22:15,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. 17 people wounded in the September 19-20 Azerbaijani aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh have been evacuated from Martakert to Stepanakert by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
ICRC Stepanakert office communications officer Eteri Musayelyan told ARMENPRESS that 17 wounded persons were transported from Martakert to Stepanakert on September 23.
00:33,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Russian peacekeepers have supplied approximately 150 tons of humanitarian goods (flour, salt, cooking oil, yeast, food rations) to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) through the Goris-Stepanakert highway, the Nagorno-Karabakh InfoCenter said in a statement.
It added that an additional 65 tons of flour has been delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh by the International Committee of the Red Cross, again through the Goris-Stepanakert road.
10:33,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, addressing the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, warned that Azerbaijan could seek to open an extraterritorial corridor through Armenia by force.
“The so-called “corridor” logic promoted by Baku and their hidden and open sponsors is aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia and justifying its territorial claims. The narrative generated by them along with the use of force by Azerbaijan both against the Republic of Armenia and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh shows that forcefully imposing on Armenia an extraterritorial corridor, a corridor that will pass through the territory of Armenia but will be out of our control can be the next target. This is unacceptable for us and should be unacceptable for the international community,” FM Mirzoyan said.
Below is the full transcript of the Armenian Foreign Minister’s speech at the UNGA 78th session.
“Honorable Mr. President,
Excellences,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, let me congratulate Mr. Dennis Francis on assuming the Presidency of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
I will not be the first and definitely not the last speaker in this august body who will identify global threats for democracies, challenges for security, violations of the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, including non-use of force and peaceful resolution of conflicts, as a main source of instability and tension in the world.
The devastating developments of the past years, which disrupted the security architecture in the world and especially in Europe, have significantly damaged multilateralism. If a couple of years ago we were contemplating the decline of multilateralism, today we see erosion of that very tenet and its foundation such as international law, human rights and cooperative security.
This is not just a theoretical inference but a reality with which the Armenian people in the South Caucasus are coping for the last three years. The repetitive aggression of Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and military attacks against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh significantly disrupts peace and stability in our region, massively violates human rights and humanitarian law representing existential threat for Armenians.
My government, having a sincere belief and aspiration to establish peace and stability in our region, has made significant and duly recorded efforts to this end. Alas, we do not have a partner for peace but a country who openly declares that “Might has Right” and constantly uses force to disrupt the peace process. Literally a year ago, from this very stage the PM of Armenia presented the fact of aggression and occupation of the Republic of Armenia’s sovereign territories by neighboring Azerbaijan. Since then, the situation has deteriorated even more and today I have to present yet another very recent act of large-scale offensive, this time against the indigenous people of Nagorno-Karabakh, in blatant violation of the international law and Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020.
It happened this week and the timing was not accidental. It shows open disregard and defiance of Azerbaijan against the international community who gathered here in New York. The message is clear: “you can talk about peace and we can go to war and you will not be able to change anything.” The 120,000 people, whose sole aspiration is to live and create in peace and dignity in their ancestral homeland and who have already been suffering under the more than 9-month blockade and siege by Azerbaijan, were subjected to military attack by tens of thousands of troops. In the course of this inhumane attack, the whole territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert and other towns and settlements came under intense and indiscriminate shelling with heavy weaponry such as rockets, artillery, combat UAVs, aviation, including prohibited cluster munition.
This atrocious large-scale offensive which claimed hundreds of lives, including of women and children, was cynically defined as a local counter terrorist operation. According to the recent information there are confirmed cases of more than 200 killed and 400 wounded, including among civilian population, women and children, also accepted by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The fate of hundreds of people is uncertain.
As I speak today, 30 percent of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is displaced. The entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh remains without any means of subsistence, as just limited humanitarian assistance has been able to enter into Nagorno-Karabakh. There is no food, no medicine, no shelter, no place to go, separated from their families, terrorized and scared for their lives.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The policy and actions of Azerbaijan for the last 10 months, evidently demonstrate the pre-planned and well-orchestrated nature of this mass atrocity. On December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan blockaded the Lachin corridor – the only road, the lifeline connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outer world, in blatant violation of its obligations under the international humanitarian law and the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020. The blockade was further consolidated by the installation of illegal check-point since April 23, as well as with the complete cessation of any movement, even for humanitarian aid through the Corridor since June 15.
More than 9 months-long blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh caused a severe shortage of food, medical supplies, fuel and other essential goods, almost depleting the resources necessary for the survival of the population. The blockade was accompanied by deliberate disruption of electricity and natural gas supplies, further exacerbating the situation into a full-fledged humanitarian crisis.
I would like to emphasize that on 22 February, 2023 the International Court of Justice indicated a provisional measure, according to which “Azerbaijan shall take all measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions”. This order was later reconfirmed by the Court’s order of 6 July.
