Azerbaijani and Turkish Leaders Hold Talks, Eye Land Corridor via Armenia

Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia's Goris, the town in Syunik region, Armenia, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov)
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia's Goris, the town in Syunik region, Armenia, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov)
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Azerbaijani and Turkish Leaders Hold Talks, Eye Land Corridor via Armenia

Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia's Goris, the town in Syunik region, Armenia, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov)
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Armenia's Goris, the town in Syunik region, Armenia, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted talks on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at which he hinted at the prospect of creating a land corridor between their two countries via Armenia, which opposes the idea.

Erdogan pointedly flew into Azerbaijan's autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, a strip of territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Türkiye that Ankara and Baku want to link up with rump Azerbaijan by carving out a land corridor that would run through southern Armenia.

Aliyev in 2021 threatened to create such a corridor - that would create a contiguous land bridge between close allies Türkiye and Azerbaijan and deprive Armenia of a land border with Iran - "whether Armenia likes it or not."

The symbolic choice of location for Monday's talks, less than a week after Azerbaijani forces swept into Nagorno-Karabakh to retake control of the breakaway region, is likely to worry the authorities in Armenia, who have in the past rejected such a land corridor while being theoretically open to restoring severed road and rail links.

At a joint news conference at which neither man took any questions, President Aliyev lamented that Soviet-era authorities had deemed part of what he said should have been territory belonging to the Azerbaijani Soviet republic as land belonging to the Armenian Soviet republic.

"The land link between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan (the exclave) was thus cut off," complained Aliyev.

An influential telegram channel linked to Karabakh Armenians called "Re:public of Artsakh" said Aliyev's words looked ominous.

"The new target of Azerbaijan and Türkiye is Syunik (a province in southern Armenia through which such a corridor would pass). They are already openly declaring it. Active preparations for war are underway," it said.

Erdogan and Aliyev were due to inspect a newly-modernized military facility in Nakhchivan and to attend a ground-breaking ceremony for a new gas pipeline from Türkiye.

Russia, which has military facilities in Armenia and a defense pact with Yerevan, is busy prosecuting its own war in Ukraine. It is at odds with Armenia's current prime minister who it deems to be too pro-Western and is keen to further cultivate ties with Baku and Ankara.

Erdogan told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday last week, the day that Azerbaijan began its military operation to retake control of Karabakh, that there was what he called "an historic opportunity to build peace" in the South Caucasus region.

"(But) Armenia is not making the most of this historical chance," Erdogan complained.

"We expect a comprehensive peace agreement between the two countries (Azerbaijan and Armenia) as soon as possible and for promises to be quickly fulfilled, especially on the opening of the Zangezur (land) corridor."

That was a reference to the terms of a 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia that spoke of unblocking economic and transport connections between western Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, a clause which Baku and Yerevan have since interpreted differently.



Rescue Teams Search for Missing in Bosnia’s Floods

A damaged car is seen after flood hit the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP)
A damaged car is seen after flood hit the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP)
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Rescue Teams Search for Missing in Bosnia’s Floods

A damaged car is seen after flood hit the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP)
A damaged car is seen after flood hit the village of Donja Jablanica, Bosnia, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP)

Rescuers dug through rubble in the village of Donja Jablanica on Saturday morning in search for people who went missing in Bosnia's deadliest floods in years that hit the Balkan country on Friday.

The N1 TV reported that 21 people died and that dozens went missing in the Jablanica area, 70 kilometers (43.5 miles)southwest of Sarajevo.

The government is due to hold a press conference later.

"There are some villages in the area that still cannot be reached, and we don't know what we will find there," said a spokesperson for the Mountain Rescue Service whose teams are involved in search.

Heavy rain overnight halted search, Bosnian media reported, but as it stopped the search continued. In Donja Jablanica many houses were still under rubble.

Nezima Begovic, 62, was lucky. Her house is damaged, but she came out unhurt.

"I heard people screaming and suddenly it was all quiet. Then I said everyone is dead there," she told Reuters.

Due to flash flooding on Friday a quarry above Donja Jablanica collapsed and rubble poured over houses and cars in the village.

Enes Imamovic, 66, said he was woken by loud noises at around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Friday.

"Everything was white (from the stones and dust that came down from the quarry), My friends' house was gone. I heard screams," Imamovic told Reuters.

The Bosnian Football Association (NFSBIH) has postponed all matches due to floods.

Bosnia's election commission decided to postpone local elections this weekend in municipalities affected by floods, but to carry on with voting elsewhere.

The floods follow an unprecedented summer drought which caused many rivers and lakes to dry up, and affected agriculture and the supply of water to urban areas throughout the Balkans and much of Europe.

Meteorologists said extreme weather changes can be attributed to climate change.