WAR Main Armenia Versus Azerbaijan War Thread - Open Hostilities Underway Now
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northern watch
TB Fanatic
Azerbaijan wants to “reintegrate” Nagorno-Karabakh through force
How that would happen without a mass exodus of Armenians is unclear
Sep 19th 2023
The Economist
Editor’s note: On September 20th Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a Russian-mediated ceasefire. Armenian forces in the enclave will disarm and disband, and civilian representatives from Karabakh will take part in talks about the prospects for integration with Azerbaijan.
War returned to Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19th, accompanied by air sirens and drone strikes, as Azerbaijan launched a large army offensive against the Armenian enclave located inside its own territory. Azerbaijan’s defence ministry called the assault an “anti-terrorist operation”, intended to restore constitutional order and expel armed Armenian separatists from the region. Officials in Armenia, including the country’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, accused Azerbaijan of launching a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Armenians of Karabakh.
Videos posted online appeared to show armed drones taking out Armenian defences, and shelling near Stepanakert, the enclave’s capital. At least 25 people, including two civilians, have been killed across the region so far, according to the Nagorno-Karabakh human-rights ombudsman. “They haven’t stopped for 8-12 hours,” says Ruben Vardanyan, a former Karabakh official, describing the bombing. “It’s a full-scale war.”
Azerbaijan, it appears, now wants nothing short of Karabakh’s complete surrender. “They should disarm themselves and raise the white flag,” says Hikmet Hajiyev, an adviser to Azerbaijan’s president, referring to the region’s Armenian leaders.
Officials in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, say that the offensive is in large part a response to elections held in the separatist enclave on September 9th and recent land-mine explosions which killed six Azerbaijanis, including four police officers. But the attack seems to have been in the making for a long time. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of massing troops near the border separating the two countries and around Nagorno-Karabakh days before the elections.
Azerbaijan has also blocked the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, since late last year, so as to force the enclave’s leaders into submission. The result has been a severe shortage of food, medicine and fuel. Hunger is widespread. The government in Baku agreed to reopen the corridor on September 9th, in exchange for the opening of another road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with the rest of Azerbaijan.
image: the economist
Nagorno-Karabakh, populated these days exclusively by Armenians but formally part of Azerbaijan, has been bloodied by two large wars in three decades. The most recent of these, in 2020, saw Azerbaijan recapture territories around Karabakh occupied by ethnic Armenians since the 1990s, when the first war was fought.
A prolonged assault on Nagorno-Karabakh could produce tens of thousands of refugees, and yet more of the kind of atrocities seen during previous wars. Azerbaijan’s army has already announced the opening of “humanitarian corridors” along the Lachin corridor for Armenian civilians. That sounds less reassuring than ominous.
The offensive is supposed to ensure Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan, says Mr Hajiyev. But how this is supposed to happen without a mass exodus of the region’s 120,000 Armenians is unclear. The government in Baku refuses to offer Nagorno-Karabakh any special rights or security guarantees. “It will be just like any other region of Azerbaijan,” says Mr Hajiyev.
Western officials have so far contented themselves with the standard calls for calm. But more striking, and noticeable by its absence, is the reaction from Russia, the region’s long-time power-broker. The presence of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh as part of an armistice, was thought to mitigate against another large war. It has not. “The Russian peacekeepers are doing nothing,” says Mr Vardanyan. “They try to [stay] out of this war.”
Since the 2020 war, Armenia has regularly accused Russia, with which it has a defence pact, of leaving it out in the cold, and drawn closer to America. The country recently hosted military exercises featuring a small number of American troops. Armenia’s refusal to conduct exercises with Russian troops earlier this year, a more recent visit by Anna Hakobyan, Mr Pashinyan’s wife, to Ukraine, and the country’s plans to join the International Criminal Court, which has issued Vladimir Putin with an arrest warrant, have all ruffled feathers in Moscow. Once Armenia is a full member, it would be obliged to arrest Mr Putin if he went there.
As a result of all this, Russia’s dictator may now be out to punish Armenia. “The Russians have given Azerbaijanis a kind of green light to do something in Karabakh,” reckons Thomas de Waal, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, “and destabilise Armenia at the same time.” In 2013, 80% of Armenians saw Russia as a friend. That number recently dropped to 35%. And on September 19th, people in Yerevan marched down the main streets shouting “Russia is an enemy”.
Azerbaijan wants to “reintegrate” Nagorno-Karabakh through force
How that would happen without a mass exodus of Armenians is unclear
northern watch
TB Fanatic
I have heard that Russia has sent 2000 more peace keepers (soldiers) to Armenia
phloydius
Veteran Member
*Updated* & [Bolding, Mine.]
Russian peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh – Moscow
A group of Russian peacekeepers has been killed by unknown assailants in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said
Russian peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh – Moscow
A car carrying the servicemen came under small arms fire, the country’s Defense Ministry has said20 Sep, 2023 15:42
A group of Russian peacekeepers was killed in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday, when their vehicle came under small-arms fire, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The peacekeepers were returning to an observation post when their car was attacked by unknown assailants. All the servicemen inside the car were killed on the spot, the military said, without revealing the exact number of casualties.
