Category: 2023

GORIS, Armenia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – After the village was bombed so hard there was no way to bury the truckloads of dead, he fled with his family and stuffed whatever possessions could be salvaged into two vans.

Petya Grigoryan is one of the first ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to make it to Armenia after a lightning 24-hour Azerbaijani military operation defeated the Karabakh Armenian forces.

The ethnic Armenians of Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, say they will not live as part of Azerbaijan and that almost all of the 120,000 Armenians there will leave for Armenia.

So far several hundred have reached Armenia.

Grigoryan, a 69-year-old driver, said his Kochoghot village in what the Armenians know as the Martakert district of Karabakh was pummelled by Azerbaijan armed forces. There were two KAMAZ-truckloads full of civilian dead in the village, he said.

“There was nowhere to bury them,” Grigoryan told Reuters after making his way down the Lachin corridor and across the border into Armenia, where Reuters interviewed him and other refugees in the border town of Goris.

“We took what we could and left. We don’t know where we’re going. We have nowhere to go,” he said.

Of the 500 villagers, he said 40 had got out.

Reuters was unable to independently verify his account but it chimed with the outline given by other ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh, which Azerbaijan says will be turned into a “paradise” and fully integrated.

Azerbaijan said it launched the operation against Karabakh forces after attacks on its own citizens. President Ilham Aliyev said his army had only targeted Karabakh fighters and that civilians had been protected.

“Before the operation, I once again gave a strict order to all our military units that the Armenian population living in the Karabakh region should not be affected by the anti-terrorist measures and that the civilian population be protected,” he said in an address to the nation on Sept. 20.

“Civilians felt protected entirely thanks to the professionalism of our armed forces,” he said.

Grigoryan and thousands of other Armenians made their way to the airport near the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenians and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, where some Russian peacekeepers are based.

“It was scary there,” he said. Thousands slept on the ground without food and little water. “There was nothing to eat or drink; three days without food,” he said.

Nairy, a builder from Leninakan, Armenia, said he had been trapped in Karabakh since December by the blockade. Then the Azerbaijan military shelled the Shosh village where he was staying.

“The kids were injured. We sat in the basements until the peacekeepers came in and took the people out,” he said.

He too had made his way to the airport.

“We are extremely grateful to the lads for sharing their rations with the kids,” he said. “The Russian peacekeepers went hungry to give the kids their rations.”

At the airport, he said, there were thousands sleeping outside.

France is keeping a close eye on the territorial integrity of Armenia after Azerbaijan’s offensive to take full control of the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, accusing Baku of “threatening” Armenian borders.

“France is right now very vigilant concerning the territorial integrity of Armenia. Because that’s what’s at stake,” Macron said in a televised interview

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Armenia on Saturday urged the United Nations to send a mission to ensure the safety of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh after the territory was seized back by Azerbaijan, which promised to respect minority rights.

For the second time since the swift Azerbaijani operation in the mountainous territory, the top diplomats of the adversaries clashed at the United Nations as Western powers voiced alarm.

Armenia — where memories remain vivid of mass killings in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire that Armenians, the United States and many historians consider genocide — has accused Turkish ally Azerbaijan of planning ethnic cleansing.

“After failure of preventing genocide in Rwanda, the United Nations managed to create mechanisms for prevention, thus making the ‘never again’ a meaningful pledge,” Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.

“But today we are at the brink of another failure,” he said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

He called for the United Nations to send a mission immediately to Nagorno-Karabakh to “monitor and assess the human rights, humanitarian and security situation on the ground.”

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, had accused Armenia of disinformation when the two top diplomats joined a special Security Council session Thursday.

On Saturday, Bayramov also spoke at the General Assembly and said that Azerbaijan, which is mostly Muslim, would respect the Armenians, who are Christian.

“I wish to reiterate that Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens,” Bayramov said.

“We continue to firmly believe that there is a historic opportunity for both Azerbaijan and Armenia to establish good neighborly relations and coexist side by side in peace,” Bayramov said.

Russia, which sent peacekeepers after earlier violence in 2020, on Saturday was supervising the disarmament of ethnic Armenian fighters.

If the surrender is completed, it could effectively end a conflict that has erupted periodically since the fall of the Soviet Union.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had led three rounds of talks seeking a diplomatic solution, voiced “deep concern” for the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in a telephone call with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Blinken told him that the United States is pressing Azerbaijan “to protect civilians and uphold its obligations to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and to ensure its forces comply with international humanitarian law,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Azerbaijan’s swift offensive, which killed some 200 people, has sparked protests in Armenia against Russia, which had been tasked with guaranteeing the truce after the 2020 fighting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to reporters at the United Nations, accused Western powers of “pulling the strings” to undermine Moscow but also said, “Unfortunately, the leadership of Armenia from time to time adds fuel to the fire itself.”

Lavrov pointed to one senior Armenian politician who said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had handed Nagorno-Karabakh over to Azerbaijan.

“It is ludicrous to accuse us of this,” Lavrov said, while adding that he expected Armenians to maintain in Moscow’s orbit and not ally with “those who swoop in from abroad.”

A declaration signed in 1991 in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, then known as Alma-Ata, stated that existing borders of newly independent countries that had been Soviet republics were inviolable.

The declaration “meant that Nagorno-Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan — pure and simple as that,” Lavrov said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Armenia on Saturday that the United States had “deep concern” and sought protection for ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan solidified control of the territory.

Armenia could become less dependent on the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for its security. It could also join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called his country’s security agreements with Russia “ineffective” on Sunday, signaling a potential shift away from Moscow after it refused to intervene in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia had acted as guarantor for a peace deal that ended a 44-day war with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory three years ago, with peacekeepers deployed around the region.