A number of partner states, international organizations, including UN Special Rapporteurs, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Transparency International had been continuously voicing an alarm about the deteriorating situation on the ground. Moreover, on August 16, during the emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council conveyed by the request of Armenia, the majority of UNSC member states expressed clear position regarding the need to unblock the Lachin corridor and halt the suffering of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and ensure their fundamental human rights. Whereas, in response to these clear-cut calls, Azerbaijan has worsened its inhumane actions by launching this military attack against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
On September 21, 2023, the United Nations Security Council gathered once again to discuss the devastating situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The majority of the UNSC members expressed their position regarding the imperative of cessation of hostilities by Azerbaijan, opening of the Lachin corridor, ensuring international humanitarian access and addressing the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The chronology of truly devastating developments in our region come to prove that the issues cannot be addressed merely with statements and generic calls. Armenia has repeatedly warned the international community about the need for concrete and practical action, including the dispatching of a UN inter-agency needs assessment and fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh. But the international community, the United Nations failed to come to the rescue of people for the last 9 months, 285 days.
The use of starvation as a method of warfare, depriving people of their means of subsistence, obstruction and denial of humanitarian access of UN agencies, hindering the ICRC humanitarian activities, constitute early warning signs of an atrocity crime. A number of international human rights organizations, lawyers, genocide scholars, reputable independent experts, including the former ICC Prosecutor and the former Special Advisor of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide have already characterized the situation on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh as a risk of genocide. Just yesterday, the Special Advisor of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu stressed and I quote: “Military action can only contribute to escalate what is already a tense situation and to put the civilian population in the area at risk of violence, including risk of genocide and related atrocity crimes. All efforts need to be made to prevent violence and sustain peace”, end of quote.
Let me draw your attention to the fact that after failure of preventing Genocide in Rwanda, the United Nations managed to create mechanisms for prevention, thus making the “never again” a meaningful pledge. But today we are at the brink of another failure.
The people of Nagorno-Karabakh, trapped in this inhumane blockade and hostilities inflicted by Azerbaijan and under the threat of their very existence, still hope that prevention will not remain a feature of language, but will become a line of actions.
The claims that the United Nations is not present on the ground, so has no capacity to verify the situation cannot be an excuse for inaction. The United Nations is a universal body, which should stand with the victims of mass atrocity crimes all over the world regardless of the status of territory instead of delivering dismissive statements.
We are hopeful that the international community, namely the UN will demonstrate a strong political will to condemn the resumption of hostilities and targeting of civilian settlements and infrastructure and demand full compliance with obligations under the international humanitarian law, including those related to the protection of civilians, in particular women and children, and critical civilian infrastructure․
The international community should undertake all the efforts for an immediate deployment of an interagency mission by the UN to Nagorno-Karabakh with the aim to monitor and assess the human rights, humanitarian and security situation on the ground. The unimpeded access of the UN agencies and other international organizations to Nagorno-Karabakh in line with the humanitarian principles is an imperative. In this regard we also stress the need to ensure full cooperation of the parties in good faith with the International Committee of the Red Cross to address the consequences of the military attack, including the removal and identification of the bodies, search and rescue of missing personnel and civilians, release of POWs, safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance, in strict compliance with the international humanitarian law.
Azerbaijan must finally adhere to its legally binding obligations and ensure freedom of movement of persons, vehicles and cargo, along the Lachin corridor, in line with the ICJ orders.
We firmly believe that relevant mechanisms must be introduced to ensure the return of persons displaced in the course of the recent military attack, as well as persons and refugees displaced as a result of 2020 war, to their homes in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions under the monitoring and control of the UN relevant agencies, as it was foreseen in the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020.
A sustainable and viable international mechanism for preventing the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population of Nagorno-Karabakh and for ensuring dialogue between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and official Baku to address the issues related to rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh is an imperative. Furthermore, excluding punitive actions against NK political and military representatives and personnel should be guaranteed.
We also believe that the international community must demand the exit of any Azerbaijani military and law-enforcement bodies from all civilian settlements in NK to exclude panic, provocations and escalation, endangering civilian population and create a possibility for a United Nations-mandated Peacekeeping Force to keep stability and security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The ethnic cleansing policy against Nagorno-Karabakh is just a part of a bigger picture. In this regard we clearly see an intention to involve the Republic of Armenia in military actions thus widening the geography of hostilities into our sovereign territories.
The unwillingness of Azerbaijan to genuinely and constructively engage in the peace process with Armenia, including to recognize the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, withdraw its Armed forces from the occupied territories of Armenia, delimitate the Armenian-Azerbaijani interstate borders based on the latest available maps from 1975 corresponding with Almaty 1991 declaration, create a demilitarized zone along the interstate border, clearly illustrates the mentioned intentions.