Russian and Azerbaijani investigators are examining the scene of the incident, the military added.
The new escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh began on Tuesday when Baku launched “counter-terrorism measures of a local nature,” citing an alleged Armenian military buildup in the disputed region. Armenia denied that it had a troop presence, and accused Baku of starting “another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The Azerbaijani military subsequently advanced in multiple directions, breaching the positions of local forces. On Wednesday, the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh announced a ceasefire with Baku, following a proposal by Russian peacekeeping forces. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed the operation as a major success, stating that sovereignty had been restored over the region. Nagorno-Karabakh initially declared independence from Azerbaijan in the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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phloydius
Veteran Member
Sprinter
@Sprinter99800
Russian peacekeepers evacuated more than 2 thousand people, including 1,049 children, from the most dangerous areas of Karabakh - Russian Ministry of Defense.
Terror Alarm
@Terror_Alarm
Several Russian servicemen killed in Nagorno-Karabakh clashes.
At least 1000 Armenian kids were kidnapped and moved to Russia by Russian peacekeepers during the last 2 days.
301
@301arm
2,621 civilians, including 1,049 children, are currently being sheltered at the Russian peacekeepers' base camp in Artsakh.
@Sprinter99800
Russian peacekeepers evacuated more than 2 thousand people, including 1,049 children, from the most dangerous areas of Karabakh - Russian Ministry of Defense.
Terror Alarm
@Terror_Alarm
Several Russian servicemen killed in Nagorno-Karabakh clashes.
At least 1000 Armenian kids were kidnapped and moved to Russia by Russian peacekeepers during the last 2 days.
301
@301arm
2,621 civilians, including 1,049 children, are currently being sheltered at the Russian peacekeepers' base camp in Artsakh.
danielboon
TB Fanatic
View: https://twitter.com/AntiFashTweete/status/1704865649044890005*Updated* & [Bolding, Mine.]
Russian peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh – Moscow
A group of Russian peacekeepers has been killed by unknown assailants in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has saidwww.rt.com
Russian peacekeepers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh – Moscow
A car carrying the servicemen came under small arms fire, the country’s Defense Ministry has said
20 Sep, 2023 15:42
A group of Russian peacekeepers was killed in Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday, when their vehicle came under small-arms fire, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The peacekeepers were returning to an observation post when their car was attacked by unknown assailants. All the servicemen inside the car were killed on the spot, the military said, without revealing the exact number of casualties.
Russian and Azerbaijani investigators are examining the scene of the incident, the military added.
The new escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh began on Tuesday when Baku launched “counter-terrorism measures of a local nature,” citing an alleged Armenian military buildup in the disputed region. Armenia denied that it had a troop presence, and accused Baku of starting “another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The Azerbaijani military subsequently advanced in multiple directions, breaching the positions of local forces. On Wednesday, the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh announced a ceasefire with Baku, following a proposal by Russian peacekeeping forces. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed the operation as a major success, stating that sovereignty had been restored over the region. Nagorno-Karabakh initially declared independence from Azerbaijan in the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
northern watch
TB Fanatic
BREAKING – Pashinyan leaves CSTO – Russia: "Armenia will be dismembered – Remember what happens to those who rely on the US"!
"Armenia will lose the southern regions of the country"
27/09/2023 - 21:46War News 24 / 7
Russia issued a direct warning to Armenia and Pashinyan not to withdraw from the CSTO, stressing that "Yerevan will lose the southern regions of the country." In essence, Russia warned Armenia of partition.
The timing of the Russian warning is of great importance.
Pashinyan attacked the CSTO again, announcing a withdrawal at a time when clouds of a new Armenian-Azerbaijani war are thickening.
The cause of the new war is the Zangezur Corridor, which is necessary in order to connect Baku and the western regions of the country with Nakhchivan.
Pashinyan: CSTO security structures are 'ineffective' – They need to be replaced!
"The security structures to which Armenia belongs today are ineffective," President Nikol Pashinyan said.The Armenian prime minister addressed the citizens of the republic by talking about the ineffectiveness of the security structures in which Armenia is currently a member. According to Pashinyan, these structures did not prevent Azerbaijan's attack on Armenia and are therefore useless for the country.
"The attacks on Armenia carried out by Azerbaijan in recent years allow us to draw the obvious conclusion that the external security structures in which we participate are ineffective from the point of view of Armenia's state interests and security," the Armenian prime minister said.
Pashinyan stressed that Armenia must fully rebuild its security structure, both internal and external. According to him, Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijan cannot "properly" ensure the safety of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
This is not the first time he has attacked the CSTO.
In March, Pashinyan, speaking at a meeting with compatriots in Germany, called the CSTO's collective security structures a "soap bubble."
Russia: Remember what happens to those who rely on the US!
Russian Foreign Ministry Lavrov accused Armenia's leadership at the UN of cooperating with the United States and its allies by "adding fuel to the fire.""There is a group of NGOs in Armenia that promotes the interests of the United States and its allies and tries to undermine Russia's influence.
We know who's driving it. But the Armenian leadership itself is adding fuel to the fire." said the Russian Foreign Ministry
The leadership of Armenia should remember the unfortunate fate of the countries that relied on the United States.
