Author: Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS

A People lost: The end of Nagorno Karabakh’s fight for independence

Emil Lazarian
Independent, UK
Sept 30 2023

t is over and everything is lost. This is the refrain repeated by Armenian families as they take that final step across the border out of their home of Nagorno Karabakh.

In just a handful of days more than 100,000 people, almost the entire Armenian population of the breakaway enclave, has fled fearing ethnic persecution at the hands of Azerbaijani forces. The world barely registered it. But this astonishing exodus has vanished a self-declared state that thousands have died fighting for and ended a decades-old chapter of history.

Today, along that dusty mountain road to neighbouring Armenia, a few remaining people limp to safety after enduring days in transit.

Among them is the Tsovinar family who appear bundled in a hatchback littered with bullet holes, with seven relatives crushed in the back. Hasratyan, 48, the mother, crumbles into tears as she tries to make sense of her last 48 hours. The thought she cannot banish is that from this moment forward, she will never again be able to visit the grave of her brother killed in a previous bout of fighting.

“He is buried in our village which is now controlled by Azerbaijan. We can never go back,” the mother-of-three says, as her teenage girls sob quietly beside her.

“We have lost our home, and our homeland.”

“It is an erasing of a people. The world kept silent and handed us over”.

She is interrupted by several ambulances racing in the opposite direction towards Nagorno Karabakh’s main city of Stepanakert, or Khankendi, as it is known by the Azerbaijani forces that now control the streets. Their job is to fetch the few remaining Karabakh Armenians who want to leave and have yet to make it out.

“Those left are the poorest who have no cars, the disabled and elderly who can’t move easily,” a first responder calls at us through the window.

“Then we’re told that’s it.”

As the world focused on the United Nations General Assembly, the war in Ukraine and, in the UK, the felling of an iconic Sycamore tree, a decades old war has reignited here unnoticed.

It ultimately heralded the end of Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian region, that is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan but for several decades has enjoyed de facto independence. It has triggered the largest movement of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan has vehemently denied instigating ethnic cleansing and has promised to protect Armenians as it works to re-integrate the enclave.

But in the border town of Goris, surrounded by the chaotic arrival of hundreds of refugees, Armenia’s infrastructure minister says Yerevan was now struggling to work out what to do with tens of thousands of displaced and desperate people.

“Simply put this is a modern ethnic cleansing that has been permitted through the guilty silence of the world,” minister Gnel Sanosyan tells the Independent, as four new busses of fleeing families arrive behind him.

“This is a global shame, a shame for the world. We need the international community to step up and step up now.”

The divisions in this part of the world have their roots in centuries-old conflict but the latest iterations of bitter bloodshed erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh Armenians, who are in the majority in the enclave, demanded the right to autonomy over the 4,400 square kilometre rolling mountainous region that has its own history and dialect. In the early 1990s they won a bloody war that uprooted Azerbaijanis, building a de facto state that wasn’t internationally unrecognised.

That is until in 2020. Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military offensive and took back swathes of territory in a six-week conflict that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia, which originally supported Armenia but in recent years has grown into a colder ally, brokered a fragile truce and deployed peacekeepers.

But Moscow failed to stop Baku in December, enforcing a 10-month blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, strangling food, fuel, electricity and water supplies. Then, the international community stood by as Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour military blitz that proved too much for Armenian separatist forces. Outgunned, outnumbered and weakened by the blockade, they agreed to lay down their weapons.

For thirty years the Karabakh authorities had survived pressure from international powerhouses to give up statehood or at least downgrade their aspirations for Nagorno-Karabakh. For thirty years peace plans brokered by countries across the world were tabled and shelved.

And then in a week all hope vanished and the self-declared government agreed to dissolve.

Fearing further shelling and then violent reprisals, as news broke several Karabakh officials including former ministers and separatist commanders, had been arrested by Azerbaijani Security forces, people flooded over the border.

At the political level there are discussions about “reintegration” and “peace” but with so few left in Narargno-Karabakh any process would now be futile.

And so now, sleeping in tents on the floors of hotels, restaurants and sometimes the streets of border towns, shellshocked families, with a handful of belongings, are trying to piece their lives together.

Among them is Vardan Tadevosyan, Nagorno Karabakh’s minister of health until the government was effectively dissolved on Thursday. He spent the night camping on the floor of a hotel, and carries only the clothes he is wearing. Exhausted he says he had “no idea what the future brings”.

“For 25 years I have built a rehabilitation centre for people with physical disabilities I had to leave it all behind. You don’t know how many people are calling me for support,” he says as his phone ringed incessantly in the background throughout the interview.