Likewise, Azerbaijan has a hidden agenda when it comes to unblocking regional transport and economic communications. As a landlocked country, Armenia is vitally interested in implementation of the agreement on the unblocking of all the regional communications on the basis of sovereignty, national jurisdiction, equality and reciprocity. Armenia is a long-standing advocate of the inclusive and equitable transport connectivity with the view to promote trade, cooperation and people-to-people contacts, whereas our neighbors continue to impose the three decades-long blockade of Armenia, as part of its well-established policy of economic coercion of my country. The so-called “corridor” logic promoted by Baku and their hidden and open sponsors is aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia and justifying its territorial claims. The narrative generated by them along with the use of force by Azerbaijan both against the Republic of Armenia and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh shows that forcefully imposing on Armenia an extraterritorial corridor, a corridor that will pass through the territory of Armenia but will be out of our control can be the next target. This is unacceptable for us and should be unacceptable for the international community.
Mr. President,
Despite all the challenges Armenia continues to engage in the negotiations to achieve normalization of relations and establishment of lasting peace in the region and supports the efforts of the international partners to this end. Respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty within the internationally recognized borders, addressing the underlying causes of the conflict, namely the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are the foundation of a lasting peace.
In the end, let me state that the people of Armenia will firmly stand for our sovereignty, independence and democracy and will overcome the hybrid-war unleashed against us.
I thank you.”
11:51,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. 23 seriously and critically wounded persons are being transported from Nagorno-Karabakh to hospitals in Armenia, the Ministry of Healthcare of Armenia said on Sunday.
The victims are being evacuated by 23 ambulances under the supervision of medics.
The ambulances, escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross, have already crossed the Hakari Bridge, the ministry said.
Adam Lucente
The announcement of federal corruption charges against Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on Friday leading up to him stepping down as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), was met by snarky reactions in Turkish news outlets and social media, a response to the lawmaker’s strong and persistent criticism of Turkey.
Menendez, a well-known foreign policy figure and established power broker in the Senate, allegedly participated in a bribery scheme involving his wife, Nadine, and three businesspeople in his state of New Jersey, federal prosecutors announced on Friday.
The US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, told reporters that the senator allegedly “used his power and influence, including his leadership role on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to benefit the government of Egypt in various ways.”
Later the same day, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer announced that Menendez would temporarily step down as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Turkish reactions
Turkish media outlets noted Menendez’s differences with Turkey in their coverage on Friday, including his support for Greece and Armenia. Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency accused the senator of being tied to the “Greek and Armenian lobbies.”
“Menendez is known for his anti-Turkey stance and for his close ties with Greek and Armenian lobbies,” claimed the outlet.
Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT ran a headline reading “Anti-Turkey US senator accused of bribery.”
Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu took it a step further, referring to Menendez as an “Armenian and Greek lobbyist” in a tweet.
Menendez and Turkey
The reactions are unsurprising given Menendez’s history with Turkey. The embattled senator has long been a vocal supporter of Armenian issue, urging the US government to recognize the Armenian genocide, which Washington did in 2021. Turkey disputes that the events constitute a genocide, and criticized US President Joe Biden for his decision.
Relatedly, Menendez, 69, is critical of Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan in the ongoing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
He is vocal in defending Greece in its disputes with Turkey including the maritime border and has often lashed out at Ankara’s military presence in Cyprus.
“If standing up to human rights abuses makes me an enemy of Erdogan — if calling out Turkey for arming Azerbaijan and enabling the massacre of innocent Armenian civilians makes me an enemy of Erdogan — if demanding Turkey recognize Greek and Cypriot sovereignty makes me an enemy of [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan — then it is a badge I will wear with honor,” said Menendez in a December statement.
Menendez has also placed a hold on the sale of US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, something that has angered the policy and security establishment in Turkey.
Turkey had requested in October 2021 to buy $20 billion worth of F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits. High-ranking members of Congress including Menendez have objected to this sale, but could soften their position if Ankara ratifies Sweden’s bid, improves relations with Greece and maintains distance from Russia.
In July, Menendez said he was in talks with the Biden administration about the issue, calling on the administration to rein in Turkey’s “aggression.”
A hold is an informal practice whereby a senator can delay action on a congressional matter. Under the US Constitution, Congress has the right to review foreign arms sales.
“The biggest obstacle to the sale of F-16s to Turkey was Menendez,” Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at Brookings, tweeted on Friday, adding that Turkey is following the indictment “very closely.”
“The US government needs Senate approval for the sale. The Biden administration has long struggled to convince Menendez,” she added.
Some other observers agree that the Menendez indictment will be welcome news in Ankara due to the F-16 issue.
“I am sure the Turkish establishment will be pleased with the news of Senator Menendez’s indictment for taking bribes from Egypt,” tweeted Brooklyn College professor Louis Fishman on Friday. “He is one of Turkey’s most avid major adversaries in Washington, blocking the F-16 sales. This will make Biden’s work easier.”