Russia's interests in the Transcaucasus cannot be ignored historically and geopolitically.
There are many in the Armenian leadership who want to lose Russia and find new friends," Lavrov said.
"If you leave the CSTO, you will lose the southern regions of your country."
Russian pro-Kremlin media warn Pashinyan of dismembering the country. They shall indicate in particular:"The five years in power of Prime Minister Pashinyan have already cost the Armenian people Artsakh, as the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was formerly called.
If Nikol Pashinyan remains in power for a few more years, Yerevan also risks losing the southern Syunik region, which Muslim victorious countries, Azerbaijan and Turkey, need to open a land corridor between them.
After a meeting with Azerbaijani President Aliyev, held in Nakhchivan, his Turkish counterpart, R.T. Erdogan, made a very important statement to journalists:
The plan to establish direct connections with Nakhchivan and other regions of Azerbaijan via land and rail lines will strengthen our relations.
For this reason, we will do our best to open this corridor as soon as possible. The launch of this corridor, which is very important for Turkey and Azerbaijan, is a strategic issue and must be implemented.
True, according to the tripartite ceasefire agreement, which stopped the "44-day war" and was signed by Baku, Yerevan and Moscow, an agreement was reached on the opening of transport corridors to Transcaucasia. For Azerbaijan, it is important to open the so-called Zanzegur corridor, which will connect the Nakhichevan region with the rest of the country through rail and road communications.
What has happened in the three years since the second Karabakh war?
Azerbaijan and Turkey began to actively build the railway route and upgrade the existing one, as a result of which it is 70% ready.But Yerevan did not fulfill its part of its obligations under various pretexts. Apparently, Baku and Ankara simply got tired and Artsakh was finally liquidated.
Pashinyan's betrayal
Here it would be quite appropriate to quote the Russian Foreign Ministry's unexpectedly harsh official comment on Nikol Pashinyan's antics:In regional affairs, N.V. Pashinyan, instead of abiding by the gentlemen's agreement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in November 2020 to leave the question of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh to future generations, bowed to the exhortations of the West.
In Prague and Brussels, Pashinyan decided to act on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, recognizing Azerbaijan's sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh. This radically changed the conditions under which the trilateral declaration of 9 November 2020 was signed, as well as the position of the Russian peace corps. Due to the short-sightedness of the Armenian leadership, it has not been possible to implement certain agreements in the field of strengthening Armenia's security, in particular because of Pashinyan
Largely as a result of the inconsistent position of the Armenian leadership, the implementation of a series of trilateral agreements agreed at the highest level for the period 2020-2022 has stalled. Valuable time has been lost, during which significant progress could have been made in agreeing on a peace treaty, demarcating borders and unblocking regional communications, which would have been additional security factors for Armenia.
In general, Pashinyan "planned intelligently" or, rather, fulfilled what the Westerners brought him to power for. By 2020, it could retain most of Artsakh, until 2023 – at least part of it, and now we are talking about maintaining Armenia's sovereignty over Syunik.
Yes, this is exactly what happens:
Azerbaijan and Turkey insist on the extraterritorial status of the Zangezur corridor, which means Yerevan's legal and factual loss of sovereignty over part of its territory. So far, President Erdogan has strongly threatened how Pashinyan will regret it if he refuses:
If Armenia (does not contribute to the project), where will it go? This (the Zangezur corridor) will pass through Iran. It is pleasing to see positive signals from Iran on this issue. Because if there are positive signals from Iran, it means that the corridor (from Turkey and Nakhchivan) can be created to Iran and further to Azerbaijan.
It is clear that so far no one is threatening Armenia with the violent loss of the Syunik region, since it is a member of the CSTO and all its members will have to provide it with military assistance, as happened in 2022 in Kazakhstan. This is a fundamental difference from the situation with Nagorno-Karabakh, which no one, not even Armenia itself, has recognised.
But what will happen when Pashinyan withdraws Armenia from the CSTO, as he has already hinted many times?
Map with the Zangezur Corridor and the possible Azeri attack on Southern Armenia
O Πασινιάν αποχωρεί από τον CSTO – Ρωσία: “Η Αρμενία θα διαμελιστεί
Η Ρωσία απηύθυνε ευθεία προειδοποίηση-απειλή στην Αρμενία και στον Ν.Πασινιάν να μην αποχωρήσει από τον CSTO τονίζοντας ότι το "Ερεβάν
warnews247.gr
StarryEyedLad
désespéré pour le ciel
Armenia seems to finally be realizing that they have been thrown under the bus in favor of Azerbaijan.
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northern watch
TB Fanatic
70,000 Armenians, half of disputed enclave's population, have now fled
Ethnic Armenians are pouring out of Nagorno-Karabakh since Azerbaijan takeover.By Patrick Reevell
ABC News
September 28, 2023, 11:46 AM
LONDON -- At least 75,500 ethnic Armenian refugees have now fled Nagorno-Karabakh, in the last five days, which is more than half the disputed enclave's population, local authorities said Thursday, as the exodus from the region continues to accelerate.