“We all left everything behind. I am very depressed,” he repeats, swallowing the sentence with a sigh.

Next to him Artemis, 58 a kindergarten coordinator who has spent 30 years in Steparankert, says the real problems were going to start in the coming weeks when the refugees outstay their temporary accommodation.

“The Azerbaijanis said they want to integrate Nagorno Karabakh but how do you blockade a people for 10 months and then launch a military operation and then ask them to integrate?” She asks, as she prepares for a new leg of the journey to the Armenian capital where she hopes to find shelter.

“The blockade was part of the ethnic cleansing. This is the only way to get people to flee the land they love.”

“There is no humanity left in the world.”

Back in the central square of Goris, where families pick through piles of donated clothes and blankets and aid organisations hand out food, the loudest question is: what next?

A refugee cuddles a teddy after arriving from a two day journey to Goris in Armenia

(Bel Trew)

Armenian officials are busy registering families and sending them to shelters in different corners of the country. But there are unanswered queries about long-term accommodation, work and schooling.

“I can’t really think about it, it hurts too much,” says Hasratyan’s eldest daughter Lilet, 16, trembling in the sunlight as the family starts the registration process.

“All I can say to the world is please speak about this and think about us.

“We are humans, people made of blood, like you and we need your help. “

Asbarez: GUSD School Board Adopts Resolution Condemning Azerbaijan’s Genocidal Campaign

Emil Lazarian
by Contributor

 

 

 

in Community, Latest, News, Top Stories

GLENDALE—The Glendale Unified Board of Education unanimously adopted a resolution, Standing in Solidarity with the People of Artsakh and Condemning Azerbaijan’s Genocidal Campaign, at its meeting Tuesday night. On September 19, Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked, large-scale, and genocidal military attack on the people of Artsakh following a months-long blockade. Reports indicate that Azerbaijan used deadly force, including heavy shelling of residential areas, which has resulted in significant destruction and the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians, including children.

“Our district remains committed to providing an inclusive place where every child, employee, and family member is seen and valued. By adopting this resolution, our Board of Education is affirming the experiences that so many in our community are going through and providing resources to support them,” said Board President Jennifer Freemon. “We want our students, employees, and families to know that we see them, stand side-by-side in partnership with them, and continue to do everything we can to affect change.”

“As an Armenian-American who is a descendant of genocide survivors, it has been a traumatizing and difficult time as so many Armenians in Artsakh suffer from the nearly ten-month blockade and the most recent direct violence by Azerbaijan, which is ethnic cleansing and genocidal. The hope for this resolution is that it first communicates that we are in solidarity with our community and that it sets actionable steps of how we can best support our students, families, and employees,” said Board Vice President Shant Sahakian.

The GUSD Board resolution directs the superintendent and district staff to implement the following immediate actions:

  • Call on the White House, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Congressional representatives to condemn Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign on the people of Artsakh, cease military aid to Azerbaijan, implement sanctions to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its human rights violations, and implement urgent measures to protect and provide aid to the people of Artsakh.
  • Ensure that students, families, and employees can readily access and are aware of available counseling and mental health services and resources.
  • Develop educational lesson plans, presentations, and professional development opportunities to educate the GUSD community about this crisis.
  • Support awareness campaigns, humanitarian aid drives, and other response efforts organized by the school community.
  • Collaborate with state, county, and local government agencies in response efforts, including the City of Glendale, whose Sister Cities include Artsakh’s City of Martuni.

The GUSD Student Wellness Services, Teaching and Learning, and Equity, Access, and Family Engagement departments have collaborated to prepare educational resources for educators to foster conversations in their classrooms and provide students, employees, and families with support and space for reflection and dialogue to address the emotional turmoil caused by the crisis in Artsakh and Armenia. Employee community circles will be held on October 3, along with two parent webinars focused on processing trauma on October 5 and 9.


ANCA-Pasadena Chapter Hosts Disaster Preparedness Workshop

Emil Lazarian
by Contributor

 

 

 

in Community, Latest, News, Top Stories

ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members with members of the Pasadena Police Department


PASADENA—The Armenian National Committee of America Pasadena chapter hosted the Pasadena Police and Fire Departments at H&H Jivalagian Youth Center on Thursday, September 21 for  Disaster Preparedness, Safety and Career Presentations and Procedures.

The ANCA – Pasadena chapter had worked closely with the City of Pasadena’s police and fire departments to bring about this important public function. We encouraged the esteemed residents of the City of Pasadena and its neighboring cities, young and old, to attend. All were welcome.

