RIYADMEDIA

The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Friday she plans to make a weekend visit to Armenia, where a cease-fire held for a second day after an outburst of fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan that killed more than 200 troops from both sides.

Pelosi told reporters in Berlin she would travel to Armenia on Saturday with a delegation that includes Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who is of Armenian descent. Pelosi declined to give further details about the trip, saying that traveling members of the Congress “don’t like to be a target.”

“In any case, it is all about human rights and respecting the dignity and worth of every person,” she said.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said the situation on the border with Azerbaijan has remained quiet since the cease-fire took effect at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and no violations were reported.

The cease-fire declaration followed two days of heavy fighting that marked the largest outbreak of hostilities in nearly two years.

Speaking in parliament Friday, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that at least 135 Armenian troops were killed in the fighting, revising his earlier statement that 105 died in combat. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Friday it had lost 77.

Edvard Asryan, the chief of the General Staff of the Armenian armed forces, said at a briefing for foreign ambassadors in Yerevan that the Azerbaijani forces had forged 7.5 kilometers into Armenian territory near the town of Jermuk, a spa resort in southern Armenia.

Asryan said that the Azerbaijani troops also went 1-2 kilometers into Armenian territory near the village of Nerkin Hand in the Syunik province and the village of Shorja in the Gegharkunik province.

He noted that the Azerbaijani forces have remained in those areas.

The ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers under the deal.

Pashinyan said his government has asked Russia for military support amid the latest fighting under a friendship treaty, and also requested assistance from the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization. The security grouping of ex-Soviet nations responded by deploying a team of top officials to Armenia.

Pashinyan called Russian President Vladimir Putin when the hostilities erupted, and they had another call Friday to discuss the situation.

Yerevan’s plea for help has put the Kremlin in a precarious position as it has sought to maintain close relations with Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, and also develop warm ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan.

Putin on Friday is scheduled to meet with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand. The Russian leader is also set to have talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has strongly backed Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the summit, Aliyev accused Armenia of “a large-scale military provocation” that derailed efforts to negotiate a peace treaty. “The Armenian provocation has dealt a heavy blow to the process of normalizing ties between our countries,” Aliyev said.

Pashinyan told lawmakers earlier this week that Armenia is ready to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity in a future peace treaty, provided that it relinquishes control of areas in Armenia its forces have seized.

The opposition saw the statement as a sign of Pashinyan’s readiness to submit to Azerbaijani demands and recognize Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Thousands of angry protesters besieged the government’s headquarters and the country’s parliament during the past two days, accusing Pashinyan of treason. Protests were also held in other Armenian cities.
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President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, the White House announced Thursday.

“He wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Thursday’s press briefing at the White House.

The separate meetings are to be the first in-person encounter between Biden and the families and are taking place amid sustained but so far unsuccessful efforts by the administration to secure the Americans’ release. The administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to get them home, but despite plans for the White House meetings, there is no sign a breakthrough is imminent.

“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home — that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.

She added: “The Russians should accept our offer. The Russians should accept our offer today.”

Griner has been held in Russia since February on drug-related charges. She was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and has appealed the punishment. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are false. The U.S. government regards both as wrongfully detained, placing their cases with the office of its top hostage negotiator.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of announcing two months ago that the administration had made a substantial proposal to Russia. Since then, U.S officials have continued to press that offer in hopes of getting serious negotiations underway, and have been following up through the same channel that produced an April prisoner swap that brought Marine veteran Trevor Reed home from Russia, said a senior administration official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in advance of Thursday’s formal announcement.

The negotiations, already strained because of tense relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also been complicated by Russia’s apparent resistance to the proposal the Americans put on the table.

The Russians, who have indicated that they are open to negotiations but have chided the Americans to conduct them in private, have come back with suggestions that are not within the administration’s ability to deliver, said the administration official, declining to elaborate.

The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but a person familiar with the matter previously confirmed it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer who is imprisoned in the U.S. and who has long been sought by Moscow. It is also possible that, in the interests of symmetry, Russia might insist on having two of its citizens released from prison.

Biden spoke by phone in July with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, but both families have also requested in-person meetings. On Friday, Biden plans to speak at the White House with Cherelle Griner and with the player’s agent in one meeting and with Elizabeth Whelan in the other, according to the official.

The meetings are being done separately so as to ensure that each family has private time with the president. But the fact that they are happening on the same day shows the extent to which the two cases have become intertwined since the only deal that is presumably palatable to the U.S. is one that gets both Americans — a famous WNBA player and a Michigan man who until recently was little known to the public — home together at the same time,

In the past several months, representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they perceived as a lack of aggressive action and coordination from the administration.

Cherelle Griner, for instance, told The Associated Press in an interview in June that she was dismayed after the failure of a phone call from her wife that was supposed to have been patched through by the American Embassy in Moscow left the couple unable to connect on their fourth anniversary.

Whelan’s relatives have sought to keep attention on his case, anxious that it has been overshadowed in the public eye by the focus on the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also conveyed disappointment when Whelan, despite having been held in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap last April that brought home Reed.

Friday’s meetings were scheduled before news broke this week of an unconnected trip to Russia by Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been a veteran emissary in hostage and detainee cases. Administration officials reacted coolly to that trip, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Wednesday that dialogue with Russia outside the “established channel” risks hindering efforts to get Griner and Whelan home.

Administration officials say work on hostage and detainee cases persists regardless of whether a family receives a meeting with the president, though there is also no question such an encounter can help establish a meaningful connection.

Biden met in the Oval Office in March with Reed’s parents after the Texas couple stood with a large sign outside the White House calling for their son’s release. The following month, he returned home.
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Media groups seeking to take over smaller rivals will have to make sure that their deals ensure media pluralism and safeguard editorial independence under draft rules announced by the European Commission on Friday.

The Media Freedom Act (MFA) is part of the European Union’s strategy to prevent political interference in media outlets and spying on journalists. It also requires state advertising to media service providers to be transparent and non-discriminatory.

The proposed rules come amid worries about media freedom in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia and foreign interference in countries holding national elections.