It is feared the enclave's whole population will likely flee in the coming days, unwilling to remain under Azerbaijan's rule following its successful military offensive last week that defeated the ethnic Armenian separatist authorities and restored Azerbaijan's control after over three decades.
The leader of Nagorno-Karabakh's unrecognized Armenian state, the Republic of Artsakh, on Thursday announced its dissolution, signing a decree that it will "cease to exist" by Jan. 1, 2024.
De facto President Samvel Shahramanyan signed the decree declaring that "all state institutions" will be dissolved.
A statement describing the decree said based on the ceasefire agreement last week, Azerbaijan would allow the unhindered travel of all residents, including military personnel who laid down their arms. The local population should make their own decisions about the "possibility of staying (or returning)," the statement said.
The decree marks an end to Armenian control over the enclave, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and has been at the center of one of the world's most intractable conflicts for 35 years.
Disputed Region for Armenia Refugees
ABC News Illustration
Ethnic Armenians have lived for centuries in Nagorno-Karabakh. The current conflict dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Armenian separatists declared the republic and tried to break away from Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a bloody war over the enclave that saw hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians driven from the region and ended with the ethnic Armenians in control of most of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, defeating Armenia and forcing it to distance itself from the Karabakh Armenians. Russia brokered a peace agreement and deployed peacekeepers, who remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Last week, after blockading the enclave for nine months, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive that defeated the Karabakh Armenian forces in two days. Since Sunday, tens of thousands of ethnic Armenian civilians have left Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan opened the road out to Armenia.
Those leaving say they fear life under Azerbaijan will be intolerable and that they will face persecution.
Shortages of food, medicine and fuel have been reported inside the enclave. Those fleeing describe spending 30 hours in traffic jams to leave.
Siranush Sargsyan, a local freelance journalist living in Nagorno-Karabakh, told Reuters it was impossible for ethnic Armenians to remain.
"Of course I'm going to leave, because this place is too small for both of us. If they are here, we have to leave. We don't want to leave, but we don't have [any] other choice," she said.
Refugees sit on the back of a truck with loaded belongings near Kornidzor, Armenia on Sept. 28, 2023.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
Azerbaijan charged a former leader of the Karabakh Armenians with terrorism offenses on Thursday after detaining him a day earlier when he tried to leave the enclave with other refugees.
Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire who made his fortune in Moscow, moved to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022 and served as the head of its government for several months before stepping down earlier this year. A court in Azerbaijan's capital Baku charged him on Thursday with financing terrorism and creating an illegal armed group, which carries a potential maximum 14-year sentence.
The United States and other Western countries have expressed concern for the ethnic Armenian population. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev this week and urged him to provide international access to the enclave.
Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh walk along the road from Nagorno-Karabakh to Kornidzor in Syunik region, Armenia, Sept. 26, 2023.
Vasily Krestyaninov/AP
70,000 Armenians, half of disputed enclave's population, have now fled
At least 70,000 ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh, which is half the disputed enclave's population.
abcnews.go.com
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Over 93,000 Armenians have now fled disputed enclave Nagorno-Karabakh
About 75% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population has left since Azerbaijan's takeover.By Patrick Reevell
ABC News
September 29, 2023, 2:21 PM
At least 90,000 people in the region have crossed into Armenia, according to local authorities.
LONDON -- Over 93,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have fled Nagorno-Karabakh as of Friday, local authorities said, meaning 75% of the disputed enclave's entire population has now left in less than a week.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have been streaming out of Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's successful military operation last week that restored its control over the breakaway region. It's feared the whole population will likely leave in the coming days, in what Armenia has condemned as "ethnic cleansing."
Families packed into cars and trucks, with whatever belongings they can carry, have been arriving in Armenia after Azerbaijan opened the only road out of the enclave on Sunday. Those fleeing have said they are unwilling to live under Azerbaijan's rule, fearing they will face persecution.
Ethnic Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh walk on a road to Kornidzor, in Armenia's Syunik region, Sept. 26, 2023.
Vasily Krestyaninov/AP
"There will be no more Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days," Armenia's prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a televised government meeting on Thursday. "This is a direct act of ethnic cleansing," he said, adding that international statements condemning it were important but without concrete actions they were just "creating moral statistics for history."
Armenian refugees wait in a square of Goris city centre on Sept. 29, 2023 before being evacuated in various Armenian cities.
Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images
The United States and other western countries have expressed concern about the displacement of the Armenian population from the enclave, urging Azerbaijan to allow international access.
Armenians have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for centuries but the enclave is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan. It has been at the center of a bloody conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the late 1980s when the two former Soviet countries fought a war amid the collapse of the USSR.
That war left ethnic Armenian separatists in control of most of Nagorno-Karabakh and also saw hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians driven out. For three decades, an unrecognised Armenian state, called the Republic of Artsakh, existed in the enclave, while international diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict went nowhere.
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region sit in a bus upon their arrival in the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, September 29, 2023.
Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters
But in 2020, Azerbaijan reopened the conflict, decisively defeating Armenia and forcing it to abandon its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia brokered a truce and deployed peacekeeping forces, which remain there.
Last week, after blockading the enclave for 9 months, Azerbaijan launched a new military offensive to complete the defeat of the ethnic Armenian authorities, forcing them to capitulate in just two days.
The leader of the ethnic Armenian's unrecognised state, the Republic of Artsakh, on Thursday announced its dissolution, saying it would "cease to exist" by the end of the year.
Azerbaijan's authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev has claimed the Karabakh Armenians' rights will be protected but he has previously promoted a nationalist narrative denying Armenians have a long history in the region. In areas recaptured by his forces in 2020, some Armenian cultural sites have been destroyed and defaced.
Vehicles carrying refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inhabited by ethnic Armenians, queue on the road leading towards the Armenian border, in Nagorno-Karabakh, Sept. 26, 2023.
David Ghahramanyan/Reuters
Some Azerbaijanis driven from their homes during the war in the 1990s have returned to areas recaptured by Azerbaijan since 2020. Aliyev on Thursday said by the end of 2023, 5,500 displaced Azerbaijanis would return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Azerbaijan on Friday detained another former senior Karabakh Armenian official on Thursday as he tried to leave the enclave with other refugees. Azerbaijan's security services detained Levon Mnatsakanyan, who was commander of the Armenian separatists' armed forces between 2015-2018. Earlier this week, Azerbaijan arrested a former leader of the unrecognised state, Ruben Vardanyan, taking him to Baku and charging him with terrorism offenses.
Over 93,000 Armenians have now fled disputed enclave Nagorno-Karabakh
Over 93,000 Armenians have now fled Nagorno-Karabakh, 75% of the disputed enclave's entire population.
abcnews.go.com
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh's people have left, Armenia's government says
Armenia's government says an ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarmBy LILIT DEMURYAN Associated Press
September 30, 2023, 5:55 AM
An ethnic Armenian woman from Nagorno-Karabakh rests next to her belongings near a tent camp after arriving to Armenia's Goris in Syunik region, Armenia, on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. Armenian officials say that by Friday evening over 97,700 people had left Nagorno-Karabakh. The region's population was around 120,000 before the exodus began. (AP Photo/Vasily Krestyaninov)
YEREVAN, Armenia -- An ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm, the Armenian government said Saturday.
Nazeli Baghdasaryan, the press secretary to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said that 100,480 people had arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, which had a population of around 120,000 before Azerbaijan reclaimed the region in a lightning offensive last week.
A total of 21,076 vehicles had crossed the Hakari Bridge, which links Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, since last week, Baghdasaryan said. Some lined up for days because the winding mountain road that is the only route to Armenia became jammed.
The departure of more than 80% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population raises questions about Azerbaijan’s plans for the enclave, which was internationally recognized as part of its territory. The region's separatist ethnic Armenian government said Thursday it would dissolve itself by the end of the year after a three-decade bid for independence.
Pashinyan has alleged the ethnic Armenian exodus amounted to “a direct act of an ethnic cleansing and depriving people of their motherland.” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the characterization, saying the mass migration by the region's residents was “their personal and individual decision and has nothing to do with forced relocation.”
In a related development, Azerbaijani authorities on Friday arrested the former foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government, presidential adviser David Babayan, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office said Saturday.
Babayan's arrest follows the Azerbaijani border guard's detention of the former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government, State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, as he tried to cross into Armenia on Wednesday.
The arrests appear to reflect Azerbaijan’s intention to quickly enforce its grip on the region after the military offensive.
During three decades of conflict in the region, Azerbaijan and the separatists backed by Armenia have accused each other of targeted attacks, massacres and other atrocities, leaving people on both sides deeply suspicious and fearful.
While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, most are fleeing because they don’t trust Azerbaijani authorities to treat them humanely or to guarantee them their language, religion and culture.
After six years of separatist fighting ended in 1994 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia. Then, during a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of the region in the south Caucasus Mountains along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed earlier.
In December, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, accusing the Armenian government or using it for illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces.
Weakened by the blockade and with Armenia’s leadership distancing itself from the conflict, ethnic Armenian forces in the region agreed to lay down arms less than 24 hours after Azerbaijan began its offensive. Talks have begun between officials in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist authorities on “reintegrating” the region into Azerbaijan.
___
Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Elise Morton in London, contributed to this report.
Almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh's people have left, Armenia's government says
Armenia's government says an ethnic Armenian exodus has nearly emptied Nagorno-Karabakh of residents since Azerbaijan attacked and ordered the breakaway region’s militants to disarm
abcnews.go.com
emiliozapata
Senior Member
I am shocked that the western stooge leader of Armenia continues in power, what a disgraceful sell out of your nation and it's people
northern watch
TB Fanatic
From my email inbox Bloomberg Balance of Power October 3 2023
There’s bewilderment and anger among Armenians who’ve fled Nagorno-Karabakh over the international response to the sudden collapse of their 35-year struggle for independence in the wake of Azerbaijan’s lightning military victory.
“People were just playing chess, with us as the pieces,” one woman, Nune Avanisyan, said at an aid center in Armenia where she was seeking help.
The dissolution of the Armenians’ self-declared Artsakh Republic has brought the curtain down on a conflict that killed tens of thousands on both sides and created more than 1 million refugees, poisoning relations across the region.
The exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from their historical homeland is taking place against the background of a high-stakes political gamble in which world powers are vying for influence with little apparent heed to the population’s fears for their security.
The conflict meant Armenia and Azerbaijan don’t even have an agreed state border. Turkey closed its frontier with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, while Russia leveraged the conflict to maintain its influence in the region after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Now the territorial knot has been cut. The US and the European Union are pressing hard for Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a comprehensive peace agreement, seeing a chance to marginalize Moscow by stabilizing the region and opening transport routes that bypass Russia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are due to meet in Spain on Thursday. Both sides say they want peace even as fears are high that fresh fighting may erupt over Azerbaijan’s demand for a corridor across southern Armenia to its exclave of Naxcivan.
Still, a deal that may transform the region after decades of bloodshed is of little comfort for Armenians who’ve fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
At Armenia’s Yerablur national military cemetery, Artur Safaryan stood by the grave of a friend, Davit Arzumanyan, who’d died fighting in a 2020 war over the territory.
“Today, we are just lost,” he said. “We can’t understand what’s going on.” — Anthony Halpin
A service at the Saint Sargis church, part of nationwide prayers for Nagorno-Karabakh, in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Sunday. Photographer: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images
There’s bewilderment and anger among Armenians who’ve fled Nagorno-Karabakh over the international response to the sudden collapse of their 35-year struggle for independence in the wake of Azerbaijan’s lightning military victory.
“People were just playing chess, with us as the pieces,” one woman, Nune Avanisyan, said at an aid center in Armenia where she was seeking help.
The dissolution of the Armenians’ self-declared Artsakh Republic has brought the curtain down on a conflict that killed tens of thousands on both sides and created more than 1 million refugees, poisoning relations across the region.
The exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from their historical homeland is taking place against the background of a high-stakes political gamble in which world powers are vying for influence with little apparent heed to the population’s fears for their security.
The conflict meant Armenia and Azerbaijan don’t even have an agreed state border. Turkey closed its frontier with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, while Russia leveraged the conflict to maintain its influence in the region after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Now the territorial knot has been cut. The US and the European Union are pressing hard for Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a comprehensive peace agreement, seeing a chance to marginalize Moscow by stabilizing the region and opening transport routes that bypass Russia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are due to meet in Spain on Thursday. Both sides say they want peace even as fears are high that fresh fighting may erupt over Azerbaijan’s demand for a corridor across southern Armenia to its exclave of Naxcivan.
Still, a deal that may transform the region after decades of bloodshed is of little comfort for Armenians who’ve fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
At Armenia’s Yerablur national military cemetery, Artur Safaryan stood by the grave of a friend, Davit Arzumanyan, who’d died fighting in a 2020 war over the territory.
“Today, we are just lost,” he said. “We can’t understand what’s going on.” — Anthony Halpin
A service at the Saint Sargis church, part of nationwide prayers for Nagorno-Karabakh, in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Sunday. Photographer: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images
StarryEyedLad
désespéré pour le ciel
I don't know...I'm wondering if Azerbaijan's next move will be to take over Armenian territory to unite with Naxcivan so that it's no longer an exclave?
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave emptied after entire ethnic Armenian population flees
More than 100,000 Armenians have fled in what's being called "ethnic cleansing."By Patrick Reevell
ABC News
October 2, 2023, 2:06 PM
LONDON -- Virtually the entire ethnic Armenian population of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh has fled, with the last buses carrying refugees having left on Monday, according to Russia's peacekeeping force deployed there.
More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians left the enclave in the last week, according to local officials, abandoning their homes after Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, recaptured the region with a military offensive just over a week ago.
The exodus has emptied the enclave in what Armenia has condemned as "ethnic cleansing."
A television news crew from Al Jazeera showed the region's capital, known to Armenians as Stepanakert, completely deserted. The city, which had a population estimated at more than 50,000, appeared now to be a ghost town. The Al Jazeera crew showed the city's central square abandoned and strewn with empty chairs, used by people waiting for evacuation.
Before Azerbaijan's offensive, the enclave's population was estimated at 120,000. But a spokesperson for the Karabakh Armenians' unrecognized state's emergency services ministry on Sunday said only a tiny handful of people now remained in the enclave.
Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh get humanitarian aid from NGOs on October 1, 2023 in Goris, Armenia.
Astrig Agopian/Getty Images
Azerbaijan's authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev, announced plans for Nagorno-Karabakh's reintegration into his country, signaling he intended to quickly restore strong control over it.
The region will now be overseen by special representative offices to Azerbaijan's president and security will be handled by Azerbaijan's interior ministry, Aliyev said. Azerbaijan's currency, the manat, would be reintroduced.
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave emptied after entire ethnic Armenian population flees
ABC News Illustration, International Crisis Group -The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Aliyev said the equality of rights and freedoms, including security, would be guaranteed for all residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, and it would be permitted to use Armenian there. He also pledged that religious freedoms would be guaranteed, and cultural and religious monuments protected.
The pledges appeared to ignore the fact that the enclave's Armenian population had already fled. The Armenians fleeing have said they don't believe Azerbaijan's guarantees of their rights and fear they would face persecution.
Armenians, who are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, board a bus for Lissagorsk.
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
A United Nations mission also arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh Sunday to assess humanitarian needs, but it faced heavy criticism from local ethnic Armenian authorities who said they were far too late, given the civilian population was no longer there.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a bloody conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades. Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, it had been home to an ethnic Armenian population for centuries. As the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenians tried to break away from Azerbaijan, declaring independence.
A bloody war, in which Armenia aided the separatists, saw hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians also driven out of the region and ended with ethnic Armenians controlling most of Nagorno-Karabakh with their own unrecognized state.
But Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, starting a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and ended with a truce deal brokered by Russia, which deployed peacekeepers to enforce it.
Two weeks ago, after blockading the enclave for nine months, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive, swiftly defeating the ethnic Armenian authorities in two days. The enclave's population started fleeing shortly afterward to Armenia.
Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are seen in the center of the town of Goris on September 30, 2023 before being evacuated in various Armenian cities.
Diego Herrera Carcedo/AFP via Getty Images
There has been little international response to the crisis. Western countries, including the U.S. and France, have expressed concern and called for Azerbaijan to protect the rights of the Armenians. The Biden administration announced $11.5 million in humanitarian aid and dispatched the high-profile head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, to the region last week.
Richard Giragosian, the director of the Regional Studies Center based in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, said the international response was "too little too late" and had set a "dangerous precedent."
"[This was] a seeming vindication of the use of force over diplomacy," Giragosian told ABC News by phone. "A military victory of authoritarian power over a struggling democracy."
But he said it had also shown the West has little influence over Azerbaijan. "What we see is Azerbaijan simply does not care about Western threats, pronouncements, and at the same time, the West has little leverage over Azerbaijan," Giragosian said.
Armenia's defense ministry on Monday also accused Azerbaijani forces of opening fire on a car carrying food to an Armenian border post near the village of Kut.
Azerbaijani forces are likely to move into Nagorno-Karabakh's now-empty capital, which it calls Khankhendi, in the next few days.
Russia's peacekeeping contingent said a joint Russian-Azerbaijani patrol came under sniper fire inside Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, but that there were no casualties.
A meeting of representatives from Azerbaijan and the Karabakh Armenian leadership will take place for the first time in the capital in the "near future," the news agency of the enclave's unrecognized Armenian state reported Monday.
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave emptied after entire ethnic Armenian population flees
Virtually the entire ethnic Armenian population has now left the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
abcnews.go.com
jward
passin' thru
Nagorno Karabakh Observer
@NKobserver
BREAKING - #Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry reports its positions (inside #Armenia) were fired upon by small arms fire from the Verin Shorzha area. #Armenia's defence authorities refute the news, and report the Azeri side opened fire. No injuries.
Source: https://mod.gov.az/az/news/kelbec
View: https://twitter.com/NKobserver/status/1761396029142810708?s=20
@NKobserver
BREAKING - #Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry reports its positions (inside #Armenia) were fired upon by small arms fire from the Verin Shorzha area. #Armenia's defence authorities refute the news, and report the Azeri side opened fire. No injuries.
Source: https://mod.gov.az/az/news/kelbec
View: https://twitter.com/NKobserver/status/1761396029142810708?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Victor vicktop55
@vicktop55
Armenia has followed the path of Ukraine. They will meet in hell. "France has already announced its readiness to supply GM200 radar stations to Armenia, that is, another NATO eye will appear at the borders of Russia. Everything that happened in Kiev, all this is happening in Yerevan right now.
In Pashinyan's words in an interview with a French TV channel, whole phrases from Zelensky can be heard. And it is not so important when the head of the Kiev regime arrives in Yerevan, as they write on the Internet.
Yerevan is increasingly turning into an anti-Russian outpost, the suspension of CSTO membership and the demand to remove the Russian military in order to replace them with NATO or at least French ones - all these are stages of the same long path that Kiev has passed.
Victor vicktop55
@vicktop55
Armenia has followed the path of Ukraine. They will meet in hell. "France has already announced its readiness to supply GM200 radar stations to Armenia, that is, another NATO eye will appear at the borders of Russia. Everything that happened in Kiev, all this is happening in Yerevan right now.
In Pashinyan's words in an interview with a French TV channel, whole phrases from Zelensky can be heard. And it is not so important when the head of the Kiev regime arrives in Yerevan, as they write on the Internet.
Yerevan is increasingly turning into an anti-Russian outpost, the suspension of CSTO membership and the demand to remove the Russian military in order to replace them with NATO or at least French ones - all these are stages of the same long path that Kiev has passed.
Victor vicktop55
LightEcho
Has No Life - Lives on TB
The politics are similar but the foundations are totally different. Armenia is a lone christian people surrounded by muslims & Turks who want them all annihilated. The US is anti-Christ as are Israel and the muslim countries. The devil comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Ukraine is largely like the US in that the people, while professing christianity, are far from it.