“Emergency preparedness, readiness, and keeping oneself safe, can and should never be taken lightly nor be understated, but should be taken with seriousness and single-minded dedication,” stated Board Advisor, David George Gevorkyan.  

Members of the Pasadena Fire Department with ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members A scene from the ANCA-Pasadena chapter’s Disaster Preparedness, Career & Safety Procedures forum

The event’s success is due to Pasadena Fire Department’s Firefighters, who were incredibly gracious in sharing information pertinent to the forum as well as the Police Department’s Officers. Both departments did a tremendous job in informing the public with the ANCA WR Pasadena chapter’s board infinitely grateful to the Fire and Police Chief, Chad Augustin and Eugene Harris, respectively, not to mention their staff, for their outstanding help in putting the event together.

A special thanks goes out to City of Pasadena’s Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian for her unwavering help in this endeavor.

Equally, the chapter thanks Pasadena’s Armenian Cultural Foundation, Lernavayr Gomideh, for their fervent help in making the event happen.

ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members

Events such as these are organized by the ANCA-WR Pasadena chapter as part of an effort to provide a public benefit that is crucial in times of natural disasters, such as floods, wildfires and earthquakes, not to mention safety in times of dire need.

 The Armenian National Committee of America – Pasadena Chapter is the oldest, largest, and most influential Armenian-American grassroots organization of its kind within the City of Pasadena. Founded in 1979, the Pasadena ANCA advocates for the social, economic, cultural, and political rights of the city’s thriving Armenian-American community and promotes increased civic service and participation at the grassroots and public policy levels.

Responsibility to Protect the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh BY ALFRED DE ZAYAS

Emil Lazarian
CounterPunch
Sept 29 2023
BY ALFRED DE ZAYAS

If the “doctrine” of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) means anything[1], then it applies to the tragedy unfolding since 2020 in the Armenian Republic of Artsakh, better known as Nagorno Karabakh. The illegal aggression by Azerbaijan in 2020, accompanied by war crimes and crimes against humanity, as documented among others by Human Rights Watch[2], constituted a continuation of the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians[3].  It should be duly investigated by the International Criminal Court in the Hague pursuant to articles 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute.[4]  The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev should be indicted and prosecuted.  There must not be impunity for these crimes.

As former UN Independent Expert, and because of the gravity of the Azeri offensive of September 2023, I have proposed to the President of the UN Human Rights Council, Ambassador Vaclav Balek, and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to convene a Special Session of the Human Rights Council to stop the egregious violations of human rights committed by Azerbaijan and provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Armenian population, victim, among other things of an illegal siege and blockade which have caused deaths by hunger and a massive exodus toward Armenia.

This mountainous region adjacent to Armenia is what is left of 3000-year-old settlements of the Armenian ethnic group, already known to the Persians and Greeks as Alarodioi, mentioned by Darius I and Herodotus.  The Armenian kingdom flourished in Roman times with is capital, Artashat (Artaxata) on the Aras River near modern Yerevan.  King Tiridates III was converted to Christianity by St. Gregory the Illuminator (Krikor) in 314 and established Christianity as the state religion.  Byzantine emperor Justinian I reorganized Armenia into four provinces and completed the task of Hellenizing the country by the year 536.

In the 8th century, Armenia came under increasing Arab influence but retained its distinct Christian identity and traditions. In the 11th century, Byzantine Emperor Basil II extinguished Armenian independence and soon after the Seljuq Turks conquered the territory. In the 13th century the whole of Armenia fell into Mongol hands, but Armenian life and learning, continued to be centered around the church and preserved in the monasteries and village communities. Following the capture of Constantinople and the killing of the last Byzantine Emperor, the Ottomans established their rule over the Armenians but respected the prerogatives of the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian Empire conquered part of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in 1813, the rest remaining under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire.  With the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians and other Christian minorities began.  It is estimated that approximately a million and a half Armenians and nearly a million Greeks from Pontos, Smyrna[5] as well as other Christians of the Ottoman empire were exterminated, the first genocide of the 20th century.

The suffering of the Armenians and in particular of the population of Nagorno Karabakh did not end with the demise of the Ottoman Empire, because the revolutionary Soviet Union incorporated Nagorno Karabakh into the new Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, in spite of the legitimate protests of the Armenians.  Repeated requests for the implementation of their right of self-determination to be part of the rest of Armenia were dismissed by the Soviet hierarchy.  Only following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did Armenia become independent and Nagorno Karabakh similarly declared independence.