Differences between Erdogan and Biden, however, could still delay the purchase. The US president has yet to invite his Turkish counterpart to the White House, and the two did not meet while in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly meetings.
Erdogan’s delay in ratifying Sweden’s NATO bid, new US sanctions on Turkish firms allegedly doing business with Russia, and tension with US allies in Syria have all created a rift between Washington and Ankara, making the F-16 sale less about Menendez and more about the bilateral relationship.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/09/turkey-gloats-menendez-indictment-will-it-get-f-16-jets
Russia’s top diplomat on Saturday accused Armenian leaders of worsening tensions but voiced hope the country would stay in Moscow’s orbit following furor over Azerbaijan’s recapture of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
Speaking at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged that Western powers were “pulling the strings” to undermine Russian influence but added, “unfortunately, the leadership of Armenia from time to time adds fuel to the fire itself.”
Russian peacekeepers were deployed after a previous round of fighting in 2020 to monitor a ceasefire around Nagorno-Karabakh, which was run by ethnic Armenian separatists for decades.
Azerbaijani forces nonetheless swiftly seized the mountainous territory on Tuesday, despite earlier appeals by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the Kremlin to do more.
Protesters have rallied outside Russia’s embassy in Yerevan, with some Armenians accusing Moscow of being distracted by its war in Ukraine.
Lavrov pointed to one senior Armenian politician who said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had handed Nagorno-Karabakh over to Azerbaijan following the 2020 fighting.
“It is ludicrous to accuse us of this,” Lavrov said.
“There is a great number of similar politicians with a similar background there, but we are convinced that the Armenian people remember their history,” he said.
He voiced confidence that Armenians would remain linked to “Russia and other friendly states in the region rather than 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.
https://www.barrons.com/news/russia-says-armenians-added-fuel-to-fire-in-azerbaijan-conflict-f921148d
Armenians starting fires in Khankendi to destroy archives: Azerbaijan
Armenians set fires, destroyed documents, material evidence, archives in various administrative buildings, Azerbaijan says
Ruslan Rehimov
BAKU
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs announced Friday that intentional fires were started by Armenians in Khankendi in the Karabakh region while administrative archives were also burned and destroyed.
It said all areas were kept under full control and observation after the anti-terrorist operation was carried out in Karabakh.
“It is observed that in the city of Khankendi, the opposing party deliberately set fires and destroyed documents, material evidence and archives in various administrative buildings,” it said in a statement.
The Azerbaijani army launched an anti-terror operation in Karabakh on Sept. 19 to establish constitutional order.
Illegal Armenian armed forces in Karabakh laid down their weapons after an operation lasted about 24 hours.
The future of Armenia and Azerbaijan’s feud is uncertain — and could destabilize the region.
A decades-long conflict in the Caucasus flared up this week, as Azerbaijan on Tuesday launched an “anti-terror” strike aimed at Nagorno-Karabakh — the semi-autonomous, majority-Armenian region within its internationally recognized borders.
For the second time in three years, Azerbaijan’s government made decisive gains: the government of Nagorno-Karabakh has agreed to dissolve its military, and the future of the region’s semi-autonomous status has been put into serious doubt. It’s a result that could echo far beyond Azerbaijan’s borders, as it has escalated an already difficult humanitarian crisis, and is roiling Armenian politics.
Though there’s no suggestion of imminent war between the neighbors, regional experts said there is concern that continued crises like last week’s strike could inflame longstanding tensions, resulting in continued conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that could also pull in other regional powers like Iran and Turkey.
“This could become a regional war,” Benyamin Poghosyan, Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy at the Applied Policy Research Institute of Armenia, an independent think tank in Yerevan, told Vox. At the very least, he said, “I am afraid that for years to come […] the South Caucasus and Armenia and Azerbaijan will be volatile.”
The trouble in Nagorno-Karabakh didn’t just start this past week. The region has been the locus of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but animosity between the two countries goes back to the turn of the 20th century.
After the region was absorbed into the USSR, the Soviet Union designated a majority-Armenian autonomous region within Azerbaijan in 1923 — today known as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Conflict between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan started in earnest in 1988, when the region began agitating for independence. Between 1988 and 1990, Azerbaijan carried out multiple pogroms against Armenians within its borders, and interethnic conflict was common. Moscow intervened in 1990, and in the aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR Nagorno-Karabakh claimed independence, though the international community has never recognized the breakaway republic.
That move inflamed tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Backed by Armenian troops, Karabakh Armenians took control not only of their historical region, but also of much of Azerbaijan’s territory up to the border with Armenia.
That conflict, which ended with a 1994 ceasefire, was a huge moral victory for Armenia, according to Poghosyan, who said that territorial gain was “one of the primary pillars of independent Armenian identity,” after centuries of oppression.
But it was also an unsustainable loss for Azerbaijan — about 20 percent of its territory was now outside of the country’s control.
