2020 July 13

Daily news and anti-corruption report

Jul/13/2020 news: (1) Tavush Battles. Azerbaijan sustains heavy losses. Villagers talk about the newly captured outpost. Azeri hackers spread fake news about Armenian losses. Timeline of events & international response (2) Artsakh to increase doctors' salaries. Free healthcare (3) + other topics
by ar_david_hh

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Tavush Battles / Timeline of events

Yesterday the Azeri army made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Armenian positions in north-east. They left 3 dead and 4 injured.

Here is the video of the Azeri UAZ driving towards the Armenian position. This is what started the clashes. https://youtu.be/q2ntq0U1CKk

Here is the same incident recorded from the Azeri side by their villager. It shows how the UAZ drives towards the border. https://youtu.be/zsRz3eaN4PI

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Army at 00:16 am: they are still shelling that specific position, but the situation is calm across the border.

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Army 01:37 am: we shot down an expensive Azeri drone. We think they have more than 3 deaths. Photo of the drone

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QP leader Makunts: it's important for international bodies, including CSTO military bloc, to respond to this incident which came shortly after Aliyev's militaristic threats. Hopefully, the Azeri govt won't sacrifice human lives to solve its political problems.

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Army at 01:48 am: the shootout continues. We don't have losses. We don't shoot at Azeri settlements - only at their military positions.

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MFA at 2:00 am: we strongly condemn Azeri army's ceasefire violations in Tavush. We're in touch with OSCE mediators. Lately, the Azeri side has been violating peace rhetorically and militarily.

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Defense Ministry at 2:34 am: our army is still instructed to exercise restraint. They're ordered to capture new positions if Azeris make advancement attempts.

ex Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan: Azeri social media reports 2 lost positions and 17 deaths on their side.

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Artsakh govt 03:04 am: if Azeris don't stop soon, Artsakh volunteers are ready to deploy on Tavush border to help the Armenian army.

Simultaneously, a group of Azeri civilians gathered near the bordering town to support their army.

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Azeris resumed the shelling of the Armenian positions in the morning. Armenia returned fire. Azeri army spread fake news about their artillery fire killing dozens of Armenians. Armenian army says these artillery shots are "expected" and "our boys are trained to handle it".

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Azeris fired mortars directly at village Chinari. A house and its backyard were struck. No civilian injuries.

Video: https://youtu.be/HC7ajZEleUE?t=90

Photo: https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192487

More photo from Chinari: https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192513

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Here are the residents of Movses village caught up in the battles. The local elders remembered the times when Azeris and Armenians lived together in peace. They criticized Aliyev:

https://youtu.be/05NwPfHgcrk?t=48

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Residents of Movses say the local guards captured a new outpost while pointing to the nearby hills where the events happened. Some of them live nearby.

https://youtu.be/lDfOwtAo5M8

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Sources:

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192422 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192423 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192424 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192425 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192426 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192427 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192428 , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021433.html , https://news.am/arm/news/590824.html , https://twitter.com/batuhangcr/status/1282453002381647884

Armenian army used only contractors

Militaryman Movses Hakobyan: parents of our conscripts need not worry. We used only professional contractors during the battles.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192462

Elhem Eleyev summons urgent Security Council meeting

Azerbaijan has 4 deaths and 5 wounded. Azeri users report much bigger numbers. Aliyev held a closed-door meeting with security staff.

Aliyev claims they didn't lose lands, and that operation "Revenge" was carried out. He blamed Armenians for it, but never mentioned the abandoned UAZ vehicle incident during the meeting.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192465 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192475

Azeri social media unhappy with Aliyev's handling of the situation

Collection of posts in Azeri (with Armenian translation): http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/282950/ Territorial, human, and technical losses / Azeri official arrested

ex-Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Rahim Ghaziyev was arrested and taken away from his home immediately after revealing that 12 Azeri soldiers died.

The govt accuses him of "spreading misinformation" and "inciting the public to capture govt buildings".

