More than 88 thousand residents in Nagorno-Karabakh have left the region and fled to Armenia. The exodus occurred after Azerbaijan launched a military operation into Nagorno-Karabakh and succeeded in defeating ethnic Armenian forces that previously controlled the region.
UNHCR representative in Armenia, Kavita Belani, said that many Nagorno-Karabakh residents who fled to Armenia were tired and stifled by fear. They gathered at the registration center.
“This is a situation where they have been living under a blockade for nine months. “And when they come in, they are full of anxiety, fear, and they want answers,” said Belani in a virtual press conference, Friday (29/9/2023).
“We are ready to handle up to 120 thousand people. “It is very difficult to predict how many refugees will come at this time,” he added when asked about the number of refugees.
According to the UNHCR, one third of Nagorno-Karabakh residents who have fled to Armenia are children. “Our main concern is that many of them have been separated from their families,” said UNICEF Regional Director Regina De Dominicis.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies representative Hicham Diab said there was a great need for mental health support for refugees.
Previously, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he promised to protect the rights of ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Despite what happened five days ago, we started sending humanitarian aid to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. “Fuel, foodstuffs, medicines have been sent,” said Aliyev in his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Nakhchivan, Monday (25/9/2023), quoted on Barron’s page.
“This once again shows that the people of Karabakh, whatever their ethnicity, are citizens of Azerbaijan. “Their rights will be guaranteed by the Azerbaijani state,” Aliyev added.
Aliyev said he was confident that the process of reintegrating Armenians in Karabakh into Azerbaijani society would be successful. Aliyev reaffirmed the protection of the rights of ethnic Armneians in Nagorno-Karabakh when receiving a visit from the United States (US) delegation. He stressed that the rights of ethnic Armenians will be guaranteed within the framework of Azerbaijani laws and international obligations.
Before Aliyev stated that he would guarantee the rights of ethnic Armenians, as many as 120 thousand ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were said to be leaving the region and going to Armenia. This was revealed by a high-ranking official of the Republic of Artsakh, a government that broke away from Azerbaijan and controls the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. “(As many as) 99.9 percent chose to leave our historic land,” said David Babayan, advisor to Samvel Shahramanyan who serves as president of the Republic of Artsakh, 24 September 2023.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has faced a wave of violent protests over his perceived failure to defend the Nagorno-Karabakh region, said he would accept ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
On September 19 2023, Azerbaijan launched its latest military operation into the Nagorno-Karabakh region. They called the operation an “anti-terrorist” operation. The aim of the operation was to hit the ethnic Armenian forces that controlled the region.
According to Armenia, more than 200 people were killed and 400 others were injured in the Azerbaijani military operation.
Ethnic Armenian forces agreed to disarm under the terms of a ceasefire reached on September 20, 2023.
Russia, which has 2,000 peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, said that under the terms of the ceasefire, six armored vehicles, more than 800 small arms, anti-tank weapons and portable air defense systems, as well as 22,000 rounds of ammunition had been handed over on September 23. 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh to Armenians, is located in a region that for centuries was under Persian, Turkish, Russian, Ottoman and Soviet rule. The dispute over claims between Azerbaijan and Armenia regarding Nagorno-Karabakh began since the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
During Soviet times, Nagorno-Karabakh was designated as an autonomous region within Azerbaijan.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh relinquished nominal Azeri (ethnic Azerbaijani) control and seized the region. This event is known as the First Karabakh War. Between 1988-1994, around 30 thousand people were killed and more than 1 million people, mostly Azeris, were displaced.
Since then, fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh has occurred periodically and lasted for decades. In 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia were again involved in fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The confrontation lasted 44 days and claimed the lives of more than 6,500 people. This event became known as the Second Karabakh War.
In the 2020 confrontation, Russia was the party that succeeded in pushing Armenia and Azerbaijan to agree to a ceasefire. Under the agreement, 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region.
Azerbaijan made significant territorial gains. This is because Armenia agreed to hand over several parts of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan as part of a ceasefire agreement.
Source : REPUBLIKA