Category: 2023

A UN motorcade meets the convoy of Armenian humanitarian aid trucks in Kornidzor on Aug. 3

The United Nations waited until almost all of Artsakh was depopulated to send a mission to Artsakh. The UN announced Friday that it had accepted an invitation from Azerbaijan to inspect Nagorno-Karabakh, ignoring widespread warnings of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians.

The mission arrived in Stepanakert on Sunday “to assess the humanitarian needs in the region.”

After concluding its mission, Stephane Dujarric, a representative of the UN Secretary-General, told the reporter that the number of Armenians left in Artsakh ranges from 50 to 1,000.

He added that during the one-day visit to the region, during which the UN representatives visited Stepanakert, they did not find any signs of destruction of civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, cultural and religious infrastructures, although all shops were closed.

“Local residents or other persons did not present to the delegation evidence of violence against the civilian population as a result of the last ceasefire,” Dujarric added.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan called the UN mission “too late,” telling representatives of international organizations on Monday that continued warnings by Yerevan that Azerbaijan was planning to subject Artsakh Armenians to premeditated ethnic cleansing “with premeditated actions “did not lead to effective steps by the international community to prevent Baku’s policy.”

Hunan Tadevosyan, a spokesperson for Artsakh’s Emergency Services told News.am that arrival of the UN mission was too little too late, much in the same way as visits from all other humanitarian organizations.

Since the end of the 2020 war, Azerbaijan has not allowed the UN or other international organizations to enter Artsakh.

“I was a volunteer working with all the people who were taking shelter in the basements, even those with mental illnesses who did not realize what was happening. I personally put them on a bus, we took them out of Stepanakert,” Tadevosyan said.

“There was information on social networks that a mother with her seven children was left behind, as were a couple. We went around the entire city again, but we didn’t find anyone. There is no population left in Stepanakert. If there are people left, you can count them on your fingers,” he added.

Azerbaijani media reported that the UN mission included representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, UNICEF and the World Health Organization, as well as a technical team from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and the UN Department of Safety and Security.

The team traveled from Aghdam to Stepanakert, where it met with the local population and interlocutors and saw first-hand the situation regarding health and education facilities. 

“The mission was struck by the sudden manner in which the local population left their homes and the suffering the experience must have caused.  The mission did not come across any reports – neither from the local population interviewed nor from the interlocutors – of incidences of violence against civilians following the latest ceasefire,” an official statement from the mission noted.

While the last of Artsakh’s displaced residents arrived in Armenia on Monday, Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire at an Armenian military vehicle killing one solider and injuring two others.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported that Aram Kocharyan, a soldier of Armenia’s Armed Forces, was killed when the vehicle he was in was targeted. Kocharyan was part of a team conducting a routine food delivery mission for Armenian military positions near the Kut village in the Gegharkunik Province.

The Azerbaijani forces also targeted an ambulance “in gross violation of international humanitarian law,” the defense ministry added.

The injured soldiers were taken to a military hospital in the area and they are expected to recover.

At around 2:25 p.m. local time on Monday, Azerbaijani forces opened fire using small firearms, the defense ministry said.

Artsakh residents crammed onto and inside a truck leaving for Armenia (Reuters photo)

As of late Sunday night local time, 100,514 displaced Artsakh residents had entered Armenia, with the Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan reporting that the last bus carrying 15 passengers left Stepanakert for Goris.

In a Facebook post he said that a “small team of dedicated people” will stay in Artsakh to look for “helpless” civilians who may be stuck in their homes and unable to leave.

“If you still have clear information about lonely or helpless people left behind in Artsakh, you should contact the International Committee of the Red Cross or provide us with relevant information to be forwarded to the ICRC,” Stepanian said.

Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan said he and a group of other officials will stay in Stepanakert until the search for people who died or went missing as a result of last week’s powerful fuel depot explosion and victims of the Azerbaijani attack on Artsakh on September 19 is over.

Shahramanyan signaled on Friday that he was going to negotiate with the Azerbaijanis to allow former Artsakh leaders and other prominent figures to leave for Armenia safely.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said on Saturday that it has compiled a “most wanted” list of 300 Artsakh officials and issued what it called “international warrants” for their arrest. Included on the list are the three former presidents of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakian and Arkady Ghukasian.

Citing an unnamed source in Artsakh, the Russian TASS news agency reported on Monday that Harutyunyan, Sahakian and Ghukasian remained in Stepanakert as of noon local time on Monday amid continuing negotiations with the Azerbaijani side.

Artsakh’s former foreign minister David Babayan reportedly was arrested after he said he was going to turn himself in to Azerbaijani authorities. Another three officials, former state minister Ruben Vardanyan, former Artsakh Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and his ex-deputy Davit Manukyan, have also been arrested and under currently in Azerbaijani prisons.

Azerbaijani officials escorted a team of United Nations observers to Stepanakert on Sunday for what was the first official visit of a UN delegation in 30 years.

Reports are circulating that Azerbaijani television and radio broadcasts have already begun airing in areas previously under the control of the Stepanakert authorities.

Azerbaijan has signaled that it will begin circulating it currency, the manat, in those areas and Stepanakert.