակառակորդը “ДШК” և “ПК” տիպի գնդացիրներից արձակել է ավելի քան 600, իսկ “AК” ինքնաձիգերից` շուրջ 3000 փամփուշտ:

Պաշտպանության բանակի առաջապահ ստորաբաժանումների ձեռնարկած պատասխան գործողություններից հետո հակառակորդը լռել է: 

Պաշտպանության բանակը կորուստներ չի ունեցել:

ՊԲ Լրատվության և քարոզչության բաժին

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

YEREVAN, September 4 -- An armed incident occurred on Armenia-Azerbaijan disengagement line in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on Saturday, September 4.

The Armenian Defence Ministry said one Azerbaijani army serviceman died as a result of the incident.

Itar-Tass correspondents in Baku quoted the Defence Ministry as saying that two Azerbaijani army servicemen had died.

Source: Itar-Tass

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites