1 of 1 The Armenian population of NagornoKarabakh fears persecution and violence from Azerbaijanis Photo: DAVID GHAHRAMANYAN/Portal The Armenian population of NagornoKarabakh fears persecution and violence from Azerbaijanis Photo: DAVID GHAHRAMANYAN/Portal
Nearly 100,000 residents have left the NagornoKarabakh enclave in Azerbaijan by Friday (September 29), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported, a day after ethnic Armenian leaders declared the dissolution of the government from the separatist region in Azerbaijan’s South Caucasus.
UNHCR and the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have appealed to the international community for financial assistance to create better conditions for the reception of refugees.
The UN agency said it was ready to help up to 120,000 refugees, equivalent to the population of NagornoKarabakh. However, this amount cannot be confirmed.
Understand the crisis in the NagornoKarabakh region
The governments of Azerbaijan and Russia the latter is considered Armenia’s protecting power had declared that it was not necessary for the population to leave the enclave. However, the ArmenianKarabakh population fears persecution and violence from the Azaris.
NagornoKarabakh’s separatist leadership said on Thursday that the selfproclaimed Republic of Artsakh would “cease to exist” on January 1, 2024, after three decades of conflict and tension. The declaration amounted in practice to a formal surrender to Azerbaijan.
The fact that the Armenians are Orthodox Christians and the Azari Muslims adds a religious dimension to the problems surrounding the enclave. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” on Thursday.
“Analysis of the situation shows that there will be no more Armenians in NagornoKarabakh in the next few days,” he noted. The enclave’s human rights commissioner, Gegham Stepanyan, said at least 200 people had died and 400 were injured in attacks in recent days. Deaths were also reported by Azerbaijani authorities.
For Azerbaijan and its President Ilham Aliyev, retaking the enclave is a triumphant restoration of sovereignty over an area that is internationally recognized as part of its territory but whose ethnic Armenian majority gained de facto independence in a war in the 1990s. Armenians, this is a defeat and a national tragedy.
Azerbaijan has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing, saying it is not forcing residents to leave the region and will peacefully reintegrate the NagornoKarabakh region, guaranteeing the civil rights of ethnic Armenians.
Armenians in the region say they do not trust that promise, recalling a long history of bloodshed between the two sides, including two wars since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For days they have been fleeing en masse on the mountainous road that crosses Azerbaijan and connects NagornoKarabakh with Armenia.
The region has been disputed between the two former Soviet republics for decades. In the 1990s, NagornoKarabakh managed to secede from Azerbaijani territory after a civil war in which it received aid from Armenia.
In 2020, Azerbaijan, which at the time had bolstered its power through revenue from oil and gas exploration, managed to recapture much of the enclave until both sides accepted a Russianbrokered ceasefire. In recent years, however, this ceasefire has proven to be quite fragile.