Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began a mass exodus of cars towards Armenia after Azerbaijan defeated the separatist region’s fighters in a conflict dating back to the Soviet era.
The Armenian government said late Sunday evening that 1,050 people had crossed into the country from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The government added in a statement, “As of 22:00 (1800 GMT), 1,050 people had entered Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The leadership of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh told Reuters earlier today that the 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh will leave for Armenia because they do not want to live under the sovereignty of Azerbaijan and fear ethnic cleansing.
A Reuters correspondent in the capital of Karabakh, known as Stepanakert to Armenians and Khankendi to Azerbaijan, said that those with fuel headed in their cars through the Lachin Corridor towards the border with Armenia.
Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars leaving the capital at night towards the mountain pass full of curves.
The Armenians in Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but previously outside Baku’s control, were forced to declare a ceasefire on September 20 after a lightning military operation carried out by Azerbaijan’s more numerous and powerful army within 24 hours.
Azerbaijan says it will guarantee their rights and integrate the region into the rest of the country, but Armenians say they fear repression.
David Babayan, advisor to the president of the Republic of Artsakh, which was declared unilaterally by the separatists, told Reuters, “Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. 99.9 percent prefer to leave our historic land.”
He continued, saying, “The fate of our poor people will be recorded in history as a disgrace and a stain on the forehead of the Armenians and the entire civilized world. Those responsible for this fate of ours will one day be held accountable before God for their sins.”
Armenian leaders in Karabakh said in a statement that Russian peacekeepers will accompany all those displaced by Azerbaijan’s military operation and want to leave for Armenia.
Near the village of Kornidzor on the Armenian border, Reuters reporters saw some cars packed with people crossing into Armenia.
It is not yet clear when the bulk of Armenians will move to Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh region.. a conflict of history, geography and ethnicity
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is facing calls to resign over his failure to save Karabakh. Pashinyan said in a speech to his compatriots on Sunday that some aid had arrived, but it seemed that mass exodus was inevitable.
He added, “The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh remain vulnerable to ethnic cleansing…Humanitarian supplies have arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh during the past few days, but this does not change the situation.”
He continued, saying, “If real living conditions are not created for the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in their homes and effective mechanisms to protect against ethnic cleansing, the possibility is increasing that the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh will be expelled from their land, considering this the only way to salvation.”
“Our government will cordially welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh,” he was quoted by the Russian TASS news agency as saying.
A mass exodus could change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, which is inhabited by a mix of ethnicities and has oil and gas pipelines running through it, and Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are fighting for influence there.
A victory achieved by Azerbaijan last week appears to have put a decisive end to one of the “frozen conflicts” that lasted for decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. President Ilham Aliyev said that his “iron fist” made the idea of an independent region for ethnic Armenians in Karabakh a thing of the past and that the region would turn into a “paradise” in Azerbaijan.
Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in Azerbaijan’s military operation.
First Karabakh War
Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh, is located in a region controlled for centuries by Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia claimed sovereignty over it after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. During the Soviet era, it was classified as an autonomous region within Azerbaijan.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenians there shook off Azerbaijan’s nominal control and seized adjacent territory in what is now known as the First Karabakh War. About 30,000 were killed and more than a million were displaced, most of them from Azerbaijan, in the period from 1988 to 1994. After skirmishes that continued for decades, Azerbaijan in 2020, with the support of Turkey, won the decisive 44-day Second Karabakh War and regained control of areas in and around Karabakh. . That war ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, and Armenians accuse Moscow of failing to ensure its implementation.
Armenian authorities in the region said late Saturday that about 150 tons of humanitarian shipments from Russia and another 65 tons of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross had arrived in the region.
“Given the scale of the humanitarian needs, we are intensifying our presence there with personnel specialized in the fields of health, forensics, protection and weapons contamination,” the committee said in a statement.
With 2,000 peacekeepers in the region, Russia said it had delivered, as of Saturday, six armored vehicles, more than 800 small arms, anti-tank weapons and man-portable air defense systems, as well as 22,000 rounds of ammunition under the terms of the ceasefire.
Pashinyan, who has publicly accused Russia of not supporting Armenia, said on Friday that he had prepared a place to accommodate 40,000 Karabakhs in Armenia.
Azerbaijan, whose population is mostly Muslim, has said that Armenians, who are Christians, can leave if they want.
Pashinyan said that his country will review the issue of its alliance with Moscow.
He added in his speech today, “Some of our partners are making increasing efforts to expose our security weaknesses, endangering not only our external security and stability, but also internal ones, while violating all rules of conduct in diplomatic relations and relations between states, including the commitments made.” under treaties.”
Russian officials say Pashinyan is to blame for his mishandling of the crisis, and have repeatedly stated that Armenia, which borders Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has few other friends in the region.
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2023-09-24 23:46:11