Azerbaijan, aligned with Turkey, recaptured significant territory in a 2020 war. During that conflict, Russia, which has long been Armenia’s military partner, failed to back Armenia and Karabakh Armenians. That conflict ended in a Russia brokered ceasefire, which about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have helped ensure.
Cut to this week: On September 19, Azerbaijan launched an “anti-terror” campaign in response to the deaths of six people in two landmine explosions within Azerbaijan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an immediate halt to the hostilities, which displaced at least 7,000 and killed around 200, with thousands reportedly still missing.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan on Wednesday of violating the ceasefire agreement, though Azerbaijan vehemently denied the claim. There were also reports of heavy gunfire Thursday, but because mobile connectivity and electricity are only sporadically available in the region, verifying claims from either party is nearly impossible.
Talks between Azerbaijan’s government and representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, which Armenians call Stepanakert and Azerbaijan refers to as Khankendi, are continuing. “We have an agreement on the cessation of military action but we await a final agreement — talks are going on,” David Babayan, who advises the head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s breakaway government Samvel Shahramanyan, told Reuters Thursday.
In addition to dissolving the armed forces, Zaur Shiriyev, the International Crisis Group’s analyst for the South Caucasus told Vox via email that the ceasefire agreement includes, “the dismantling of all existing de facto institutions, [political] positions, and symbols, and discussions about the integration of local Armenians under Azerbaijani authority,” including how to implement some autonomy at the municipal level and protect Armenian language and customs. That would suggest Nagorno-Karabakh’s semi-autonomous government may not be in existence for much longer, and that the way of life the region’s residents have known may be coming to an end.
Nagorno-Karabakh, like other potential territorial conflicts, is an issue of great political volatility of the issue within Armenia, because the territory is also an issue of national pride and identity for many Armenians, and because it is a way to gauge Armenia’s power and influence in the region.
That influence has waned somewhat as Azerbaijan’s military might has grown, aided by increased oil and gas wealth and a security partnership with Turkey, and as Armenia’s relationship with Russia has diminished.
Under current Prime Minister Nikol Pashnyan, the Armenian government has distanced itself both from Russia and from Nagorno-Karabakh, insisting that the Armenian government has had nothing to do with the agreement between Azerbaijan and the de facto government in Stepanekert, and even backing off of previous hard-line guarantees for the region like autonomous rule, Paghosyan told Vox. Armenia was reluctant to get involved in this latest outbreak of fighting; Pashinyan said he wouldn’t let the country be “drag[ged] … into military operations.”
Russia, which helped broker peace in 2020, has also seen its role in the region greatly reduced. Russian peacekeepers have been present maintaining the 2020 ceasefire, but their influence has softened over the years, particularly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And their presence has, at best, only been able to keep an uneasy peace, with low-level hostilities common in the region.
“The ongoing war in Ukraine has indeed weakened Russia’s role, and since 2022, coupled with [Azerbaijan’s] checkpoint in Lachin, and the recent brief war that ended with the capitulation of local Armenians, Azerbaijan has gained more control over the region’s affairs than Russia had previously,” Shiriyev said.
Russia has also struggled with maintaining the flow of goods and people across the region’s only physical connection to Armenia, the Lachin corridor. That area’s been severely restricted by Azerbaijan since December 2022, Shiriyev said.
“Even before last December, when Azerbaijani-backed activists started protests near the road demanding Azerbaijani control, Baku alleged that the road was being used for unchecked transfers of weapons and natural resources from the region to Armenia,” he explained. In April of this year, Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint on the Lachin corridor, over time choking off transport completely. Since that time, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has become increasingly desperate, and only one humanitarian convoy, from the International Committee of the Red Cross, has been permitted to enter the region in months.
Despite Russia’s reduced status in the region, the country is still playing an administrative role in this conflict, facilitating discussions between the Azerbaijani government and local Armenian authorities. “Nowadays, if disarmament takes place, the Russian forces will play a part in it, and over time, they will coordinate the implementation of other ceasefire terms,” Shiriyev told Vox. “Baku views [Russia’s] role as a stabilizing factor, especially in areas where local Armenians live.”
The future looks challenging for Pashinyan as his internal opposition — which is friendlier with Russia than he is — is harnessing protests and frustration with Pashinyan over Nagorno-Karabakh to try and get him to resign. “Protests erupted quite spontaneously and only afterwards political opposition wanted to take them over,” Meliqset Panosian, an independent researcher based in Gyumri, told Vox.
What’s all but guaranteed, Poghosyan said, is continued conflict and possible regional destabilization. Many in Armenia “are feeling humiliated,” he told Vox; to restore their dignity “they will be more inclined to have more nationalistic views.” Armenia is courting other security partners in addition to Russia, and could aspire to build up its military over the coming years. While it’s decidedly the weaker of the two states, it’s not above military conflict. The interests of Russia, Turkey, Western countries, and even Iran overlap and conflict in the region, meaning the potential for animosity and outright hostility remains.