“Democracy will work only if journalists have the means and the necessary protection to keep in check those in power and those with power, be it political or economic actors,”

Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told a news conference.

“This law should be seen as a piece of a broader puzzle. It is part of our efforts to protect democracy at large and to bring some order in our digital information space,” she said.

The rules will apply to TV and radio broadcasters, on-demand audiovisual media services, press publications and very large online platforms and providers of video-sharing platforms.

They will need to be thrashed out with EU countries and lawmakers before they can become law in a process likely to take a year or more.

The proposed rules require regulators to examine whether the merging companies would remain economically sustainable if there was no deal.

There are safeguards against the use of spyware against media, journalists and their families. The EU executive and a new European Board for Media Services can offer their opinions on whether the two criteria have been met.
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Berlin on Friday took control of the German operations of Russian oil firm Rosneft to secure energy supplies which have been disrupted after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Rosneft’s German subsidiaries, which account for about 12% of oil refining capacity in the country, were placed under trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency, the economy ministry said in a statement.

“The trust management will counter the threat to the security of energy supply,” it said.

The seizures come as Germany is scrambling to wean itself off its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Moscow has stopped natural gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

The move covers the companies Rosneft Deutschland GmbH (RDG) and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH (RNRM) and thereby their corresponding stakes in three refineries: PCK Schwedt, MiRo and Bayernoil.

Fears had been running high particularly for PCK Schwedt, which is close to the Polish border and supplies around 90% of the oil used in Berlin and the surrounding region, including Berlin-Brandenburg international airport.

The refineries’ operations had been disrupted as the German government decided to slash Russian oil imports, with an aim to halt them completely by year’s end.

By taking control of the sites, the German authorities can then run the refining operations using crude from countries other than Russia.

Energy earthquake

Russia’s war in Ukraine has set off an energy earthquake in Europe and especially in Germany, with prices skyrocketing as Moscow dwindled supplies.

Germany has found itself severely exposed given its heavy reliance on Russian gas.

Moscow had also built up a grip over Germany’s oil refineries, pipelines and other gas infrastructure through energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom over the years.

Energy deals with Russia were long seen as part of a German policy of keeping the peace through cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

The cheap energy supplied by Russia was also key in keeping German exports competitive. As a result, the share of Russian gas in Germany had grown to 55% of total imports before the Ukraine war.

But that approach has come back to haunt Germany.

In early April, the German government took the unprecedented step of temporarily taking control of Gazprom’s German subsidiary, after an opaque transfer of ownership of the company sent alarm bells ringing in Berlin.

Germany has also been scrambling to find new sources of energy as deliveries from Russia have dwindled in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

The German government has also taken the stark step of firing up mothballed coal power plants, while putting two of its nuclear power plants on standby through April, rather than phasing them out completely as planned by year’s end.
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European Union lawmakers on Thursday declared that Hungary has become “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” under the leadership of its nationalist government, and that its undermining of the bloc’s democratic values had taken Hungary out of the community of democracies.

In a resolution that passed 433-123 with 28 abstentions, the parliamentarians raised concerns about Hungary’s constitutional and electoral systems, judicial independence, possible corruption, public procurement irregularities, LGBTQ+ rights, as well as media, academic and religious freedoms.

The lawmakers said that Hungary — which its populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban characterizes as an “illiberal democracy” — has left behind many of the democratic values of the bloc. In part, they blamed the other 26 EU member countries for turning a blind eye to possible abuses during Orban’s 12 years in office.

The vote is the latest in a series of showdowns between the EU’s institutions and Orban’s government in Budapest. The bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, is expected to announce Sunday that it is prepared to suspend payments of some EU money to Hungary over its alleged violations.

The French Greens parliamentarian who chaperoned the resolution through the assembly, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, said “for the first time, an EU institution is stating the sad truth, that Hungary is no longer a democracy.”

In the text, the lawmakers condemned “the deliberate and systematic efforts of the Hungarian government to undermine the founding values of the Union.”

The vote is highly symbolic in that it sets Hungary apart from other EU countries in its alleged failure to uphold values enshrined in the EU treaty like “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

But the vote, which came during a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, doesn’t impose any penalty on Orban’s government, nor does it bind other EU countries into taking any particular actions.

Delbos-Corfield said Orban and the ruling Fidesz party “have put their time and effort into tearing apart the fabric of democracy and ripping up the rule of law instead of supporting their citizens.”

“The costs for Hungarian citizens are clear: They are having their rights removed and opportunities undermined, all while their state is stripped apart by autocrats and oligarchs,” she said.

Lawmakers opposing a report on the resolution said it contains “subjective opinions and politically biased statements, and reflects vague concerns, value judgments and double standards.”

Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said Thursday during a news conference in Budapest that Hungarian voters had “decided in four parliamentary elections in a row what kind of future they want for the country” by electing Orban and his party.

“We resent that some people in Strasbourg and Brussels think that the Hungarian people are not mature enough to decide their own future,” Szijjarto said.

Hungary has long been on a collision course with its European partners. It has routinely blocked joint statements, decisions and events, ranging from high-level NATO meetings with Ukraine to an EU vote on corporate tax and a common EU position on an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.

The government in Budapest has opposed some EU sanctions against Russia, notably a freeze on the assets of Russia’s Orthodox Church patriarch, as well as energy-related sanctions against Moscow.

Members of the European Commission are meeting Sunday, when they are expected to announce a cut in Hungary’s EU funding unless it takes action to end its democratic backsliding.

Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said says suspending around 70% of the funding to Hungary in some EU programs, notably related to public contract procurement, “can be considered proportionate.” It’s unclear how much money that would involve.

A full suspension of EU funds is unlikely. Any action must be approved by the member countries, and this requires a “qualified majority,” which amounts to 55% of the 27 members representing at least 65% of the total EU population. Some EU lawmakers have expressed concerns that if Italy’s far right wins the country’s Sept. 25 election it could be difficult to establish that majority.
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A mass grave with more than 440 bodies was discovered in Izium, in northeastern Ukraine, where Russian forces were ousted just days ago, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.

“I can say it is one of the largest burial sites in a big town in liberated [areas] … 440 bodies were buried in one place,” Serhiy Bolvinov, the chief police investigator for Kharkiv region, told Sky News, according to Reuters. “Some died because of artillery fire … some died because of airstrikes.”

A Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed Russian troops from the region last weekend. The Russians had been occupying the city in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian officials said the troops left behind large amounts of ammunition and equipment, Reuters reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Ukrainian claim, and there was no immediate public comment from Russia on the allegation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had visited the recently recaptured city on Wednesday, said the Russians were responsible. He likened the discovery in Izium to a similar event in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, during the early stages of the Russian invasion in late February.

“Russia is leaving death behind it everywhere and must be held responsible,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Thursday. He said he would release more information about the mass burial site in Izium on Friday.

Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of perpetrating war crimes there. Russia has denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden announced another $600 million arms package for Ukraine, the 21st time the Defense Department has pulled weapons and other equipment off the shelves to deliver to Ukraine, the White House said.

‘Fighting for their future’

Biden used the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to authorize the transfer of excess weapons from U.S. stocks.

The memo does not detail how the money would be used, but The Associated Press reported it would include more of the same types of ammunition and equipment that have helped Ukrainian forces beat back Russian forces in portions of the east and south.

“With admirable grit and determination, the people of Ukraine are defending their homeland and fighting for their future,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield and strengthen Ukraine’s hand at the negotiating table when the time is right.”

The U.S. has sent about $15.1 billion in security assistance to the Kyiv government since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Earlier Thursday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board of governors adopted a resolution demanding that Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, diplomats who attended a closed-door meeting on Thursday in Vienna said.

The resolution adopted by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calls on Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. (RFE/RL is a sister network of Voice of America.)

The 35-member board passed the resolution with 26 votes in favor, two against, and seven abstentions, diplomats said, adding that Russia and China voted against it.

The resolution also says the military occupation of the plant significantly increases the risk of a nuclear accident that would endanger the population of Ukraine, neighboring states and the international community.

Russia’s mission to the IAEA said “the Achilles’ heel of this resolution” was that it said nothing about the systematic shelling of the plant.

Some accused of grain theft

Also, the U.S. imposed new economic sanctions on an array of Russians, including some whom it accused of stealing Ukrainian grain, an official who allegedly has directed the deportation of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and relatives of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

“The United States continues to hold the Russian government to account for its war against Ukraine,” Blinken said.

The top American diplomat said those targeted include major Russian defense entities, key advanced-technology firms that support Russia’s defense industrial base and financial infrastructure, a Russian military intelligence agency and individuals linked to human rights abuses.

Additional sanctions were levied on Kadyrov, who already had been blacklisted by the U.S. since 2017. The new blacklist also targets three of Kadyrov’s wives and three of his adult daughters.

Blinken said Maria Lvova-Belova was sanctioned for her efforts to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

He said the sanctions targeted “key Russia-installed authority figures in Ukrainian territories currently controlled by the Russian military,” along with 31 defense, technology and electronics entities, “to further constrain Russia’s advanced technology industries and their contribution to Russia’s defense industrial base.”

Blinken said those targeted included 22 Russian proxy officials, including five who have overseen the seizure or theft of hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by those blacklisted and prohibits U.S. individuals or companies from doing business with them.

In Kyiv, Zelenskyy hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks that she said would include “getting our economies and people closer while Ukraine progresses” toward membership in the European Union.

Ukraine applied to join the EU in late February, days after Russia launched its invasion.  The EU granted Ukraine candidacy status in June.

Zelenskyy used part of his latest nightly address to criticize Russian cruise missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, which he said hit a reservoir dam with “no military value” that hundreds of thousands of civilians depend on.

The Ukrainian leader also said almost the entire Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine was “de-occupied” after Ukrainian forces took back large areas in a counteroffensive in the past two weeks.

RFE/RL contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to have negotiated a cease-fire in the past day, pausing fighting that has reportedly killed more than 170 troops on both sides since fighting erupted earlier this week.

Armenian officials announced the cease-fire starting Wednesday in a television broadcast. There has been no confirmation from Azerbaijan’s government.

“We welcome the cessation of hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia and will continue to work with the parties to seek to cement it,” tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday.

The renewed fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia has stoked fears of further military escalation in the decades-old conflict. Experts warn the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis facing Europe might complicate peace efforts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia, both former Soviet Union republics in the Caucasus, have accused each other of restarting violence that has been the worst fighting in two years.

Armenia said Azerbaijani forces shelled towns and villages along the border, forcing its military to respond. Azerbaijan’s military argued its infrastructure was first targeted by Armenia.

Both militaries have reported heavy casualties, but the exact numbers have not been verified by independent sources.

Russia, which is a close ally of Armenia, called for restraint and quickly brokered a cease-fire after the outbreak of hostilities. But it failed to hold with clashes across the border continuing the next day.

‘Frozen conflict’

The two neighbors have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians supported by Yerevan since a six-year war that ended in 1994.

The last time they fought was in 2020. Azerbaijan reclaimed significant territory in Nagorno-Karabakh during that war which also lasted six weeks and came to an end with a cease-fire brokered by Russia.

With no comprehensive peace treaty to the satisfaction of the warring sides, despite years-long efforts, the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has remained unresolved to this day.

That’s why many scholars describe it as a “frozen conflict,” which is usually characterized by sporadic skirmishes that could potentially restart the war at any moment, thus creating uncertainty and instability.

Reason behind renewed fighting

New clashes came at a time when Russia, the traditional broker between Azerbaijan and Armenia, is struggling in its effort to militarily subdue Ukraine.

Armenia is in a military alliance with Russia through the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is composed of former Soviet nations. The country is home to a Russian military base. Russia also has close ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan.

On Tuesday, Blinken spoke to the leaders of both countries by phone, urging them to cease hostilities and stressing that the U.S. and Western partners “would push for an immediate halt to fighting and a peace settlement.”

Blinken expressed his concern over the shelling in Armenia during those calls, according to a statement by State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

The spokesperson reiterated to journalists during Wednesday’s briefing that they are “particularly disturbed by continued reports of civilians being harmed inside Armenia.”