Ukraine opened the floodgates of war by murdering thousands of Russians. Armenia has been a hunted people for centuries.
jward
passin' thru
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Armenia tells Russia to withdraw its border guards from the main airport in the country
A week ago, Armenia announced it’s suspending its participation in CSTO, the Russian-controlled security alliance (“Russian NATO”)
Relations with Russia are quickly deteriorating
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1765657568704127292?s=20
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Armenia tells Russia to withdraw its border guards from the main airport in the country
A week ago, Armenia announced it’s suspending its participation in CSTO, the Russian-controlled security alliance (“Russian NATO”)
Relations with Russia are quickly deteriorating
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1765657568704127292?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Azerbaijan has demanded that Armenia immediately hands over control of 4 villages to Azerbaijan.
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Azerbaijan has demanded that Armenia immediately hands over control of 4 villages to Azerbaijan.
StarryEyedLad
désespéré pour le ciel
This is what I've been dreading to hear.
emiliozapata
Senior Member
Nah, now that the armenian stooge government has come under control of the globalists i prefer to see azerbaijan destroy them
jward
passin' thru
Nagorno Karabakh Observer
@NKobserver
MAJOR - @NATO
's Secretary General @jensstoltenberg
to visit the South Caucasus:
17 March to Azerbaijan
18 March to Georgia
19 March to Armenia
No details on the aim of the visit, but most likely regional issues and bilateral cooperation.
Source: https://nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_223661.htm
@NKobserver
MAJOR - @NATO
's Secretary General @jensstoltenberg
to visit the South Caucasus:
17 March to Azerbaijan
18 March to Georgia
19 March to Armenia
No details on the aim of the visit, but most likely regional issues and bilateral cooperation.
Source: https://nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_223661.htm
jward
passin' thru
Nagorno Karabakh Observer
@NKobserver
MAJOR - #Armenia's prime minister visits the border area below to discuss the situation with local villagers amid increasing rumours of a possible transfer of those areas to #Azerbaijan.
Source: Լուրեր Հայաստանից
View: https://twitter.com/NKobserver/status/1769787372500091223?s=20
@NKobserver
MAJOR - #Armenia's prime minister visits the border area below to discuss the situation with local villagers amid increasing rumours of a possible transfer of those areas to #Azerbaijan.
Source: Լուրեր Հայաստանից
View: https://twitter.com/NKobserver/status/1769787372500091223?s=20
jward
passin' thru
NEXTA
@nexta_tv
Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan said that if Yerevan refuses to discuss the demilitarization and demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan, "war may break out at the end of the week"
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova responded by saying that "Pashinyan's statement about the threat of war with Azerbaijan is not related to Russia, it is the competence of the authorities in Yerevan and the result of their consultations with the West."
@nexta_tv
Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan said that if Yerevan refuses to discuss the demilitarization and demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan, "war may break out at the end of the week"Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova responded by saying that "Pashinyan's statement about the threat of war with Azerbaijan is not related to Russia, it is the competence of the authorities in Yerevan and the result of their consultations with the West."
jward
passin' thru
Nagorno Karabakh Observer
@NKobserver
#Azerbaijan state media reports suicide of a military officer in the Fuzuli area (previously #NagornoKarabakh-controlled). Little info made public, but he died as a result of a gunshot wound.
Source:
@NKobserver
#Azerbaijan state media reports suicide of a military officer in the Fuzuli area (previously #NagornoKarabakh-controlled). Little info made public, but he died as a result of a gunshot wound.
Source:
jward
passin' thru
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Armed men are storming a police station in Yerevan, Armenia
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1771911388039966937?s=20
Insider Paper
@TheInsiderPaper
BREAKING: Gunmen storm police station in Yerevan, Armenia, and detonate grenades, according to local media
View: https://twitter.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1771900083476320511?s=20
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Armed men are storming a police station in Yerevan, Armenia
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1771911388039966937?s=20
Insider Paper
@TheInsiderPaper
BREAKING: Gunmen storm police station in Yerevan, Armenia, and detonate grenades, according to local media
View: https://twitter.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1771900083476320511?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Clash Report
@clashreport
#BREAKING Armenia transfers troops and military equipment to the border with Azerbaijan.
View: https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1774118296503161031?s=20
@clashreport
#BREAKING Armenia transfers troops and military equipment to the border with Azerbaijan.
View: https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1774118296503161031?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Nagorno Karabakh Observer
@NKobserver
·
56m
Another video shared by pro-#Azerbaijan media channels, almost all stating #Armenia is deploying troops along their border. We've come across no indications of troop deployments. Interestingly, today the Azeri MoD ordered troops along border to remain on high combat readiness.
@NKobserver
·
56m
Another video shared by pro-#Azerbaijan media channels, almost all stating #Armenia is deploying troops along their border. We've come across no indications of troop deployments. Interestingly, today the Azeri MoD ordered troops along border to remain on high combat readiness.
jward
passin' thru
Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Russian forces withdrawing from Nagorno-Karabakh after having been told the get out by Azerbaijan
Soon to be seen repeated in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1780575209315045749
@visegrad24
BREAKING:
Russian forces withdrawing from Nagorno-Karabakh after having been told the get out by Azerbaijan
Soon to be seen repeated in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova
View: https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1780575209315045749