Despite the new agreement between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, there are still a great many unknowns — primarily what Karabakh Armenians’ lives would look like, should they decide to stay in the region. The terms of Wednesday’s ceasefire are still in flux, though Azerbaijan’s Aliyev has promised Karabakh Armenians a “paradise” as part of Azerbaijan.
In the immediate term, the first priority is for humanitarian aid to reach the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, since many in the area are already suffering from severe hunger, Poghosyan said.
There’s no indication as of yet that those who remain will enjoy autonomy; as Poghosyan said, Pashinyan’s only request, though he is not part of the negotiating process, is that ethnic Armenians have rights under Azerbaijani jurisdiction. Aliyev has promised that Armenians will enjoy the right to their own language and culture, but Armenians have expressed concerns about violence and even ethnic cleansing.
That’s not unfounded, given the region’s history. And according to a 2022 State Department report, evidence was found of Armenian graves being desecrated by Azeri soldiers, as well as “severe and grave human rights violations” against Armenians ethnic minorities, including “extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary detention, as well as the destruction of houses, schools and other civilian facilities.”
Those concerns make an exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh likely. Poghosyan estimates that 50,000 to 70,000 of the approximately 120,000 Karabakh Armenians will choose to leave their homes, and will look for safe passage either to Armenia or to other locations including Russia where they might settle.
“Now most of them want to leave to Armenia, almost nobody believes in peaceful coexistence with Azerbaijanis,” Stepan Adamyan, an Armenian who works with international journalists, told Vox. “Every hour [on Facebook] I read their posts saying “do something, take us out of here.”
This week, a new round of violence broke out over the contested zone of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. Anarchists from Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan share their analysis of the situation.
The Armenian genocide casts a long shadow over the region between the Aegean and Caspian Seas. A century ago, the government of the Ottoman Empire oversaw the murder of over a million Armenians, paving the way for the emergence of Turkey as an ethnonationalist state.
After a pogrom against Armenians in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait in February 1988, the Armenian independence movement gained momentum in the Soviet Union, especially in Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region surrounded by majority-Azeri regions. In December 1991, shortly after the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan had declared independence, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence from Azerbaijan. The two governments went to war over the region. The conflict remained unresolved, with hostilities breaking out again in 2020.
Until now, the government of Russia has played mediator, brokering peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and installing “peacekeeping” troops. But now that Russia is bogged down in Ukraine, the government of Azerbaijan has taken advantage of support from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and wealth from increasing oil revenues to resume hostilities. First, they blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh, cutting off resources to it; then, this week, they attacked the region, killing at least dozens of people. Although the self-proclaimed government of Nagorno-Karabakh has capitulated, the latest chapter of this tragedy has only begun. There is reason to anticipate ongoing state violence, ethnic cleansing, and mass displacement, worsening the refugee crisis in Armenia and the surrounding area.
As we anticipated, war is continuing to spread around the region, from Yemen and Syria to Ukraine and Armenia:
The invasion of Ukraine is likely an indication of things to come. Over the past several decades, governments worldwide have invested billions of dollars in crowd control technology and military equipment while taking precious few steps to address mounting inequalities or the destruction of the natural world. As economic and ecological crises intensify, more governments will seek to solve their domestic problems by initiating hostilities with their neighbors.
If anything, this analysis underemphasizes the role of state-sponsored ethnic strife as a pressure valve to manage the failures of capitalism and the state—not only in Palestine, former Yugoslavia, and Kurdistan but also in the United States under Donald Trump.
The violence in Artsakh shows how little people can rely on state structures to protect them. Facing a centuries-long campaign of ethnic violence, the residents are trapped between the government of Azerbaijan, which aims to seize their land and resources, and the Armenian government, which has abandoned any pretense of ensuring their safety. Neither the Russian government nor the governments of Europe or the United States are interested in intervening. All of these governments are effectively running protection rackets that leave ordinary people at the mercy of ethno-nationalism and state militarism.
This is not an argument to support the Armenian military. Over the years, the Armenian government and its military forces and supporters have also committed the sort of atrocities that usually occur in conflicts over territories and resources. Rather, it is urgent to organize against ethnic strife, state violence, and colonial conquest in all their forms. To be effective, this must take place on both sides of every border, on both sides of every conflict.
Here, we present an excerpt from an anti-war statement from Azerbaijan and two texts from anarchists in Armenia—one Russian expatriate, one Armenian.