The Biden administration also dispatched its senior adviser for the Caucasus, Ambassador Philip Reeker, to the region.

“For our part, we do remain deeply engaged. Ambassador Reeker met with President Aliyev yesterday in Baku. We remain committed to doing all we can to promote a peaceful and prosperous future for the South Caucasus,” Price said.

Experts tell VOA that the latest fighting has included not just Nagorno-Karabakh as in previous exchanges, but also reported shelling inside Armenia.

“This represents a serious escalation that has brought immediate international attention, including calls from Secretary of State Blinken to the leaders of both countries,” said Max Hoffman, senior director of the national security program at the Center for American Progress.

Pointing to the shift in momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine that appears to be working against Russia, he argued that Azerbaijan is trying to “take advantage of Russia’s perceived diminished ability to intervene forcefully,” and press the Armenians into handing over territories more rapidly.

Laurence Broers, who has more than 20 years’ experience as a researcher of conflicts in the South Caucasus, agrees. In written comments to VOA, the associate fellow with Chatham House in London described it as Azerbaijan seeking to enforce its vision of a peace agreement.

Baku’s natural gas leverage

Azerbaijan is rich in oil and natural gas resources. According to its country profile on International Energy Agency’s website, Azerbaijan has an estimated 1.3 trillion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves.

Russia has recently reduced gas supplies to parts of Europe through the Nord-Stream 1 pipeline in retaliation against Western economic sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched a deal with Azerbaijan in July to double the gas supply to Europe by 2027 saying, “this will help compensate for cuts in supplies of Russian gas.”

Baku recently said it plans to increase natural gas exports to Europe by 30% this year as the European Union strives to reduce its energy dependence on Russia amid the Ukraine war.

Experts tell VOA that the agreement between Baku and Brussels affirmed Azerbaijan’s role as a reliable EU partner.

But the country is also pursuing policies that could benefit Moscow. Azerbaijan news media reported last week that Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan signed the Baku Declaration, a trilateral cooperation deal on logistics, to affirm their commitment to the International North-South Transport Corridor.

The goal of the project is said to attract the cargo flows from India, Iran and Persian Gulf nations through Russian territory to Europe.

“The deal is symbolic for Russia’s interests in the sense that it provides alternative connectivity for Moscow given the collapse of its Western vectors and markets,” said Broers of Chatham House in written comments to VOA.

Turkey’s position

Turkey has close cultural and ethnic ties with Azerbaijan. Baku used Turkish-made armed drones in the war in 2020, when Azerbaijan reclaimed large swaths of land in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey does not have diplomatic relations with its other neighbor, Armenia, and the border between the two countries has remained closed since 1993, when Ankara sealed it in support of Azerbaijan during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey and Armenia are also at odds over mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I. Armenia and some other countries, including the United States, recognize the events of 1915 as genocide.

Ankara continued to support Baku after recent clashes, accusing Armenia of provocations.

Security analyst Max Hoffman says the six-week war in 2020 was a victory for Turkey in the sense that it boosted the country’s image at home and the reputation of Turkish drones to markets abroad. Turkey’s Bayraktar drones are also used by the Ukrainian army against Russia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at a rally in Ankara on Wednesday, warned that “Armenia’s attitude towards Azerbaijan would have consequences.”

He accused Armenia of violating the agreement reached after the fighting in 2020.

Risks for the wider region

Experts predict that even if the renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia subside, more will be likely to follow.

“There is no effective deterrent to the use of force in the South Caucasus today. The region’s security architecture is in crisis,” Boers told VOA, warning that the conflict in the South Caucasus could see other regional actors such as Russia and Turkey get dragged into the fighting.

“A wider conflict could become quite anarchic once the conflicting interests of Russia, Turkey, Iran and regional states are taken into consideration,” he said.

Although broader recognition of a mutual interest in regional stability could lead to a brokered diplomatic resolution, Boers suggested, that would require “all actors to take a pragmatic, strategic approach to their relations.”

“We are not seeing that,” he told VOA.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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The European Commission, the legislative arm of the European Union, released a 60-page proposal Wednesday that would ban products made by forced labor, a measure to stop goods tainted with forced labor from entering and exiting the union’s market.

The proposed regulation was published one year after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen introduced the initiative in her 2021 State of the Union speech.

“The proposal covers all products, namely those made in the EU for domestic consumption and exports, and imported goods, without targeting specific companies or industries,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The release of the proposal follows a new U.S. law called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which bans products made with forced labor from Xinjiang, a western Uyghur region in China. Enforcement of the U.S. legislation began in June.

The details

While the European Commission’s forced labor proposal is generally similar to the U.S. law, it does not specify a region such as Xinjiang. Instead, the proposal is much broader and applies to all products made globally, including from within the EU’s borders.  

Some critics say the European version is weak because it lacks a clear procedure for an entire industry, and it does not have a targeted regional ban, said Koen Stoop, EU representative of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

“The draft text raises concern about whether the proposal is meaningfully drafted to address state-imposed forced labor (such as Uyghur forced labor),” Stoop told VOA in an email. “We hope amendments will be made to strengthen the regulation.”

The proposal seeks to address the problem of forced labor globally, stating, “The use of forced labor is widespread in the world. It is estimated that about 27.6 million people were in forced labor in 2021.”

“This proposal will make a real difference in tackling modern-day slavery, which affects millions of people around the globe. Our aim is to eliminate all products made with forced labor from the EU market, irrespective of where they have been made. Our ban will apply to domestic products, exports and imports alike,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s executive vice president and commissioner for trade.

Lengthy process 

Rights groups expect the legislative process from proposal to adoption to be a lengthy one since the European Parliament and the council need to agree on a final text.

“There is no time limit on the ‘first reading’ at the Parliament and council, so it depends on how fast they can reach an agreement, both amongst and between themselves,” Stoop told VOA. “This usually takes at least a year. But even when the law is adopted, it will take two years to enter into force. So, taken together, it will take at least three years for the ban to start being enforced.”

