Tuesday,
Leaving Aghavno, Returning To Zabux: Hopes And Fears As Armenia Hands Over
Village To Azerbaijan
14:10 GMT
• By RFE/RL's Armenian Service
RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service
Azerbaijanis fled Zabux during the first war in the 1990s, when it came under
control of Armenian forces along with the rest of the surrounding Lachin
district and was renamed Aghavno.
AGHAVNO/ZABUX, Azerbaijan -- Posters and children's drawings are peeled off
walls and packed away. Books and other objects are boxed.
All the school material is to be shipped out from the village in a strategic
strip of land adjacent to breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh. That deemed not worth
salvaging is burned.
Under terms of a cease-fire deal that ended the short war in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 between Azerbaijani soldiers and ethnic Armenian
forces, Armenians are due to hand control of the village they call Aghavno, but
Azerbaijanis name Zabux, over to Azerbaijani forces.
The village is located along the Lachin corridor, a strip of land that connects
what Azerbaijanis call simply Karabakh to Armenia and which is now under control
of Russian troops deployed to the region in the wake of the conflict two years
ago.
Now, Azerbaijan has built a new roadway -- just south of the old one -- that
will allow them to retake control of ethnic Armenian villages within the strip.
The lack of such an alternative road in 2020 delayed the transfer of Lachin. And
with the new road now largely in place, the transfer is expected to go ahead
although there has been no official announcement from Baku.
However, people living in the region have been urged to vacate their homes
before August 25 by the de facto local ethnic Armenian authorities, although
Baku has not issued any calls for them to leave.
Ethnic Azeris fled villages in the Lachin region in 1992, when ethnic Armenian
fighters occupied it. Even 30 years later, some still hope to return to their
homes. But many ethnic Armenians in the village they call Aghavno are defiant,
some saying they will remain until forced out.
"We are thinking of taking the children out, but we adults will stay until the
last day, until the last hour, we will see how they will carry out the purchase
and sale, or whatever else you call it," Anush Arakelian recently told RFE/RL's
Armenian Service.
WATCH: Thirty years after being displaced amid conflict from their native
village, some Azerbaijanis still dream of returning to Zabux.
Displaced Azerbaijanis Dream Of Returning To Their Native Village
The town's current fate is linked to the conflict in 2020, when more than 6,500
people were killed in 44 days of fighting. It ended with a Russian-brokered deal
under which Armenian forces withdrew from swathes of territory they had occupied
since 1992-93.
Moscow has sent some 2,000 troops to the region, deployed to the areas of
breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh still held by ethnic Armenians after their forces
withdrew.
Part of that force was deployed along the Lachin corridor. Once the new road
opens, that force is supposed to move there too, ostensibly to guard it.
The terms of the cease-fire stipulated that a plan to build a new road to
replace the current corridor be presented within three years, bypassing Lachin
city, Zabux, and Sus, as they are called by the Azerbaijanis.
However, Azerbaijan is far ahead of that schedule, announcing on August 11 that
it had completed its estimated 20-kilometer stretch of a 32-kilometer road.
There is some question over when the road will be officially opened, as Armenia
has just started construction on its several-kilometer section of the new road,
it was reported on August 11.
Whatever the date, Mariam Hakobain told RFE/RL that she will stay to the very
last day, when the Russian troops leave. "We as a nation stood up and committed
suicide," she said, adding that only nine families wanted to stay elsewhere in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We are crushed," Hakobian said.
Anush Arakelian, an Armenian-language and literature teacher, says it's become a
virtual ghost town with what activity there is, largely cars driving in and
shipping out personal effects.
Lida Smbatian can't imagine abandoning her home, especially the strawberries,
vegetables, and flowers she has tended in her garden since moving there in 1994.
"All my joy was in my strawberries, in my strawberry field, in the grapes. See,
the tomatoes are ripe now," she lamented in comments to RFE/RL's Armenian
Service.
To help them find new homes, the Armenian government has promised each family 10
million drams (around $24,700), a sum many say won't buy much in Armenia. That
financial aid is supposed to come in the form of a voucher.
Ethnic Armenians in the region, however, have said they've been told they will
only get that voucher if they leave their homes as is. That is, with no visible
damage, as happened in late 2020 when several homes were damaged by their
homeowners before being vacated in the Kalbacar district ahead of a deadline
dictated by the Russian-brokered cease-fire.
Footage has emerged showing what appears to be an ethnic Armenian in Aghavno
setting alight his own house, a video that has gone viral on YouTube. A series
of fires have also been reported along the road in Lachin in recent days.
Although it is unclear what caused the blazes, Azerbaijanis have been quick to
blame fleeing Armenians for them.