It has been difficult to maintain contact with anarchists and other anti-authoritarian groups in Azerbaijan, owing in part to the repressive political situation. As usual, internal repression is an essential part of creating the conditions for a mobilization against an outside enemy, which then serves to distract from domestic problems. Nonetheless, there are elements of Azerbaijani society that oppose the war with Armenia. Witness the following excerpt from an anti-war manifesto published by anarchists and “leftist youth” in 2020:
The recent round of escalations between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh once again demonstrates how outdated the framework of a nation-state is for present realities. Inability to transcend the line of thought that divides people into humans and non-humans solely based on their place of birth and then proceeds to establish superiority of the “humans” over their dehumanized “others” as the sole possible scenario for a life within certain territorial boundaries is the only occupier that we have to struggle with. It is the occupier of our minds and abilities to think beyond the narratives and ways of imagining life, imposed upon us by our predatory nationalist governments.
It is this line of thought that makes us oblivious to the exploitative conditions of our bare survival in our respective countries as soon as the “nation” issues its call to protect it from the “enemy.” Our enemy is not a random Armenian whom we have never met in our lives and possibly never will. Our enemy is the very people in power, those with specific names, who have been impoverishing and exploiting the ordinary people as well as our country’s resources for their benefit for more than two decades.
They have been intolerant of any political dissent, severely oppressing dissidents through their massive security apparatus. They have occupied natural sites, seasides, mineral resources for their own pleasure and use, restricting the access of ordinary citizens to these sites. They have been destroying our environment, cutting down trees, contaminating water, and doing the full-scale “accumulation through dispossession.” They are complicit in the disappearance of historical and cultural sites and artifacts across the country. They have been diverting resources from essential sectors, such as education, healthcare, and social welfare, into the military, making profits for our capitalist neighbors with imperialist aspirations—Russia and Turkey.
Strangely enough, every single person is aware of this fact, but a sudden wave of amnesia hits everyone as soon as the first bullet gets shot on the contact line between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
This is the perspective of a Russian anarchist living in exile in Yerevan.
On September 19, Azerbaijan launched its “anti-terrorist” operation against Artsakh [i.e., Nagorno-Karabakh]. There are already reports of civilian casualties.
Despite the capitulation of the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic and the recently launched negotiations between the military and political leadership, Azerbaijan continues to shell Stepanakert and other populated areas of Artsakh. Spontaneous resistance also continues from the local population. There are reports that residents of some villages refused to evacuate and said they would rather die than leave. Desperate battles continue, pitting Yugoslav rifles against drones.
We have already expressed our support for the victims of Azerbaijan’s aggression, as have our comrades in the Russian anarchist diaspora in Tbilisi, who also organize in their community there. Our comrades here in Yerevan have been collecting humanitarian aid for refugees. The “Mama-jan” café is working together with the Jewish diaspora of this city, opening their doors to collect assistance for those who are suffering.
As we see it, the Azerbaijani government is trying to implement the “final solution to the Armenian question” on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
This conflict began in the late 1980s. Against a backdrop of liberalization, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh took to the streets in tens of thousands, protesting against the infringement of their rights in Soviet Azerbaijan and demanding reunification with their historic homeland, Armenia, which had been divided at the beginning of the 20th century between Bolsheviks and Turkish Kemalists. The Armenian population in the city of Sumgait faced both repression and pogroms. A war began accompanied by ethnic cleansing, displacing hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. Azerbaijan lost the war, but did not reconcile.
It is important to understand the war in the context of the political and social situation that prevails in Azerbaijan. The Aliyev family has ruled Azerbaijan for decades. According to Bashir Kitchaev, an anti-war journalist with whom I had the pleasure of personally communicating in Tbilisi, they have done little for the population, which experiences widespread conditions of poverty; instead, they have focused on expanding the Azerbaijani military and fomenting ethnic hatred.
Alongside the government of Turkey, the government of Azerbaijan is participating in an international campaign to deny the Armenian genocide, which claimed the lives of over a million people, as well as an economic blockade of Armenia from both sides. Azerbaijani children are taught in school that “Armenians are enemies.” The Aliyevs have systematically engaged in the destruction of Armenian monuments—for example, in the region of Nakhichevan, destroying the khachkar cemetery in the town of Julfa and turning it into a military training ground. All of this is intended to erase the Armenian cultural heritage of these lands.
In 2020, the Azerbaijani military resumed operations in the midst of the pandemic, employing Islamist groups that had previously participated in attacks on Kurdish people in Afrin and utilizing Turkish weapons including cluster munitions. Afterwards, president Ilham Aliyev established the so-called “Museum of Victory,” publicly displaying stuffed Armenians and helmets taken from Armenian soldiers who had been killed.
Provocations continued despite the ceasefire agreements. The Azerbaijani military has repeatedly opened fire, kidnapped people, shelled and occupied the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia itself, and then, starting on December 12, 2022, blockaded the region of Artsakh, blocking the only highway connecting the Armenians there with the outside world.