Each EU member state will implement the law by assessing forced labor risks based on many different sources of information.

“These may include submissions from civil society, a database of forced labor risks focusing on specific products and geographic areas, and the due diligence that companies carry out,” stated the European Commission.

“Competent authorities and customs will work hand in hand to make the system robust. We have sought to minimize the administrative burden for businesses, with a tailor-made approach” for small and midsized enterprises, Dombrovskis said. “We will also further deepen our cooperation with our global partners and with international organizations.”

China and forced labor accusations 

While China is not singled out by the EU proposal, the United States, the United Nations and rights groups have accused China of using Uyghur forced labor and have said Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang constitutes crimes against humanity. Rights groups hope the European Commission’s proposal will specifically address Uyghur forced labor.

“We’re certainly encouraged by steps taken by the commission, and we want to see a proposal that’s up for the task when it comes to combating forced labor in the Uyghur region,” Peter Irwin, senior program officer for advocacy and communications at the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, told VOA in an email. “The law needs to include procedures to compel companies to remove this kind of state-imposed forced labor from their supply chains.”

China has repeatedly denied accusations of forced labor as U.S.-propagated “lies of the century” designed to use criticism over Xinjiang to contain China.

On Thursday, in response to the EU proposal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing, “There’s no so-called ‘forced labor’ in China. We firmly oppose using the so-called ‘forced labor’ or any Xinjiang-related issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

Activists outside China, however, see the proposal as a boon for Uyghurs who live in China.

“This resolution adds to the growing economic pressure on the Chinese government to dismantle its system of state-sponsored forced labor in the Uyghur region, as well as to end corporate complicity in these abuses,” said Jewher Ilham, forced labor project coordinator at the Washington-based Worker Rights Consortium.

By banning products made with forced labor, Ilham told VOA, the EU aligns its market with global standards and other legislatures.
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Russia’s war on Ukraine has seen scores of hospitals and clinics bombed, and frequent power cuts that can turn off lifesaving machines. Medical aid groups are using a Kenyan-manufactured breathing device for premature babies that works without electricity, helping save vulnerable newborns in countries affected by conflict. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera – Jimmy Makhulo.
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The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s board of governors has adopted a resolution demanding that Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, diplomats who attended a closed-door meeting on Thursday in Vienna said.

The resolution adopted by the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calls on Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.”

The 35-member board passed the resolution with 26 votes in favor, two against, and seven abstentions, diplomats said, adding that Russia and China voted against.

The resolution also says the military occupation of the plant significantly increases the risk of a nuclear accident that would endanger the population of Ukraine, neighboring states, and the international community.

The Russian military and the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom should suspend all activities at the nuclear plant and hand control back to Ukrainian authorities, the resolution said.

Russia’s mission to the IAEA said “the Achilles’ heel of this resolution” was that it said nothing about the systematic shelling of the plant.

“The reason is simple — this shelling is carried out by Ukraine, which is supported and shielded by Western countries in every possible way,” it said in a statement.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, raising grave concerns at the IAEA. Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for the attacks.

An IAEA delegation visited the plant earlier this month and reported that the site had been damaged by the shelling.

The power plant was completely shut down at the weekend, and power lines have been restored to ensure the cooling of nuclear fuel rods and waste, which is essential to prevent a meltdown.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House Friday, with trade, energy, and security all on the agenda. What’s not officially on the program, but will likely be discussed, analysts say, are the two democracies’ differences over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Ramaphosa’s first visit to the White House comes as the Biden administration seeks to re-engage with Africa in the wake of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit to the continent, during which he launched Washington’s new Africa strategy.

During the trip in August, Blinken stressed that the U.S. sees Africa as an equal partner.

However, at their meeting in Pretoria, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor accused Western nations of “bullying” Africa in trying to get countries to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.

Bob Wekesa, director of the African Center for the Study of the United States at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand, said the differences between the two countries were evident at the two top diplomats’ talks.

“At that meeting it was very clear that South Africa and the U.S. were on different paths and trajectories as regards many issues,” he said.

Wekesa said Ukraine will likely come up again when Biden and Ramaphosa meet Friday and predicted the two leaders will have a “difficult” discussion on the issue.

“The U.S., having taken a very clear position on supporting Ukraine, to kind of eject Russian forces from Ukraine, will be lobbying South Africa quite hard to kind of change [its] tune,” he said.

South Africa abstained from a U.N. vote earlier this year to condemn Russia’s invasion. Afterward, Biden phoned Ramaphosa. A White House statement after the call said Biden had “emphasized the need for a clear, unified international response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.”

Steven Gruzd, head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said Ramaphosa and Biden will discuss other issues as well, but added that the Ukraine topic cannot be avoided. 

“On the agenda will be trade and investment, issues like climate change and food security, energy, peace and security in Africa, and of course what’s not officially on the agenda but will certainly be talked about is the war in Ukraine and the differing positions of South Africa and the U.S. on that particular conflict,” he said.

Gruzd said he thought the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is now being considered by the Senate, would also come up in the two leaders’ conversation.

African countries see the act, which would sanction nations that trade with Russia, as an attempt to punish them for not voting with the U.S. on Ukraine.

In December, Biden is set to host the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Uzbekistan Thursday to attend a meeting of Eurasian security group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.  Erdogan is attending at the invitation of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes as Erdogan’s relations with Putin are under growing scrutiny by its Western allies as they seek to tighten sanctions on Russia.

The loyalties of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are likely to face growing scrutiny from his traditional Western allies with his attendance Friday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan. 

The Russian and Chinese-led Eurasian security group is dubbed by some critics an anti-Western alliance. 

Erdogan’s attendance and a scheduled meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the third in as many months, will fuel questions over Turkey’s Western loyalties, says Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting scholar with the Brookings Institution think tank.

“Erdogan likes to do this balancing act, and it serves a purpose. He wants to signal to the West that he has other options. Turkey has grown rather close to Russia, particularly economically, rather dependent on Russia,” Aydintasbas said. “Not only has Ankara not joined the Western sanctions, but it has also continued to trade with Russia and has received Russian finances.”   

