RFE/RL -- At least two Azerbaijani soldiers have been killed in renewed fighting with Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, it emerged on Wednesday.

FNA -- Armenian Minister of Agriculture Gerasim Alaverdyan announced that his country is importing wheat from Iran due to Russia's ban on wheat exports.

The Mancho Group Company is now dealing with Iran, Alaverdyan said on Monday.

The minister further said that the wheat is to undergo a quality examination.

Iranian Minister of Agricultural Jihad Sadeq Khalilian said last week that Iranian wheat output will reach 14.5 million tons this year (ends on March 20).

This month, it landed on the editorial pages of two Washington newspapers, adding fuel to the controversy that began in May, when Matthew Bryza's nomination was first announced.

Bryza was one of the most visible U.S. officials in the Caucasus region during the administration of former President George W. Bush, serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. He was also the U.S. co-chair of the Minsk Group, which seeks to broker a settlement to the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Bryza's nomination has been harshly criticized by Armenian groups for what they see as his pro-Azerbaijan bias and alleged personal ties to the regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

RFE/RL -- An Azerbaijani soldier has been taken prisoner after crossing into Armenian-controlled territory north of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Karabakh Armenian military announced over the weekend.

In a short statement, the Karabakh Defense Army said Roman Huseynov, a 25-year-old Azerbaijani army sergeant, surrendered to its forces late on Friday.

Citing the results of a “preliminary inquiry,” it said Huseynov did so because of being subjected to “regular humiliating actions” by his commanders. “Details of the incident are being clarified,” added the statement.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry did not refute or confirm the report as of Monday evening. News reports from Baku said on Monday the local office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICCR) has asked its counterparts in Armenia to verify the information.

RFE/RL -- Risking a renewed confrontation with the government, the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) announced on Monday its intention to rally supporters in a historic square in downtown Yerevan for the first time in over 18 months.

The HAK decided earlier this summer to resume its regular street demonstrations in the capital on September 17. Some of its senior figures have spoken of a new opposition push for leadership change in Armenia.

RFE/RL -- President Serzh Sarkisian downplayed the significance of a new United Nations resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict pushed by Azerbaijan as he visited Stepanakert on Sunday.

RFE/RL -- Reacting to the signing of a new Russian-Armenian defense agreement, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s chief foreign policy aide has claimed that both Russia and the West support Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Asbarez  Turkey will join other NATO alliance countries in September for a six day disaster response exercise in Armenia, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday in an interview with the Azeri ANS TV station.

The exercise, organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center, is part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace initiative.

It will be held on September 11-17 and will including a command post element, and training and demonstration day. It will be based on a fictitious scenario in which a serious civil emergency erupts in the town of Arzni in Armenia’s Kotayk Province.

Davutoglu sought to play down his government’s involvement in the exercises, denying it was a signal that Ankara would soon be dropping its blockade on Armenia. “Many people are exaggerating this issue,” he said.

ArmenianWeekly Upon the invitation of President Serge Sarkisian, Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana Medvedeva arrived in Yerevan on a state visit for two days on the evening of Aug. 19.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, Special Representative of the President in the north-west region Ilya Klepanov, Ulyanovka Governor Sergey Morozov, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia Vyacheslav Kovalenko, and other officials were among the Russian delegation that landed at Zvartnots Airport.

The main objective of the visit was to finalize the proposed 49-year lease on Russia’s 102nd military base presence in Armenia, which was the hottest topic of the Armenian media in the last few weeks.

TertAm  Russia won't be able to avoid interference should Armenia be involved in military actions, politologist Levon Shirinyan told Tert.am, asked to comment on the recently signed defense pact between Armenian and Russia that prolongs the deployment of Russian military base in Armenia's second-largest town of Gyumri until 2046.

"A country that is in a covenant relationship [with Armenia] will hardly manage avoiding such a situation, even if it wants," said he, adding that if pursuing a wise policy Armenia can take steps leading Russia to interference, should a war be unleashed against Nagorno Karabakh. "Eventually, we do not know whether the [military] agreement has secret protocols or not."

TertAm  The defense pact recently signed between Armenia and Russia during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Armenia is an affair up to Yerevan and Moscow, official representative of the US State Department Mark Toner said at a briefing asked to comment about it.

“Well, I think we’d view it as a bilateral issue between Russia and Armenia. Obviously, the United States enjoys a strong partnership with Armenia. We have every expectation that this will continue. And Russia is a member of – or part of the Minsk Group and so is playing a constructive role in that capacity,” he said.

The new agreement allows the deployment of the Russian military base in Armenia up to 2046.

RFE/RL YEREVAN -- Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian says the rumored sale by Russia of sophisticated Russian antiaircraft missiles to Azerbaijan will not give Baku a "strategic advantage" in the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

In an interview with RFE/RL, Ohanian also said that he has "no doubts" that under an agreement signed with Russia last week, Russia would openly support Armenia in the event of a new conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that "became a threat to the Republic of Armenia."

The agreement extended Russia's lease on its military base in northern Armenia until 2044 and gave it a greater role in ensuring Armenia's security. It also commits the Russians to supplying the Armenian military with modern weaponry.

Pro-government politicians and some analysts in Yerevan believe that this will discourage Azerbaijan from acting on its frequent threats to resolve the dispute by force.

RFE/RL Russia has had its military presence in Armenia extended by 24 years in order to protect its investments in massive commercial projects planned by the Armenian government, a leading member of President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) claimed on Wednesday.

A far-reaching agreement signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Armenia last week prolonged Russia’s lease on a military base headquartered in the northern city of Gyumri until 2044.

The fact that this was done ten years before the original expiry of the base’s mandate has raised eyebrows in Armenian opposition and expert circles. Two of the country’s main opposition forces have claimed that Moscow decided to secure a long-term Russian troop presence in the South Caucasus state now because its lacks faith in the Sarkisian administration.

But Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of the ruling HHK, spoke of primarily economic reasons for the move. “For Russia, this is also a guarantee of a [much higher] volume of [Russian-Armenian] economic relations that will soon become reality,” he told a news conference.

Sahakian pointed to the Russian government’s stated intention to partly finance the planned construction of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia and a railway linking it with neighboring Iran. “These projects are to be put into practice within about 10 years and exploited for another 10-15 years,” he said. “So I think that the 49-year period is connected with economic guarantees.”

Apart from sealing a new defense pact between their nations, Medvedev and Sarkisian also presided over the signing of an agreement to set up a Russian-Armenian joint venture tasked with building the new plant. Sergei Kirienko, the head of Russia’s Federal Agency on Atomic Energy (Rosatom), said the Russian side is ready to provide up to one-fifth of an estimated $5 billion needed for the realization of the ambitious project.

In addition, Russian and Armenian officials said they will look into the possibility of Russian participation in the Armenian-Iranian railway project.