Here would have been the moment for the United Nations to step in and organize self-determination referenda and facilitate the reunification of all Armenians.  But no, the international community and the United Nations again failed the Armenians by not ensuring that the successor states of the Soviet Union would have rational, sustainable frontiers conducive to peace and security for all.  Indeed, by the same logic as Azerbaijan invoked self-determination and became independent from the Soviet Union, the Armenian population living unhappily under Azeri rule had a right to independence from Azerbaijan.  Indeed, if the principle of self-determination applies to the whole, it must also apply to the parts.  But the people of Nagorno Karabakh were denied this right, and no one in the world seemed to care.

The systematic bombardment of Stepanakert and other civilian centers in Nagorno Karabakh during the 2020 war caused very high casualties and enormous damage to infrastructures.  The authorities of Nagorno Karabakh had to capitulate.  Less than three years later their hopes for self-determination have vanished.

The Azerbaijani aggressions against the population of Nagorno Karabakh constitute egregious violations of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force.  Moreover, there were grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Red Cross Conventions and 1977 Protocols.  Again, no one has been prosecuted for these crimes, and it does not seem that anyone will be, unless the international community raises its voice in outrage.

The blockade of foods and supplies by Azerbaijan, and the cutting of the Lachin corridor certainly fall within the scope of the 1948 Genocide Convention, which prohibits in its article II c “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”[6]  Accordingly, any state party can refer the matter to the International Court of Justice pursuant to article IX of the Convention, which stipulates “Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.”

Simultaneously, the matter should be referred to the International Criminal Court because of the flagrant commission of the “Crime of aggression” under the Statute of Rome and Kampala definition.  The International Criminal Court should investigate the facts and indict not only Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev but also his accomplices in Baku, and, of course, Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

Nagorno Karabakh is a classical case of unjust denial of the right of self-determination, which is solidly anchored in the UN Charter (articles, 1, 55, Chapter XI, Chapter XII) and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 1 of which stipulates:

1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.

3. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. [7]

The situation in Nagorno Karabakh is not unlike the situation of the Albanian Kosovars under Slobodan Milosevic.[8]  What takes priority?  Territorial integrity or the right of self-determination?  Paragraph 80 of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Kosovo ruling of 22 July 2010 clearly gave priority to the right of self-determination[9].

It is the ultima irratio, the ultimate irrationality and criminal irresponsibility to wage war against the exercise of the right of self-determination by the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.  As I argued in my 2014 report to the General Assembly[10], it is not the right of self-determination that causes wars but the unjust denial thereof.  Hence, it is time to recognize that the realization of the right of self-determination is a conflict-prevention strategy and that the suppression of self-determination constitutes a threat to international peace and security for purposes of Article 39 of the UN Charter.  In February 2018, I spoke before the European Parliament on this very subject, in the presence of many dignitaries from the Republic of Artsakh.

The international community cannot condone the aggression of Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh, because that would establish a precedent that territorial integrity could be established by State terror and force of arms against the will of the populations concerned.  Imagine if Serbia were to attempt to reestablish its rule over Kosovo by invading and bombarding Kosovo.  What would the world’s reaction be?

Of course, we are witnessing a similar outrage, when Ukraine tries to “recover” the Donbas or Crimea, although these territories are populated overwhelmingly by Russians, who not only speak Russian, but feel Russian and intend to preserve their identity and their traditions.  It is preposterous to think that after waging war against the Russian population of Donbas since the Maidan coup d’état in 2014, there would be any possibility of incorporating these territories into Ukraine.  Too much blood has been shed since 2014, and the principle of “remedial secession” would certainly apply.  I was in Crimea and Donbas in 2004 as a representative of the UN for the parliamentary and presidential elections.  Without a shadow of a doubt, a very large majority of these people are Russians, who, in principle, would have remained Ukrainian citizens but for the unconstitutional Maidan coup d’état and the egregious official incitement to hatred against everything Russian that followed the overthrow of the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych.  The Ukrainian government breached Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights when it persecuted the Russian-speaker in Ukraine. The Azeri government has also violated Article 20 ICCPR because of its incitement of hatred toward the Armenians — for decades.

Another hypothesis that no one has hitherto dared to raise:  Imagine, just as an intellectual exercise, that a future German government, relying on 700 years of German history and settlement in East-Central Europe, were to reclaim by force the old German provinces of East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, East Brandenburg, which were taken by Poland at the end of WWII[11].  After all, Germans had settled in and cultivated these territories in the early Middle Ages, founded cities like Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Stettin, Danzig, Breslau, etc.  We remember that at the end of the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945, pursuant to articles 9 and 13 of the Potsdam communiqué (it was not a treaty), it was announced that Poland would get “compensation” in land and that the local population would be simply expelled — ten million Germans who lived in these provinces, a brutal expulsion[12] that resulted in the death of approximately one million lives[13].  The collective expulsion of ethnic Germans by Poland 1945-48, exclusively because they were German, was a criminal racist act, a crime against humanity.  It was accompanied by the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, entailing five more million expellees and an additional million deaths.  By far and away this mass expulsion and spoliation of mostly innocent Germans from their homelands constituted the worst ethnic cleansing in European history.[14]  But, really, would the world tolerate any attempt by Germany to “recover” its lost provinces?  Would it not violate article 2(4) of the UN Charter in the same way that the Azeri onslaught on Nagorno Karabakh has violated the prohibition of the use of force contained in the UN Charter and thereby endangered international peace and security?