However, Azerbaijan’s much larger army was able to overpower ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and capture the enclave earlier this week. The fighting killed at least 200 people, according to Armenian authorities.

“The systems of external security in which Armenia is involved are ineffective when it comes to the protection of our security and Armenia’s national interests,” Pashinyan said during a televised address to the nation on Sunday.

His comments come as Armenian authorities prepare to accept around 120,000 refugees entering the country from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russia-dominated alliance of post-Soviet states that pledge to protect each other in the event of an attack. But Russia’s armed forces are currently focused on the invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has in recent days blamed Pashinyan for his handling of the crisis and said it would not intervene because Armenia itself recognizes the disputed region as part of Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan said Armenia must transform its security arrangements “in cooperation with all the partners who are ready for mutually beneficial steps.”

“It has become evident to all of us that the CSTO instruments and the instruments of the Armenian-Russian military-political cooperation are insufficient for protecting external security of Armenia,” he said.

Pashinyan also said that Armenia should join the International Criminal Court (ICC) — a tribunal which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March over his actions in Ukraine. Putin has avoided visiting ICC member states since then.

Earlier this month, Pashinyan sent the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, to be ratified by parliament.

“The decision is not directed against CSTO and the Russian Federation,” he said. “It comes from the interests of the country’s external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right.”

On Sunday, the first group of refugees fleeing Azerbaijan’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh arrived in the Armenian border town of Kornidzor.

Officials from Armenia’s Foreign Ministry were present in the town to register the new arrivals.

The group was composed mainly of women, children and the elderly.

Armenian authorities said a total of 377 people had arrived from the region as of Sunday night.

Azerbaijan has pledged to allow rebel fighters who lay down their arms to go to Armenia via the so-called Lachin Corridor.

zc/jcg (AFP, Reuters)

https://www.dw.com/en/armenia-pm-signals-foreign-policy-shift-away-from-russia/a-66910281

MOSCOW: The 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will leave for Armenia as they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and fear ethnic cleansing, the leadership of the breakaway region told Reuters on Sunday (Sep 24).

What is going on and what does it mean?

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond Baku’s control, were forced to declare a ceasefire on Sep 20 after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. Ninety-nine point nine per cent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world,” Babayan said.

Azerbaijan says it will guarantee their rights and integrate the region, but the Armenians say they fear repression – and ethnic cleansing. Azerbaijan has denied any such intentions.

As the Soviet Union crumbled, what is known as the First Karabakh War erupted (1988-1994) between Armenians and their Azerbaijan. About 30,000 people were killed and more than a million people displaced.

The Armenian leaders of Karabakh said in a statement that all those made homeless by the most recent Azerbaijani military operation and wanting to leave would be escorted to Armenia by Russian peacekeepers.

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began a mass exodus by car on Sunday towards Armenia after Azerbaijan defeated the breakaway region’s fighters in a conflict dating from the Soviet era.

The Nagorno-Karabakh leadership told Reuters the region’s 120,000 Armenians did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan for fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Those with fuel had started to drive down the Lachin corridor towards the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter in the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital at night towards the corridor’s mountainous curves.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

The Armenians are not accepting Azerbaijan’s promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world,” Babayan said. “Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.”

The Armenian leaders of Karabakh said that all those made homeless by the Azerbaijani military operation and wanting to leave would be escorted to Armenia by Russian peacekeepers.

Reuters reporters near the village of Kornidzor on the Armenian border saw some heavily laden cars pass into Armenia. Armenia said 377 refugees had arrived by Sunday evening.

It was unclear when the bulk of the population might move to Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced calls to resign for failing to save Karabakh. In an address to the nation, he said some aid had arrived but a mass exodus looked inevitable.

“If proper conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homes and there are no effective protection mechanisms against ethnic cleansing, the likelihood is rising that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see exile from their homeland as the only way to save their lives and identity,” he said, according to an official transcript.

The situation could change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran vie for influence.

Last week’s Azerbaijani victory appears to end one of the decades-old “frozen conflicts” of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. President Ilham Aliyev said his “iron fist” had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and that the region would be turned into a “paradise”.

Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in the Azerbaijani military operation.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies in an area that over centuries has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets. It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. In Soviet times it was designated an autonomous region within Azerbaijan.

As the Soviet Union crumbled, the Armenians there threw off nominal Azeri control and captured neighbouring territory in what is now known as the First Karabakh War. From 1988-1994 about 30,000 people were killed and more than a million people, mostly Azeris, displaced.

In 2020, after decades of skirmishes, Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, won a decisive 44-day Second Karabakh War, recapturing territory in and around Karabakh. That war ended with a Russian-brokered peace deal that Armenians accuse Moscow of failing to guarantee.

The Armenian authorities in the region said late on Saturday that about 150 tonnes of humanitarian cargo from Russia and another 65 tonnes of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross had arrived in the region.

With 2,000 peacekeepers in the region, Russia said that under the terms of the ceasefire six armoured vehicles, more than 800 small arms, anti-tank weapons and portable air defence systems, as well as 22,000 ammunition rounds, had been handed in by Saturday.

Space for 40,000 people from Karabakh had been prepared in Armenia. Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want.

Pashinyan blamed Russia publicly on Sunday for failing to do enough for Armenia which he said would review its alliance with Moscow.

“Some of our partners are increasingly making efforts to expose our security vulnerabilities, putting at risk not only our external, but also internal, security and stability, while violating all norms of etiquette and correctness in diplomatic and interstate relations, including obligations assumed under treaties,” Pashinyan said in his Sunday address.

Russian officials say Pashinyan is to blame for his own mishandling of the crisis, and have repeatedly said that Armenia, which borders Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has few other friends in the region.