Some analysts say trade with Russia is increasingly crucial to Turkey’s crisis-ridden economy, which could prove vital to Erdogan, who faces reelection next year. Friday’s talks between Putin and Erdogan are expected to focus on trade. 

Maria Shagina of the International Institute for Strategic Studies says with Western countries seeking to tighten sanctions on Moscow, Erdogan is also becoming increasingly important to Putin.

“Russia is running out of good friends here. They have China, India they can pivot to, but the room for maneuver, where Beijing (and) New Delhi would have an appetite to face secondary sanctions, is just not there,” Shagina said. “So, it’s important for Moscow to have another friend in need, and Ankara, unlike Beijing, Ankara is actually more risk prone.”

Erdogan this month called for the easing of some sanctions on Russia. But Ankara insists it is not violating U.S. international sanctions and is taking a balanced approach toward Russia and Ukraine, with Turkish armament companies continuing to supply Kyiv. 

Erdogan’s stance toward Russia is expected to top the agenda of talks if the Turkish president meets with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of next week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York. But analyst Aydintasbas says Biden faces a dilemma with Ankara.   

“Washington is doing its own balancing act when it comes to Erdogan. They don’t like the fact he has not joined Western sanctions on Russia. On the other hand, they don’t want to push Turkey further toward Russia,” Aydintasbas said. “So, they’ve refrained from speaking out.”

With both European Union and Washington expected to step up efforts to tighten sanctions on Russia, analysts warn Turkey’s balancing act with Russia could prove increasingly difficult to sustain. 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hosting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks Thursday in Kyiv that von der Leyen said would include “getting our economies and people closer while Ukraine progresses towards accession.”

Ukraine applied to join the European Union in late February, days after Russia launched its invasion.  The EU granted Ukraine candidacy status in June.

“In Kyiv, for my 3rd visit since the start of Russia’s war. So much has changed. Ukraine is now an EU candidate,” von der Leyen tweeted.

In Uzbekistan, the Ukraine conflict was on the agenda for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Ji Xinping.

Zelenskyy used part of his latest nightly address to criticize Russia cruise missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, which he said hit a reservoir dam with “no military value” that hundreds of thousands of civilians depend on.

The Ukrainian leader also said almost the entire Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine is “de-occupied” after Ukrainian forces took back large areas in a counteroffensive.

The gains included retaking the city of Izium where Zelenskyy traveled Wednesday to meet with soldiers and thank them for their efforts.

“Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their control of newly liberated areas of Kharkiv Oblast,” Britain’s defense ministry said Thursday.  “Russian forces have largely withdrawn from the area west of the Oskil River.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Tens of thousands of people have lined up to view the coffin of Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II as she lies in state in Westminster Hall ahead of her funeral next week.

Her body was taken in a solemn procession from Buckingham Palace, where it had remained overnight after being transported to England from Scotland, to Westminster. The coffin, adorned with the imperial state crown and the royal standard, was carried by the same horse-drawn gun carriage that had borne the bodies of her mother and father.

King Charles III walked behind the coffin, joined by his sons, William and Harry, and his siblings, Anne, Andrew and Edward.

Tens of thousands of people watched from the roadside to catch a final glimpse of the monarch, offer a last goodbye and witness firsthand an extraordinary piece of history unfolding. Most watched in silence. Some threw flowers. Some quietly wept.

U.S. citizen Silver Klajnscek, who lives in London, spoke to VOA after the procession passed.

“There’s such a respect for — I don’t know a better way to put it, but pomp and circumstance in this country — that really pulls people together. And it’s really an honor to be a part of it,” she said.

Gun salutes echoed across the capital. In London’s Hyde Park, thousands more people watched the procession on big screens.

Under late summer sunshine, the procession arrived in Westminster 38 minutes after leaving Buckingham Palace. It is a journey the queen had made so many times before, across seven decades on the British throne stretching back to the government of Winston Churchill.

Her coffin was carried into Westminster Hall by guardsmen from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, who had been flown back from Iraq for the occasion. The queen was their company commander.

At Westminster Hall, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Dean of Westminster David Hoyle read prayers at the service. Those in attendance for the historic event included Catherine, Princess of Wales, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Camilla, Queen Consort.

At the end of the brief service, the queen’s body officially lay in state — and the doors of the great hall opened for the public to mourn their monarch.

Outside, lines of people several kilometers long had formed. They could face a wait of up to 27 hours to reach Westminster Hall.

“I haven’t had any sleep whatsoever. I’m just going with the energy that’s within. I feel very uplifted, very calm and happy. Happy to be able to show my last respects to the queen,” 61-year-old Stephen Holdgate said.

“She’s been there my entire life. She’s like a grandmother,” London resident Neil Martin told VOA.

Nearby, Bryony Stevenson waited in line with her 3-month-old baby.

“It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime occasions,” Stevenson said. “My little one was born a Jubilee baby, and it’s important for us to make this occasion, because it’s a huge part of history.”

Westminster Hall was built in 1097. It hosted King Henry VIII’s coronation banquet in 1509; the trial of Guy Fawkes in 1606, who plotted to blow up parliament; and the trial of King Charles I in 1649 following the English Civil War. For the next four days, the hall is playing no less a historic role in this ancient kingdom.

Elizabeth died Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a place she cherished and where Charles became king.

The queen’s funeral is scheduled for Monday at Westminster Abbey, with numerous world leaders expected to attend. The coffin will then be taken to Windsor for the committal service, where the queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was laid to rest in April 2021.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

Her coffin was carried into Westminster Hall by guardsmen from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, who had been flown back from Iraq for the occasion. The queen was their company commander.
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The body of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was taken from Buckingham Palace Wednesday to Westminster Hall, where she will lie in state for four days ahead of her funeral. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak.

At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19.

“We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. “Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”

In its weekly report on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said deaths fell by 22% in the past week, at just over 11,000 reported worldwide. There were 3.1 million new cases, a drop of 28%, continuing a weeks-long decline in the disease in every part of the world.