It is a sad commentary on the state of our morals, on the non-respect of our humanitarian values, that many of us are accomplices in the crime of silence and indifference toward the Armenian victims of Azerbaijan[15].

We see a classical case where the international Responsibility to Protect principle must apply.  But who will invoke it in the UN General Assembly? Who will demand accountability from Azerbaijan?

Notes.

[1] Paragraphs 138 and 139 of General Assembly Resolution 60/1 of 24 October 2005. https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FRES%2F60%2F1&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False

[2]https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/11/azerbaijan-unlawful-strikes-nagorno-karabakh

https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/19/azerbaijan-armenian-pows-abused-custody

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/10/human-rights-groups-detail-war-crimes-in-nagorno-karabakh

[3] Alfred de Zayas, The Genocide against the Armenians and the Relevance of the 1948 Genocide Convention, Haigazian University Press, Beirut, 2010

Tribunal Permanent des Peuples, Le Crime de Silence. Le Genocide des Arméniens, Flammarion, Paris 1984.

[4] https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf

[5] Tessa Hofmann (ed.), The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks, Aristide Caratzas, New York, 2011.

[6] https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf

[7] https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights

[8] A. de Zayas « The Right to the Homeland, Ethnic Cleansing and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia » Criminal Law Forum, Vol.6, pp. 257-314.

[9] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/141

[10] A/69/272

[11] Alfred de Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge 1977.  De Zayas, A Terrible Revenge, Macmillan, 1994.

De Zayas “International Law and Mass Population Transfers”, Harvard International Law Journal, vol. 16, pp. 207-259.

[12] Victor Gollancz, Our Threatened Values, London 1946, Gollancz, In Darkest Germany, London 1947.

[13] Statistisches Bundesamt, Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste, Wiesbaden, 1957.

Kurt Böhme, Gesucht Wird, Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Munich, 1965.

Report of the Joint Relief Commission of the International Red Cross, 1941-46, Geneva, 1948.

Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, Dokumentation der Vertreibung, Bonn, 1953 (8 volumes).

Das Schweizerische Rote Kreuz – Eine Sondernummer des deutschen Flüchtlingsproblems, Nr. 11/12, Bern, 1949.

[14] A. de Zayas, 50 Theses on the Expulsion of the Germans, Inspiration, London 2012.

[15] See my BBC interview on Nagorno Karabakh, , beginning on minute 8:50. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172z0758gyvzw4

Alfred de Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of twelve books including “Building a Just World Order” (2021) “Countering Mainstream Narratives” 2022, and “The Human Rights Industry” (Clarity Press, 2021).


 

What is Nakhchivan? And after Nagorno-Karabakh, is this the next crisis for Azerbaijan and Armenia

Emil Lazarian
ABC News
Sept 25 2023

After Azerbaijan’s military offensive regained full control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, another dispute is looming on the horizon with Armenia: the territory of Nakhchivan

By

 JIM HEINTZ Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia — After Azerbaijan's military offensive regained full control of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, another dispute is looming on the horizon with Armenia: the territory of Nakhchivan.

Like Nagorno-Karabakh, where the Armenian population felt cut off from the country of Armenia, Nakhchivan is territorially separated from the rest of Azerbaijan.

It accounts for about 6% of Azerbaijan's territory, with a swath of Armenia about 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide between the exclave and Azerbaijan. It also borders Azerbaijan's close ally Turkey and Iran. It's population is about 460,000 people, overwhelmingly Azeris but also some ethnic Russians.

The two territories share several parallels but also differences.

During Soviet times, Nakhchivan was connected with Azerbaijan by road and rail but those links fell out of use as Azerbaijan and Armenia went to war in the 1990s over Nagorno-Karabakh, though air links remained.

Then in 2020, an armistice that ended another, six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan during which Azerbaijan regained parts of Nagorno-Karabakh from separatist ethnic Armenians, called for transport links to Nakhchivan to be restored.

