Military developments

On 22 October, battles of local importance were going on in all directions of the front line. There were also reports on artillery shelling in the direction of Martuni and nearby villages. The Azerbaijani MOD emphasised that the combat operations in the Aghdere-Aghdam, Fizuli-Jabrayil, and Zangilan-Gubadli directions continued with varying intensity. It was also reported that Armenia launched Operative-Tactical missiles towards the cities of Gabala, Kurdamir and Siyazan in Azerbaijan. The Assistant to Azerbaijan’s President Hikmet Hajiyev stated that the rockets were fired from the Gafan and Jermuk regions of Armenia. Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General office said that the targets of the shelling was the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline, which supplies drinking water to the Absheron Peninsula. The Armenian Defence Ministry refuted these statements.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev announced on Twitter the capture of 21 more villages in three regions on the front line under the control of the Azerbaijani army. In his tweet, he named the following localities: Fizuli region: the villages of Mollaveli, Yukhary Rafidinli, Ashagi Rafidinli; Jabrayil region: villages of Sirik, Shikhlar, Mastalibeyli, Derzili; Zangilan region: Agbend village, villages of Kollugyshlag, Malatkeshin, Kend Zangilan, Genlik, Veligulubeyli, Garadere, Chopedere, Tatars, Tiri, Amirkhanli, Gargulu, Bartaz, Dellekli. Aliyev noted that by taking control of Agbend, the Azerbaijani army completely restored Azerbaijan’s state border with Iran.

Political developments

In an interview with the Japanese Nikkei newspaper, President Aliyev spoke on the current state of affairs over Nagorno-Karabakh. “Of course, the situation on the ground has changed as of now. The status quo does not exist any more. The contact line also doesn't exist. Therefore, of course, I think that now, Armenia’s leadership should behave even more logically and should be committed to the emptying of the occupied territories. Thus, our main purpose in these discussions is to determine whether or not Armenia’s leadership is ready for withdrawal from our territories and if ready, when this will take place,” he said when talking about the expectations of the meeting in Washington tomorrow.

Aliyev added that he would be open to a trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow, but deemed the statements of Armenia’s current leadership "counterproductive and provocative“ which render the "negotiations senseless.” He also stated that he would not rule out what he termed “cultural autonomy” for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and that he would be not against the introduction of observers and peacekeepers in the region, but that Baku would present its own conditions.

It was also announced that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, mandated to help Armenia and Azerbaijan find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, will have another meeting on 23 October 23 in Washington.

The Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is set to consider the issue of removing a number of countries, including Turkey, from the list of countries which enjoy a set of EAEU tariff preferences, the Armenian government press office said. It said the motion was put forward by Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan.

A statement was given by the US Permanent Representative to NATO Kay Bailey in regard to the conflict. “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been festering for 30 years. There is a Minsk Group of Co-chairs, which is US, Russia, and France, that is willing to go into the initial conflict, which is where are the sovereign boundaries of Azerbaijan and what can accommodate the Armenian population within those boundaries. That can be settled, and then this conflict would end,” she said.