Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan’s ambassador denies Turkish-backed Syrian Islamists are helping fight Armenia (E931)

In this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK, Tahir Taghizadeh, about the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. He discusses the allegations of Turkish-backed Syrian Islamists fighting alongside the Azerbaijani army, and of the involvement of both Armenians from outside Armenia and Iranians on the side of Armenia, as well as of Armenia attacking Azerbaijan’s territories beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. He considers Canada’s decision to suspend arms exports to Azerbaijan out of fear its arms could be used in the conflict, and the threat that the current situation will escalate to include more regional and international powers such as Russia. And he’s quizzed as to why foreign journalists have been barred from Azerbaijan.

In part two, we speak to world-renowned investigative journalist Greg Palast, who has exposed mass voter suppression and the purging of voter rolls in the United States. He discusses Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and its impact on the election, and the upcoming debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris. He shares his opinion of Trump taking off his mask on his return to the White House, despite being infected with Covid-19, and why he believes he’ll still be president after November 3. Finally, he muses on the probability of violence from far-right groups during and after the election, and why it’s likely millions of ballots will be discarded, and more.

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STATEMENT ADDITION

Statement from the Armenian embassy in London: 

Points made for Going Underground by the press-secretary of the Embassy Aram Araratyan

- What we have been hearing and witnessing since 27 September is exactly the choice of war and at the expense of the peace process, the breakdown of the peace negotiations by Azerbaijan and the massive attack that they have in a premeditory pre-planned manner across the entire perimeter on the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh with the massive politically and military support of Turkey, which has been showing its aggressive, unilateral support to Azerbaijan and aggressive approach towards Armenia. This is a massive escalation and the consequences for which political military leadership of Azerbaijan bears all responsibility. Despite all calls from the international community Azerbaijan continues its blatant attack accompanied by the deliberate targeting of civilian population and infrastructure of Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, and other cities with prohibited weapons, including cluster bombs (see video links below) as a result of which 19 civilians have been killed and more than hundred are injured.