The deal said the security of those links would be guaranteed by Armenia. However, the restoration languished as tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh remained high.

In December, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, alleging that the Armenian government was using the road for mineral extraction and illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces. Armenia charged that the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh’s approximately 120,000 people.

Then last week's blitz offensive by Azerbaijan's forces ended with the ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh agreeing to disband.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were meeting Monday in Nakhchivan and were expected to push for a land connection between Nakhchivan and the rest of Azerbaijan.

They “will very likely make ultimatums" to the Armenian government to reopen the links, most importantly the Zangezur corridor, regional expert Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Europe thinktank wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

But Armenia has objected to the “corridor” concept promoted by Azerbaijan, saying that the Zangezur corridor, names so after the local area, without Armenian checkpoints would undermine the country's sovereignty.

The position of the regional heavyweights, Turkey and Russia, may also play a role. Turkey is in favor of a land corridor that would provide it a connection with the rest of the Turkic world. Russia, which has had peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh since 2020 and negotiated peace deals there, has in principle said such a corridor would be feasible.

The corridor route proposed by Azerbaijan would run along both Armenia’s and Nakhchivan’s border with Iran, which has raised concerns in Tehran that Azerbaijan could use it to block Iran’s access to Armenia.

“Forcefully imposing on Armenia an extraterritorial corridor, a corridor that will pass through the territory of Armenia but will be out of our control … is unacceptable for us and should be unacceptable for the international community,” Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/nakhchivan-after-nagorno-karabakh-crisis-azerbaijan-armenia-103462299 

The Guardian view on Nagorno-Karabakh’s exodus: many have fled, but protection is still needed

Emil Lazarian
The Guardian, UK
Sept 28 2023
Editorial

Ethnic Armenians are pouring out of the enclave. But the US and Europe must press Azerbaijan to respect the rights of those who remain

The self-declared republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will cease to exist on New Year’s Day 2024, its ethnic Armenian officials announced on Thursday. The former autonomous region broke away from Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but was not recognised even by Armenia, which backed it. All its institutions will now be dissolved.

The truth is that it is already vanishing. A place is its people, and more than half the population of the enclave has fled to Armenia since last week’s 24-hour offensive by Azerbaijan to reclaim full control. As of Thursday morning, 68,000 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians living there had left. Many more will follow. Armenia, a country of only 3 million, must be supported to integrate this number of refugees.

While Baku insists that ethnic Armenians are choosing to leave, and that they have nothing to fear, Thomas de Waal, an expert on the Caucasus at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, observed: “That is not how bitterly contested ethnic conflicts are fought, when armed groups are sent into civilian areas.” Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has called it “a direct act of ethnic cleansing”.

What is clear is that few are willing to take the risk of staying. The context is a months-long blockade, which left residents without food or medicines; the warnings from Ilham Aliyev, the autocratic president of Azerbaijan, to “bend your necks”; last week’s military offensive, during which civilians, including children, were killed; and claims of abuses by Azerbaijan’s troops. Further back lies the shadow of the Armenian genocide of 1915, and more recently a history of ethnic cleansing on both sides in the 1990s conflict, in which Azerbaijanis suffered especially heavily. In the brief but vicious 2020 war, Azerbaijan reclaimed large swathes of territory, allowing Azerbaijanis who had left to return home. It also led to crimes including the decapitation of Armenian civilians.

Azerbaijan’s words also carry little weight right now. It launched its operation despite assuring foreign governments that it would refrain from force and in the face of clear warnings from the US and others that they would not countenance ethnic cleansing or other atrocities against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia, Armenia’s treaty ally, brokered the previous ceasefire in 2020 and sent in a peacekeeping force, but is preoccupied with its invasion of Ukraine and is displeased with Armenia’s overtures to the west, including a recent joint military drill with the US. It has also been improving its ties to Azerbaijan. Turkey’s increasingly open support also emboldened Baku.

The US and others are rightly pressing for access for a UN monitoring mission. If Baku is doing nothing wrong, it should have nothing to hide. But given the speed of events, Washington, the EU and European governments must also insist that there will be accountability for what is now happening, including via the European court of human rights. European leaders appear genuinely shocked at the actions of Azerbaijan, with whom they had enjoyed warming relations. They should act accordingly.