Still, the WHO warned that relaxed COVID testing and surveillance in many countries means that many cases are going unnoticed. The agency issued a set of policy briefs for governments to strengthen their efforts against the coronavirus ahead of the expected winter surge of COVID-19, warning that new variants could yet undo the progress made to date.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty,” Tedros said.

The WHO reported that the omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to dominate globally and comprised nearly 90% of virus samples shared with the world’s biggest public database. In recent weeks, regulatory authorities in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere have cleared tweaked vaccines that target both the original coronavirus and later variants including BA.5.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said the organization expected future waves of the disease, but was hopeful those would not cause many deaths.

Meanwhile in China, residents of a city in the country’s far western Xinjiang region have said they are experiencing hunger, forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a lockdown prompted by COVID-19.

Hundreds of posts from Ghulja riveted users of Chinese social media last week, with residents sharing videos of empty refrigerators, feverish children and people shouting from their windows.

On Monday, local police announced the arrests of six people for “spreading rumors” about the lockdown, including posts about a dead child and an alleged suicide, which they said “incited opposition” and “disrupted social order.”

Leaked directives from government offices show that workers are being ordered to avoid negative information and spread “positive energy” instead. One directed state media to film “smiling seniors” and “children having fun” in neighborhoods emerging from the lockdown.

The government has ordered mass testing and district lockdowns in cities across China in recent weeks, from Sanya on tropical Hainan island to southwest Chengdu, to the northern port city of Dalian.
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Belarusian journalist Dzyanis Ivashyn has been sentenced to 13 years and one month in prison on a high treason charge.

The Hrodna regional court in the country’s west also ruled on September 14 that Ivashyn must pay a fine and compensation to nine unspecified victims.

Ivashyn’s trial started in mid-August behind closed doors.

Ivashyn was arrested in March last year by the Belarusian KGB and charged with high treason, though his colleagues say the arrest was connected with his publications about former Ukrainian Berkut members employed by the Belarusian police.

The arrest came amid a crackdown on independent journalists, opposition politicians, and rights activists following unprecedented mass protests challenging the results of an August 2020 presidential poll that announced authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as the winner.

Rights activists and opposition politicians say the poll was rigged to extend Lukashenko’s rule.

Thousands have been detained during countrywide protests and there have been credible reports of torture and ill-treatment by security forces. Several people have died during the crackdown.

Many of Belarus’s opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, while Lukashenko has refused to negotiate with the opposition.

Belarusian human rights organizations have recognized Ivashyn as a political prisoner.

The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenko as the winner of the vote and imposed several rounds of sanctions on him and his regime, citing election fraud and the police crackdown.
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As Russia faces further isolation from the West after its invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet in Uzbekistan, a gathering that should indicate the strength of the cooperation between the two countries. Marcus Harton narrates this report from the VOA Moscow Bureau.
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Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II is taken from Buckingham Palace to London’s Westminster Hall where she will lie in state at parliament. King Charles III walks behind the carriage carrying the queen’s coffin. His sons, William and Harry, and his siblings, Anne, Andrew and Edward join him. Large crowds are seen along the route, with tens of thousands of people travel to Westminster to pay their respects.
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Armenia and Azerbaijan reported nearly 100 troop deaths Tuesday in their worst fighting since a 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

The last wave of fighting over Azerbaijan’s tense Armenian-populated enclave ended in a fragile truce brokered by Russia.  

But on Tuesday, the defense ministry in Baku said, “50 Azerbaijani servicemen died as a result of Armenia’s large-scale provocation,” while Armenia earlier reported the deaths of at least 49 of its soldiers. 

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of violating the cease-fire after a night of clashes that renewed fears of another all-out conflict between the historic foes. 

Russia said it had reached a cease-fire between the warring parties that brought several hours of relative calm, but Azerbaijan later accused Armenian forces of “intensely” violating the agreement. 

“Despite the declaration of a cease-fire since 9 (Moscow time, 0600 GMT), Armenia is intensively violating the cease-fire along the border by using artillery and other heavy weapons,” Baku’s military said. 

Armenia appealed to world leaders for help after the fighting broke out, accusing Azerbaijan of trying to advance on its territory. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the leaders of both countries Tuesday, with his spokesman saying Washington would “push for an immediate halt to fighting and a peace settlement” between the neighbors. 

French President Emmanuel Macron called his Azerbaijan counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday to express “great concern” and urge a “return to respecting the cease-fire.” 

He also called for intensified negotiations and offered to contribute along with the European Union, the Elysee said. 

The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had earlier spoken with Macron, as well as calling Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Blinken to demand a response to “Azerbaijan’s aggressive acts.” 

Tuesday’s escalation came as Yerevan’s closest ally Moscow, which deployed thousands of peacekeepers in the region after the 2020 war, is distracted by its six-month-old invasion of Ukraine. 

Armenia’s defense ministry said clashes had subsided after the cease-fire but that the situation on the border was still “extremely tense.” 

The defense ministry in Yerevan said the clashes started early Tuesday, with Armenian territory coming under fire from artillery, mortars and drones in the direction of the cities of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk. 

“The enemy is trying to advance” into Armenian territory, it said in a statement. 

Azerbaijan, however, accused Armenia of “large-scale subversive acts” near the districts of Dashkesan, Kelbajar and Lachin, and said its armed forces were taking “limited and targeted steps, neutralizing Armenian firing positions.” 

Baku’s long-standing political and military sponsor Turkey blamed Armenia and urged it instead to “focus on peace negotiations.” 

Iran, which shares a border with both countries, urged “restraint” and a “peaceful resolution” to the fighting. 

The EU and the United Nations expressed concerns over the escalation and called for an end to the fighting. 

Before the cease-fire was announced, Armenia’s security council asked for military help from Moscow, which is obligated under a treaty to defend Armenia in the event of foreign invasion. 

Armenian political analyst Tatul Hakobyan said the escalation in fighting was a consequence of the “deadlock” in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. 

“Azerbaijan wants to force Armenia to recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,” he told AFP. “The war in Ukraine has changed the balance of forces in the region and Russia, which is a guarantor of peace in the region, is in a very bad shape.  

“In this situation, Azerbaijan wants to get concessions from Armenia as soon as possible,” he added. 

Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in a border shootout. 

In August, Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier and the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed and more than a dozen wounded. 

The neighbors fought two wars — in the 1990s and in 2020 — over the region. 

The six weeks of brutal fighting in autumn 2020 ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire. 

Under the deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Moscow deployed about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce. 

During EU-mediated talks in Brussels in May and April, Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed to “advance discussions” on a future peace treaty. 

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives. 

 
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From the world’s second-smallest state, Monaco, to the most populous country, India, representatives from more than 20 governments and international organizations on Monday condemned the Taliban’s policies of shutting down secondary schools and denying other fundamental rights to Afghan girls and women.

Even Pakistan, the purported benefactor of the Taliban, voiced concern at a United Nations dialogue on human rights in Afghanistan about the denial of education for Afghan girls. The dialogue was part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session, which opened Monday in Geneva.

Russia and China notably did not join in the criticism. A Russian diplomat pointed to progress made for women’s rights under the Taliban.

“We note efforts by the new Afghan government to ensure the rights of women and girls in the areas of marriage and property inheritance,” a Russian representative told the U.N. event, adding that more than 130,000 women are employed in the health and education sectors.

No Taliban representative was present at the event because the U.N. does not recognize the Taliban’s so-called Islamic Emirate as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Instead, diplomats of the former Afghan government are still accredited as Afghan representatives at U.N. headquarters in New York and Geneva.

The Russian diplomat further said that some schools were closed because the Taliban could not afford to set up segregated classrooms for girls. He blamed the United States and other Western donors for freezing aid to Afghanistan and imposing sanctions on the Taliban which, according to the Russian diplomat, have adversely affected the Afghan education sector.

“We call on the U.S. and the U.K. and their satellites — instead of issuing new demands to the Taliban, to begin fulfilling their own obligations for the past conflict,” he said, adding that the current crisis in Afghanistan was a result of the past two decades of U.S. intervention there.

While calling for the return of girls to secondary schools in Afghanistan, a Chinese representative also avoided criticizing the Taliban’s policy.

“We call on the countries concerned to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and to lift unilateral sanctions,” the Chinese representative said.

Monday’s statement was the strongest that any Russian official has made in support of the Taliban.

“The Russian representative’s statements in Geneva aren’t consistent with what Russia has said before in other settings about Afghanistan,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

“As recently as this June, Russia agreed to a strongly worded statement by the U.N. Security Council about Afghanistan in which the Security Council as a bloc, including Russia, called on the Taliban to let girls go to school.”

Even the Taliban have not said that Western sanctions and the resulting economic problems have forced them to shut secondary schools for girls. Taliban officials have offered religious and cultural justifications for their decision against secondary education for girls.

“We recognize that the economic crisis is impacting the humanitarian situation. We agree about that. But the idea that it’s responsible for the fact that [the] Taliban do not let girls go to secondary schools is absurd. It is preposterous. It is a lie,” said Sifton.

Women ‘erased’

The U.N. and human rights groups accuse the Taliban of implementing policies that are aimed at erasing women from the public spheres.

“There is no country in the world where women and girls have so rapidly been deprived of their fundamental human rights purely because of gender,” Richard Bennett, U.N. special rapporteur on Afghanistan, told the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session.

“Do you know what that feeling is, to be erased?” Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist, asked the same session. “I’m erased, and I don’t know what else to do. … How many times am I supposed to yell and scream and say, ‘World, pay attention to us. We are dying’?”

The Taliban have defended their policies toward Afghan women while accusing the U.N. and rights activists of spreading “malicious propaganda” against their de facto government.

“Today, nothing threatens the lives of women in Afghanistan, and no woman or her loved ones die in the war or raids,” said a Taliban statement issued in response to Bennett’s report. “There are 181 public and private universities open for men and women in the country, and thousands of women work in education, higher education, public health, passport and national identification bureaus, airports, police, media, banks and other sectors.”

Such statements, however, are viewed with deep skepticism outside Taliban circles.

The Taliban have become increasingly authoritarian, clamping down on freedom of expression and denying people their civic and political rights, the U.N. has reported.

At the U.N. event, representatives from many countries called for stronger international pressure on the Taliban to respect women’s rights.

“Anyone seeking to participate in the international system must respect [women’s rights]. If we don’t all insist on that, then shame on us,” said Michèle Taylor, U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

In April, the U.N. General Assembly suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council because of the country’s reported atrocities in Ukraine.
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The coffin of Queen Elizabeth is flown to London from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh after lying in St. Giles’ Cathedral. In London, her coffin will be driven to Buckingham Palace, her official home.
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The European Union wants to enact tougher rules for media groups seeking to acquire smaller rivals on whether their deals ensure media pluralism and safeguard editorial independence, according to draft EU rules seen by Reuters.

The Media Freedom Act (MFA), which the European Commission will present later this week, comes during concerns about media freedom in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia.

The EU is also worried about the allocation of some countries’ state advertising to pro-government outlets to influence the media.

The rules will apply to TV and radio broadcasters, on-demand audiovisual media services, press publications and very large online platforms and providers of video-sharing platforms.

They will need to be thrashed out with EU countries and lawmakers before they can become law in a process likely to take a year or more.

The concerns around media freedoms have grown ahead of European Parliament elections in 2024.

“It should be considered whether other media outlets, providing different and alternative content, would still coexist in the given market(s) after the media market concentration in question,” the document said.

Editorial independence safeguards should consider undue interference by owners, management or governance structures, it added.

The proposed rules also require regulators to examine whether the merging companies would remain economically sustainable if there was no deal.

The EU executive and a new European Board for Media Services can offer their opinions on whether the two criteria have been met.

State advertising to media service providers should be transparent and non-discriminatory, the document said.

The proposed rules set out the right of journalists and media service providers not to be detained, sanctioned, subjected to surveillance or search and seizure by EU

governments and regulatory bodies.
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In addition to fighting on the front lines, Ukrainians are fighting on the economic battlefront. Businesses are trying to survive, and with a bit of help, succeed. A new online platform helps them do just that. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Andre Sergunin.
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