While the deadline has stirred dread among the ethnic Armenians living there, it
has rekindled hope for the ethnic Azerbaijanis who were displaced 30 years ago,
some now hoping to return to Zabux. "We escaped under dire circumstances. We
couldn't find a car. We got into one car, then another. Without clothes.
Everything was left to the Armenians," said Sitara Mammadova, now 90 years old.
"We couldn't take anything. We came here and somehow coped," explained
Mammadova, who now lives in a former boarding house outside Baku, adding that
she still hopes to return to Zabux.
Aghavno/Zabux
The conflict over the region erupted in the late 1980s in the waning days of the
Soviet Union. All-out war ended in 1994, with more than 30,000 people killed and
more than 1 million people displaced, mainly ethnic Azeris.
At the end of the fighting in 1994, ethnic Armenian forces were in full control
or partial control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts. In the 2020
fighting, Baku took back the seven districts as well as part of the Karabakh
territory.
Isaq Mamishov is another displaced Azerbaijani yearning to return. "There are
some [Azerbaijanis] who lost their entire family [in the 1990s conflict]," he
told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service in July.
"How can their children live side by side with Armenians again? Yes, it is true
that we are a peace-loving nation.... And if our president gives an order, our
nation will go for it. Even if it's hard, we will accept that, because we all
love our president. We will follow what he says. But it won't work," Mamishov
added pessimistically.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose popularity was boosted by the 2020
conflict to levels he has rarely enjoyed during his nearly two decades of
authoritarian rule, has suggested those remaining in villages in Lachin were
"war criminals."
"We hear news coming from there that someone says they will stay and will not
leave. It is their business, but they are war criminals. They should not test
our patience. Let them leave by their own will, we don't care where they go,"
Aliyev was quoted as saying by Azerbaijani media on August 12.
Azerbaijanis fled Zabux during the first war in the 1990s, when it came under
control of Armenian forces along with the rest of the surrounding Lachin
district. Renamed Aghavno it was rebuilt with financial backing from Armenian
diaspora organizations and populated by Armenians, some from Armenia and others
from Armenian communities in Syria and Lebanon.
As the handover looms, tensions have been building on the two countries' shared
border since May 2021, when Armenia protested what it described as an incursion
by Azerbaijani troops into its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted that its
soldiers were deployed in areas where the border has yet to be demarcated.
A loaded truck leaves Aghavno on August 10.
Sporadic clashes have taken place in the last year, the latest coming on August
3. De facto ethnic Armenian military leaders said drone attacks carried out by
Azerbaijani forces killed two of their troops and wounded another 19.
Russia accused Baku of violating the shaky truce, while the United States and
the European Union urged an "immediate" cessation of hostilities.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, its military mission to the region has faced
even greater challenges than before, with criticism coming from both sides. In
an apparent bid to improve its image, the Russian mission's head invited several
local activists and politicians for a rare meeting on August 4 to discuss the
recent incidents, the International Crisis Group noted.
Despite the uptick in tensions, back in her village, Smbatian expresses hope
that her garden -- and its harvest -- can be a token of friendship to its new
occupants. Vegetables from the garden should be ripe for picking sometime in the
fall, and the home will likely be occupied by Azerbaijanis, Smbatian explained.
"I don't know who will eat it or whether they will be cursing or blessing us."
Written by Tony Wesolowsky based on reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian and
Azerbaijani services
Armenia Declares Two Days Of Mourning For Market Blast Victims
Armenia - Rescue workers continue to remove the rubble at the site of a major
explosion and fire in the Surmalu shopping center in Yerevan. .
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has signed a decree declaring two days
of national mourning on August 17-18 for the victims of a massive fire at a
Yerevan market caused by a powerful explosion at a fireworks warehouse last
Sunday.
Armenian authorities said at least 16 people, including a child and a pregnant
woman, were killed in the explosion at the Surmalu shopping center, with another
three persons still being unaccounted for as of Tuesday evening.
A total of 61 people were injured in the incident in which officials see no
evidence of terrorism.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations said earlier on August 16 that the fire at
the sprawling market just off the capital’s center had been contained, but
rescuers continued to look for survivors or victims under the rubble of a
partially collapsed three-story warehouse building that authorities say is shaky.
Earlier, it was reported that investigators are looking into a possible breach
of fire-safety regulations, which the market’s manager denied in a brief
telephone interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service today.
The Investigative Committee said that interrogations of survivors and
eyewitnesses were underway, but said there were no suspects or accused at the
moment as part of the criminal probe launched in connection with the incident.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visited the scene of the
search-and-rescue operations on Monday, but made no public statements
immediately.
A number of Pashinian’s political allies, however, have advocated a ban on the
sale of fireworks in Armenia in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Russian, Armenian Defense Chiefs Discuss Moscow’s Peacekeeping Mission In
Karabakh
Armenian and Russian defense ministers, Suren Papikian and Sergei Shoigu (file
photo).
Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian discussed with his Russian counterpart
Sergei Shoigu the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the activities of Russian
peacekeepers in the region as they held talks on the sidelines of a Moscow
conference on Tuesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry quoted Shoigu as saying during his meeting with
Papikian that “we have things to discuss, there are traditional issues related
to our military-technical and military cooperation.”
“And, of course, it is issues related to the activities of our peacekeeping
contingent, which performs tasks in Nagorno-Karabakh. We continue to believe
just as you do that the main stabilizing factor is the ceasefire along the
entire line of contact,” the Russian defense minister said.
Shoigu also reportedly thanked his Armenian counterpart for attending the
opening of the International Army Games and the Army-2022 International
Military-Technical Forum, as well as for participating in the Moscow Conference
on International Security.
Papikian, as quoted by Russia’s Defense Ministry, noted, for his part, “the high
level of bilateral Armenian-Russian allied cooperation” that he said was
evidenced by his second meeting with Shoigu since the beginning of this year.
“This meeting is very important for us. We highly appreciate the achieved level
of Armenian-Russian cooperation, as well as the role of the Russian presence in
the South Caucasus,” the Armenian defense minister said.
During an August 4 weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian criticized the Russian peacekeeping operation in
Nagorno-Karabakh following the most serious fighting along the line of contact
that left two Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers dead.
Pashinian urged Russia to do more to prevent further ceasefire violations,
charging that Baku has been stepping up such violations despite the presence of
Russian peacekeeping troops in the region.
The Armenian prime minister held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir
Putin several days later. The readout of the call released by Pashinian’s office
did not specifically mention the issue of peacekeepers as being discussed by the
two leaders. It only said that “issues related to the situation around
Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as ensuring security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border were discussed.”
During a news briefing in Moscow on August 11, Ivan Nechayev, a spokesperson for
the Russian Foreign Ministry, rejected what he described as “separate criticism”
of Russia’s peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, stressing that “Russian
peacekeepers continue to be engaged in active work, taking necessary efforts for
stabilization on the ground.”
Moscow has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh since November
2020 after brokering a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan that put an end
to a deadly six-week war over the region.
Russian servicemen, in particular, control a five-kilometer-wide strip of land
known as the Lachin corridor linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia that is to
change its route in the weeks to come when Azerbaijan is expected to take
control of several villages along the current road.
Yerevan Market Director Denies Breach Of Fire-Safety Regulations
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Rescue workers sift through the rubble searching for possible
survivors and recovering bodies at the site of a Yerevan shopping center where a
fireworks warehouse exploded on August 14, triggering a massive fire.
The director of a Yerevan market where an apparent fireworks warehouse explosion
last Sunday killed more than a dozen people has denied any breach of fire-safety
regulations.
A fire inspection body, however, insisted after the incident at Surmalu, a
sprawling shopping center just off downtown Yerevan where at least 16 people
were killed and 61 injured in a massive fire triggered by the blast, that two
dozen violations identified during an inspection conducted in the spring of 2021
had not been eliminated by the market’s administration.
Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service briefly on the phone on Tuesday, Irina
Madatova, the manager of Surmalu, asserted that they did eliminate the
violations. She did not elaborate.
The fire inspection body said it gave Surmalu until the end of last year to
comply with city planning norms and fire-safety rules at an area of more than
3,000 square meters. After that, no new inspection was carried out, it added.
Vardan Tadevosian, a spokesperson for Armenia’s Investigative Committee, said
that about two dozen people, most of them survivors of the fire, have been
questioned so far. He did not say why no one from the managers of Surmalu or the
owner of the market have been interrogated. According to the official, there are
still no suspects or accused in the criminal investigation launched after the
explosion.
Vardan Tadevosian
“Most of the interrogated are tenants who themselves suffered in this incident.
The identities of owners of pavilions operating in the territory of the shopping
center are being clarified,” Tadevosian said.
Investigators together with experts are also examining the scene of the
explosion and fire, he added.
“I don’t think that investigators can report information so quickly about what
caused the explosions, as search and rescue work is still ongoing on the scene,”
the spokesman for the Investigation Committee said.
While it is still unclear what exactly caused fireworks at Surmalu’s warehouse
to detonate, Armenia’s Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Pambukhchian told
reporters on Monday that authorities “practically ruled out” terrorism as a
cause of the incident.
“Watching the footage of the explosion, we almost rule out such a theory [that a
bomb had been planted], because first there was smoke, then fire covering some
small area, then came an explosion,” he said. “Quite a large amount of explosive
materials was stored there.”
Razmik Zakharian, an 86-year-old businessman and former politician who owns
Surmalu, was not available for contact immediately.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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