This is not just about addressing the current crisis, but staving off future violence. There is concern about Azerbaijan’s desire to establish a corridor to Nakhchivan, which is territorially separated from the rest of the country, and President Aliyev’s recent talk of “western Azerbaijan”, in reference to Armenian territory. What happens now is essential not only for the ethnic Armenians who remain in Nagorno-Karabakh, but for others in the region.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/28/the-guardian-view-on-nagorno-karabakhs-exodus-many-have-fled-but-protection-is-still-needed

‘Armenians free to stay’: Azeri envoy talks Nagorno-Karabakh – exclusive

Emil Lazarian
Jerusalem Post
Sept 28 2023
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN, SETH J. FRANTZMAN

Ten days after Azerbaijan’s 24-hour offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, a prospective peace agreement promises to resolve a three-decades-long conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

According to Baku, Armenia had occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region and deployed military forces there even after a 2020 ceasefire, which Azerbaijan perceived as a threat to its security. Now, however, tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have reportedly fled Nagorno-Karabakh, citing concerns of potential ethnic cleansing, despite Baku’s assertions that they will be treated as equal citizens.

On September 26, senior advisers to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels to prepare for a potential meeting between the leaders in Spain on October 5.


Ahead of those talks, in exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Israel, Mukhtar Mammadov, discussed how Baku views the situation.

The Post reached out to local Armenian representatives as well, but did not receive a response by press time.


Ambassador Mammadov: We first need to understand how the situation got to this point and if there was an alternative – and we think there was.

After the [second Nagorno-Karabakh] war in 2020, Azerbaijan, for the second time, was the first to initiate a peace process, despite all the atrocities committed by Armenia against our people.


In the meantime, we were calling on the international community to discuss the situation’s fragility and the need for the international community to support this peace process and ensure that Armenia understood the value of it. We were optimistic, but there were problems on the ground.

The Armenians were smuggling weapons, placing land mines, and creating hysteria around what they called “a blockade of the Lachin road.” But almost every day, the ICRC  (International Committee of the Red Cross) was crossing, and people were crossing. [The Armenians], however, were using it for military purposes. And when we established a checkpoint – which every country has on their borders, Israel has checkpoints – they started this campaign against Azerbaijan, because they wanted to use the road for military purposes.

One of the severe triggers [of the recent escalation] was the land mines. Over 300 land mines exploded in Azerbaijani territory, and over 60 civilians, military and police were killed. Others were wounded, mostly on their hands or feet.

On 19 September, in the early morning, several mines exploded where people were crossing, and civilians and police died or were wounded.

As a result of our counter-terror operation, we discovered how much ammunition, weapons, tanks and explosives were stored in Karabakh, in houses, farms and civilian facilities.

The operation was less than 24 hours. Its purpose was to ensure that the 10,000 foreign troops on Azerbaijan soil, whom we hadn’t invited there, would leave. No country would accept a single uninvited foreign soldier. They were Armenian soldiers who stayed in the area after 2020, or that had been smuggled in since. Now, they are leaving. We opened the corridor for them to go back to Armenia. We have not persecuted them. Those who leave their arms are fine; they can return wherever they came from.

Azerbaijan now has complete control of the enclave after more than three decades. What will the policy be for the people living there now?

Starting the process of reintegration is a necessary process. We invited Armenian representatives to Baku to begin the process, but unfortunately, that invitation was declined.


Azerbaijan has always been a diverse country. We have many nationalities: Jewish, Russian, Georgia, Kurds and others, and they all have rights under the constitution. Ten ethnic groups learn their language at school. It was declared by the president last week that we see Armenians [who live in Karabkah] as our citizens.

There are lots of videos of people fleeing. Will they be able to leave their homes if they choose to? If not, what happens to the property?

The thing is, those you call fleeing, more of them are soldiers or military groups that have nothing to do with the region. We are open to talking to those Karabakh residents who have lived there forever and are not outsiders. They don’t have IDs and documents; Azerbaijan is not forcing anyone to leave its territory; we declared anyone who wants to stay is free to do so, and we won’t prosecute.

At the same time, video footage shows police and military helping injured and older adults. We have nothing against these people; they are leaving due to three decades of propaganda [against Azerbaijan].

Some people were born after the conflict and have not interacted with Azerbaijanis. The elders, many of them, speak the Azerbaijani language. But the youngsters were raised under this propaganda that we are evil. A lot has to be done to change it, and this is one of our focuses.

We lost 30,000 people in the 1990s [during the first war between the two countries] and 3,000 in the recent [2020] war. People have pain and sorrow. We understand the value of moving on to the next stage. It won’t be easy, but we have to start.


We don’t compare; every conflict, process, and war has different contexts. I would refrain from comparing. We never compare our conflict with Armenia with any dispute in the Middle East. We look at how various conflicts are solved and what initiatives were taken that could be relevant for us.

