Military developments

On 5 November, the de facto State Emergency Service of Nagorno-Karabakh reported that after midnight the situation in the territories settlements was relatively calm, but that the Azerbaijani Army resumed attacking civilian population and civilian infrastructures.  The agency emphasised in particular that heavy artillery was used in the direction of the cities of Lachin, Martuni and Shusha. The Armenian Unified Infocenter reported that Armenia’s Investigative Committee determined that Azerbaijan holds 21 Armenian prisoners of war in its custody.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defence reported that the Armenian forces periodically shelled the settlements of the Goranboy and Tartar districts. As a result of the operation carried out by the units of the Azerbaijan Army in the Tartar direction of the front, the enemy's military infrastructure was seriously damaged. The headquarters of the 7th mountain rifle regiment of the 10th mountain rifle division of the Armenian armed forces in the village of Tonashen, barracks, vehicles loaded with ammunition and other military infrastructure were destroyed by artillery strikes.

It was also reported that the two Azerbaijani citizens who were imprisoned in 2014, Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, were transferred from the prison in the city of Shusha to Armenia. 

Political developments

In an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev spoke on the current developments in the conflict. He emphasised that the Azerbaijani Army has already gained control of 4 out of 5 districts, either completely or partially.  

While speaking on the issue of Armenia’s position in the conflict, Aliyev stated that when the Armenian authorities talk about compromise that they do not say anything concrete. “The Armenian leadership talks only about self-determination. But self-determination is not a compromise on their side. They should be more accurate in their position because it is very ambiguous now. Therefore, we demanded the time table for withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories. And we demanded it from the very first day of the clashes. So, if Armenia listened to us, and behaved in a reasonable way, today we wouldn’t have had the situation which we are now facing. The war would have stopped maybe a month ago. Therefore, compromise from Armenian side should be very precise. And the time table for withdrawal from part of Aghdam district which is still under occupation and from Kalbajar and Lachin should be presented to us. And Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan should personally declare that,” he said. “So, a military-political solution must prevail. We are ready to stop today if Pahinyan says what I already demanded from him… The peace process should be based… on the implementation of the rest… of the basic principles which have already been implemented,” Aliyev added. 

Aliyev also said that during the 30 years of negotiations the Adzerbaijani authorities offered the solution to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh in many different ways to their Armenian counterparts, but all of them were rejected. “We offered them autonomy inside Azerbaijan. We offered them cultural autonomy, we said that there are good examples in the world, in Europe, in Scandinavia the Aland Islands, in Italy the South Tyrol district, and many other solutions. But they rejected everything. They demanded independence only. And they wanted us to recognise this independence,” he said.  

When asked about Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan in the conflict, Aliyev replied that there was no military support from Turkey, apart from the fact that Azerbaijan is buying modern military equipment from the country. “We buy weapons from other countries. Why does nobody talk about how many weapons we bought from Russia? Only Turkey. Because Turkey is now in the centre of attack from different European politicians. There are attempts to demonise Turkey. Those who always keep saying that Turkey provides military support to us, why don’t they say that Russia provides military support to Armenia? A mediator, a Minsk Group Co-Chair. We have proof in our hands,” Aliyev stated. 

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan spoke to the Armenian parliament of the current undertakings of the country’s foreign policy. He noted that consultations between Armenia and Russia on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh were underway. “All the necessary work in this direction is being carried out. I can't say more, but as for our contractual relations and functions emanating from them, everything that is needed now is being carried out,” he said. 

To the question whether there is a reluctance on the part of Armenia to petition to the CSTO, taking into account that at least two of the CSTO members—Belarus and Kazakhstan—were direct economic partners of Azerbaijan, Mnatsakanyan  answered: “The Armenian government carries out steps which it finds necessary in terms of effectiveness and speed. We work with three Co-Chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group], and we work with individual countries as per the mechanism we have. Our entire mechanism has been in use since day one.” 

He also emphasised that a meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev is not planned yet, adding that the Armenian MFA would announce it if such a meeting takes place. He also said that at present no meeting between him and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jehyun Bayramov was planned. A future meeting depends on the necessity and the situation when the next meeting of the FM’s would take place.  

Mnatsakanyan also spoke on the role of the USA in the conflict after the elections, by highlighting that the role and involvement of the United States in the settlement of the conflict were very active and that it would continue after the elections. He also stressed that the involvement of all three co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group in the Karabakh conflict settlement is carried out at the highest level. 

The spokesperson of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova stated that Russian authorities have received information that members of international terrorist organisations were being transferred from the Middle East to the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “This cannot but cause us serious concern,” she said. “In the long term, such a development of the situation threatens to allow the emergence of a new terrorist enclave,” Zakharova stated.