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192514

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Militaryman Artsrun Hovhannisyan: Aliyev doesn't care about human losses, but internally they don't take the new territorial losses lightly.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192432

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Photo of a downed Israeli-made "Thunder-B" drone (another Stryker drone was downed): https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192494

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Security official: we downed several drones, one of which is a suicide drone.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192501

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Militaryman Tigran Abrahamyan: we've suppressed the Azeri attacks; they have territorial, human and equipment losses, but the situation is still tense. Their goal is to turn skirmishes into bigger battles across the border. https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192435

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The 4th Azeri soldier has died in a hospital. Another 5 are wounded.

5 Armenian soldiers and military-policemen "sustained minor injuries" from shrapnel. Their lives aren't at risk.

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https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192437 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192440 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192486 , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021522.html

expert: Azerbaijani army suffers a crushing defeat

Militaryman Artsrun:

There are several reasons why they attacked: internal problems, COVID, and economy. I doubt this will turn into a full out war, but it's hard to predict.

Their army chief Zakir Hasanov is on front lines right now. They have many human and equipment losses. They suffered a crushing defeat.

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There was a panic in the Azeri media sphere. The public is openly criticizing the govt's failures in general. Today they finally managed to control the media flow to regulate it.

We received info about Aghdam population being isolated and unable to leave the territory.

https://armtimes.com/hy/article/192520

Pashinyan's report:

Azeri army launched an attack towards Movses, Tavush. They resumed it today. Azeri govt will bear full responsibility. Turkish behavior is also concerning; their MFA publicly supports the escalation by Azeris.

Aliyev is trying to distract the public from internal problems. He doesn't care about soldiers' lives. They're sent to carry out suicide missions.

Aliyev never joined the UN's initiative to end all hostilities during COVID. The more COVID gets worse in Azerbaijan, the more militaristic calls Aliyev makes.

No attack will be left unanswered. I call for Armenians to stand by their soldiers at the border. Get your info from official sources.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192442

Defense Minister Tonoyan reports:

Yesterday afternoon an Azeri UAZ car drove towards us. The soldiers got out and started to walk towards an Armenian outpost. We figured they were lost. Our soldiers warned them, after which Azeris left the UAZ and returned to their position.

Then Azeris fired with 82mm mortars and brought more soldiers. We hit them back; they sustained casualties.

When they fired mortars at us, we used snipers to suppress them. As a result, they have many casualties.

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Pashinyan: is it possible the whole thing was over the UAZ car? Maybe they tried to extract it?

Tonoyan: if that was the case they'd contact us and agree to safely go take the car. Instead, they just opened fire.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192442

Information warfare after the battles

Azeri social media accounts, disguised as Armenians, or sometimes while using a hacked Armenian Facebook accounts, began sharing fake reports about 30 dead Armenian soldiers, sometimes with fake papers showing their alleged names.

"Don't fall for it, always get your info from an official source," says the army.

The article shares tips on how to spot fake news or old footage disguised as new, by using search engine commands.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192463

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An Armenian Facebook user is trying to get his hacked account back. Azeris used his account to post a fake image showing a report about fake casualties on the Armenian side.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192468

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Dozens of Armenian news outlets have been under DDoS flooding attack since last night. There are thousands of computers with Azeri IP addresses that have a tool that joins their PC to the attack.

Some outlets enabled CloudFlare's DDoS protection.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192491

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Aygepar village wasn't evacuated despite some "fake news", say local residents in the video: https://youtu.be/WCwUzId_efI

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Armenian tech expert disputes one of the mortar shelling videos shared by Azeri army.

https://factor.am/268285.html

Politicians take over / International response

Armenian MFA contacted Russia-led CSTO military bloc about the battle because it happened on the Armenia-Azeri border and not in "Nagorno Karabakh".

CSTO summoned an urgent meeting for later today. They later delayed it indefinitely until they can speak to both sides first.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192438 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192450 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192477

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Human Rights Ombudsman sent a report to the UN about the Azeri fire on Movses village.

