2023-09-23 23:45:53
A first international aid convoy entered Nagorno Karabakh on Saturday, where the Azerbaijani army exhibited, on the heights of the “capital” Stepanakert, hundreds of weapons seized from the separatists since its lightning offensive at the start of the week in this secessionist region predominantly populated by Armenians. For its part, Yerevan demanded, during the day, a monitoring “mission” from the United Nations platform.
“The ICRC passed through the Lachin corridor to bring the population mainly 70 tonnes of humanitarian aid,” declared an official of the International Red Cross, at the Armenian checkpoint of Kornidzor, in Armenia, as the trucks passed by. .
Since the end of 2022, Armenia has accused Baku of blocking this only road which directly connects it to Nagorno Karabakh and thus causing significant shortages there. Azerbaijan, for its part, announced on Saturday that it was carrying out a “demilitarization” of Armenian secessionist forces with Russia, during a press trip.
Separatists prevented
In the surroundings of Choucha, a town in Nagorno Karabakh controlled by Baku, not far from Stepanakert – which is surrounded according to local officials – hundreds of small arms seized from the separatists but also tanks marked with a white cross were shown to journalists. In the courtyard in which the military arsenal is displayed, is written in large black letters: “Karabakh is Azerbaijani”.
“In close cooperation with Russian peacekeepers, we are carrying out the demilitarization” of separatist troops and providing “support to civilians,” Anar Eyvazov, the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani army, told the press.
Azerbaijan said residents were setting fire to their homes. “Armenian residents are mass burning houses in Aghdara,” the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday evening, publishing aerial images appearing to show burned houses.
Yerevan wants a UN “mission”
Defeated at the end of the assault launched on Tuesday by Baku, the separatists capitulated and concluded a ceasefire the next day and the population is anxious about its future in this region where thousands of people remain confronted with a humanitarian emergency situation.
The spokesperson for the Azerbaijani army assured that camps were being set up to accommodate civilians. The Azerbaijani military operation left at least 200 dead and 400 injured, according to Armenian separatists.
The mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, attached in 1921 by Soviet power to Azerbaijani territory, has already been the scene of two wars between the former republics of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia: one of 1988 to 1994 (30,000 deaths) and the other in the fall of 2020 (6,500 deaths).
Azerbaijan promised on Saturday at the UN to treat the Armenians, the majority in Nagorno Karabakh, “as equal citizens”, declared Foreign Minister Djeyhoun Baïramov before the United Nations General Assembly.
Armenia, for its part, demanded from the Tribune of Nations the “immediate” dispatch of a UN “mission” to “monitor and evaluate human rights and the humanitarian and security situation on the ground”.
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