This rendered 120,000 Armenians hostages—including 30,000 children—as the Azerbaijani government cut off gas and electricity to the region during the harsh Caucasian winter. Thousands of schools and kindergartens were closed. Food began to disappear from the shelves, famine broke out, and hospitals began to run out of medicine.
The “Museum of Victory” in Azerbaijan.
On April 23, 2023—a date dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 1915 genocide—Aliyev established a military checkpoint and presented the Armenians in Artsakh with an ultimatum: accept Azerbaijani citizenship or face expulsion.
Now, after starving more than a hundred thousand people for several months, the regime, taking advantage of the distraction of public attention to the war in Ukraine, seeks to complete its ethnic cleansing.
An Azerbaijani victory will intensify ethnic violence in the region, endangering the lives of thousands. It will strengthen the regime that persecuted and tortured Azerbaijani anarchists and anti-war leftists and consolidate the position of Turkish imperialism. It could also call into question the independence of Armenia.
Aliyev has repeatedly spoken about the so-called “Zangezur corridor,” another swath of Armenia that he seeks to incorporate into Azerbaijan; he once stated that “Irevan [Yerevan] is our historical land, and we Azerbaijanis must return to these historic lands.” In the context of the shelling of Sotk, Jermuk, and other territories of Armenia, this gives rise to concerns.
Are these statements simply intended to put the Azerbaijani government in a stronger position to negotiate, or do they reflect a serious intent? It’s hard to say. But it is indisputable that any victory for Azerbaijani militarism or Turkish imperialism will represent a setback for anarchists and other social movements, because it will establish a military regime in the conquered territories that will intensify and expand both outward and inward. All of this will become scorched earth for anti-authoritarians.
I am the last one who will defend the Armenian state with its plutocracy and police brutality, but the Azerbaijani government does not represent a better alternative. A variety of organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and many others criticize the Azerbaijani government, classifying the country as authoritarian. In Freedom House’s Freedom Acceptance Index, Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are ranked much higher in terms of human rights and democracy than Azerbaijan.
According to human rights activists, there are roughly 100 political prisoners in Azerbaijani prisons. Journalists are imprisoned, blackmailed, and forced into exile. The country recently adopted a “media law” with which the authorities intend to suppress independent journalism. Journalists who have fled the country face the threat of kidnapping; one has reportedly experienced three assassination attempts.
The government of Azerbaijan maintains a personality cult around Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current president. In 2016, during one of the holidays dedicated to the late dictator, two Azerbaijani anarchists were detained—Giyas Ibrahimov and Bayram Mamedov.
They had painted anarchist graffiti on a monument to the dictator in the capital city of Baku. Police captured, tortured, and imprisoned them on trumped-up drug charges, claiming to have found precisely one kilogram of heroin in each of their homes. Mamedov later died in an accident in Istanbul. Human rights organizations recognized Giyas Ibrahimov as a prisoner of conscience. During the outbreak of the Second Karabakh War, Giyas signed the statement of the left-wing anti-war Azerbaijani youth and once again faced repression for his opposition to the war.
Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov facing sentencing. In the footage, the lawyer Elchin Sadigov says that Bayram Mammadov declared in his testimony in court that the drug charges against the two of them were retribution for the graffiti on the statue; Bayram’s relatives said that he didn’t so much as even smoke. The lawyer also says that Giyas Ibrahimov refused to testify under torture during the investigation.
Indigenous national minorities also face discrimination under the government of Azerbaijan. Some peoples, such as the Tats, cannot study their language in educational institutions at all. In areas densely populated by small peoples, most of the political and economic power is concentrated in their hands of ethnic Azerbaijanis. Talysh people living in the south of the country face a ban on using the word “Talysh,” for example, on signs in restaurants or in local history books. Representatives of minority groups that speak out face repression and accusations of “extremism” and “separatism.” For example, one leader of the Sadval movement, which advocated for the autonomy of Lezgins in Russia and Azerbaijan, was imprisoned and killed.
Aliyev was one of Erdoğan’s chief allies when the Turkish military invaded Rojava. Aliyev’s victory in Artsakh will embolden those who seek a Pan-Turkist empire, intensifying the pressure on anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian movements throughout the region.
Azerbaijani anarchist Giyas Ibrahimov faced repression again for an anti-war statement in 2020.
For thousands of years, the people of Artsakh lived on these lands, building schools, houses and temples. The Armenian anarchist Alexander Atabekyan was born in Artsakh, going on to become a friend of Peter Kropotkin. We remember his words:
“The natural connection with one’s home, with the homeland in the literal sense of the word, should be called territoriality, in contrast to statehood, which is a forced unification within arbitrary boundaries.
Anarchism, while rejecting statehood, cannot deny territoriality.
Love for homeland and tribe is not only not alien, but is also characteristic of an anarchist no less than any other person.”
Following the anarchists in Rojava, we call for support for the Artsakh people.
Freedom for peoples—death for empires!
Artsakh, we stand with you!