Parliament Spokesman sent a letter to the Council of Europe and PACE.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192456 , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192484

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EU's special envoy to Caucasus: we're very concerned. Both sides should speak to OSCE.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192467

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Russian MFA: we're very concerned. Condolences to the families of the deceased. Don't escalate.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192469

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U.S. Representative Schiff condemned "Azerbaijan's provocations and destabilizing actions".

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192539

COVID stats

Every infected person infects 0.8 others. If it continues like this, the daily cases will reduce to 140 by September, and there won't be a need for another emergency afterward, says deputy PM Avinyan.

The Emergency Situation was entended by another month.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021499.html , https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192448

where is my vaccine, bro?

It graduated from the 1st experimental phase. The 2nd phase will last until July-28. It'll be known whether it's safe and effective.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021505.html

Crowded protests will remain banned

Today the Parliament voted 21-60 to reject a BHK bill that would allow protests during the pandemic. Ruling QP says it places public safety at risk.

The opposition accused the govt of suppressing protests under the safety pretense. A govt member said the opposition pretends like they can gather massive protests and that the only thing stopping them is the ban.

https://factor.am/268366.html

Pashinyan's massive public tantrum leads to a mayor's bust

Yeghegnadzor mayor is charged with embezzling $7,000 from construction projects since 2016. He's told not to leave the country.

The investigation began earlier after Pashinyan complained that infrastructure projects weren't done on time and properly. SOC began auditing the Yeghegnadzor municipality. They busted municipality officials at the time, and now the mayor himself.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192497

update: Hamalir fires

A few weeks ago large fires broke out near Hamalir (Tsirsernakaberd genocide museum area). The examination ruled out fireworks. It was possibly caused by a cigarette butt.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021495.html

Lake Sevan swallows Gyumri

No lake Sevan, but heavy rain flooded the city of Gyumri. Hundreds of homes and streets were submerged in a water full of ice. People were seen using boats on the roads. Straight out of Hollywood.

Video: https://youtu.be/S_NKkHLS3TU

Video: https://youtu.be/znvTqVrFfZY

The Armenian Hollywood boulevard

Years ago, the annual Golden Globe film festival turned the Charles Aznavour Square into a mini-Hollywood walk of fame. Honorary artists have their stars sealed on the ground.

Today they installed stars for late Hrant Matevosyan and Aghasi Ayvazyan. "We love them. We watched their movies. We know how they made great movies during tough times."

Golden Apricot festival is delayed until Nov-1 due to COVID.

https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/192449

Public TV law and minorities

QP and IND MPs are working on an amendment to require TV stations to give ethnic minorities at least 0.5hour/week programming time, and 2 hours in public radio. A committee approved it. Parliament will discuss soon.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1021483.html

Artsakh to increase doctors' salaries

President Arayik: Beginning September, doctors will earn +30%, nurses +20%, junior staff +15%. Another sharp rise expected on January 1st, which is also when we'll implement free healthcare.

https://factor.am/268413.html

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You've read 1769 words.

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Followup IMAGES Post

[Images] Armenian army captures new positions on "Ghara Dash" mountain during the July 12th Tavush Battles.

This is what the situation looks like right now, unless my map skills are wrong: https://i.imgur.com/M5MwSou.png

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It was reported yesterday that Ghara Dash (aka Sev Sar) fell under Armenian control. The nearby Azeri villagers of Aghdam "panicked". https://www.evnnews.com/hy/article/8123/

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At the same time, residents of Movses, Armenia pointed to a nearby mountain and said that's where the battles went on.

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Here is the Ghara Dash visible from the Azeri Tovuz city. (bottom picture): https://caucasus.liveuamap.com/en/2020/13-july-armenian-military-set-new-positions-at-ghara-dash

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Public officials began confirming the news today. A QP MP shared an image apparently taken by an Armenian soldier on the hill: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4099039126804382&set=a.549846118390385&type=3

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Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/hqmhdf/jul132020_news_1_tavush_battles_azerbaijan/

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/hqmhdf/jul132020_news_1_tavush_battles_azerbaijan/

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, even if they may sound as being guilty. Currency in Armenian Drams ֏ unless specified otherwise. Helpful overview of Armenia's media ownership and leanings.