On the other hand, we had seen that before 19 September, the government of Armenia and Armenian representatives compared what was happening to them and the Holocaust. Azerbaijan was far from the Holocaust [in Europe], but we were one of the safe havens for European Jews. We saved the lives of several thousands of Jews. The Holocaust was one of the greatest tragedies of humankind. Many Jews still have pain and links to it and do not see it right to use this comparison on social media.

We have looked at Israel for its multiculturalism. Like Azerbaijan, Israel has built an environment where [citizens can celebrate] Ramadan, Passover and Easter simultaneously, and people can express their faith freely. As the first Azerbaijan ambassador to Israel, it has been important for me to learn a lot about this society and see what my country can learn.

This is a corridor connecting mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Naxcivan. The 2020 cease-fire agreement included a commitment to open transportation and communication lines. There have been several meetings with Armenia and Russia; so far, they have refused.

We don’t have territorial claims. We only ask for access to a railway and access to this strip [of land] to go to Naxcivan, because Azerbaijanis have been for 30 years unable to cross that strip, so they had to fly or take buses through Iranian territory. So, we asked them to open that corridor. Also, it would be commercially helpful for the Armenian side.

I want to stress that we don’t have any issues with civilians on the ground. We are sending humanitarian assistance, not for show, but because we see them as our citizens. As for ethnic cleansing, Azerbaijanis faced ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, when more than a million people were forced from their homes. We would never do it to any country or nation. The acts on the ground are the opposite of ethnic cleansing. The [Armenians] are free to stay.


Azerbaijan says it does not want exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, urges Armenians to stay

Emil Lazarian
Reuters
Sept 28 2023
By Andrew Osborn
  • Azerbaijan says there's a future for Armenians in Karabakh
  • Says it does not want an exodus
  • But fleeing Armenians say they fear ethnic cleansing
  • Over half of Karabakh's Armenian population has fled

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan does not want a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and is not encouraging anyone to leave the "liberated" region, Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, said on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Suleymanov said Azerbaijan, which took back control of Karabakh last week in a military operation, had not yet had a chance to prove what he said was its genuine commitment to provide secure and better living conditions for those ethnic Armenians who choose to stay.

Some 70,500 people had crossed from Karabakh into Armenia by early Thursday afternoon, Russia's RIA news agency reported, out of an estimated population of 120,000. Earlier, Ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh said they were dissolving the breakaway statelet they had defended against Azerbaijan for three decades.

Many of those leaving have said they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Azerbaijan. Some critics have said the exodus, which has shown how little trust many Armenians have in Azerbaijani promises, is what Baku wants as it will make it easier to resettle the area with Azerbaijanis.

Suleymanov, who issued a call on social media appealing to ethnic Armenians to stay and be part of a multi-ethnic Azerbaijan, said he understood why many civilians were frightened, but that those who chose to stay would benefit from planned rebuilding and infrastructure projects.

"What should Azerbaijan do? We cannot keep them by force, we don't want to keep anyone by force, (but) we don't encourage anyone to leave," he said, adding that Azerbaijani authorities had delivered requested medical, fuel and other supplies.

"We would prefer for people at least to be in a position to make a more informed decision on whether they want to stay. So far, Azerbaijan has not had any chance to prove anything because the time was very short."

Karabakh Armenians will enjoy the same rights and protections as other citizens of Azerbaijan, he said. Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.

He rejected Armenian fears that Azerbaijan would now proceed to destroy Armenian churches and monasteries in Karabakh, saying Baku had "no reason" to destroy historic monuments.

Baku's use of force to retake Karabakh has fuelled fears among some Armenians that it may also use force to carve out a land corridor via Armenia to link up western Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, a strip of territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

Suleymanov said the idea was to re-open transport corridors and make the wider region more prosperous and that he hoped a road and rail corridor could be agreed on via negotiation.

"Nobody is going to open anything by force," he said. "That defeats the purpose. Nobody is going to put troops there, we're not going to invade them (Armenia)."

Reporting by Andrew Osborn Editing by Gareth Jones

‘Azerbaijan continues to perpetrate ethnic cleansing right now,’ Speaker Simonyan warns CoE counterparts in Dublin

Emil Lazarian

 09:34,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has warned his counterparts from Council of Europe member states that Azerbaijan is perpetrating ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Azerbaijan continues to perpetrate ethnic cleansing right now,” Simonyan said at the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament in Dublin. “Tens of thousands of people are leaving their homes, and this is happening in the 21st century in front of the whole world. This is true evil…”

84,770 forcibly displaced persons have crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as of Friday morning amid the ongoing mass exodus following the September 19-20 Azerbaijani attack which ended after Nagorno-Karabakh authorities agreed to Azerbaijan’s terms in a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal.