Title: Ethnic Armenian Refugees Flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijani Forces Take Control
Date: October 1, 2023
LONDON — The Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh is facing mass displacement as over 100,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have fled the region following Azerbaijan’s military offensive, supported by Turkey. Local authorities have reported that virtually the entire Armenian population in the enclave will be leaving their homes in what Armenia has condemned as “ethnic cleansing.”
In less than a week, about 85% of the population has fled, with evacuation buses transporting thousands of residents unable to make their own way to Armenia. Families have packed into cars and trucks, carrying whatever belongings they can manage, as they express their unwillingness to live under Azerbaijan’s rule out of fear of persecution.
Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, warned in a televised government meeting on Thursday that there will be no more Armenians remaining in Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days. He condemned the situation as an act of “ethnic cleansing” and called for concrete actions from the international community, stating that moral statements alone would only create statistics for history.
The displacement of the Armenian population has raised concerns among the United States and other western countries who have urged Azerbaijan to allow international access to the region. Nagorno-Karabakh has been a long-standing conflict zone between Azerbaijan and Armenia, both former Soviet countries, since the late 1980s. The war between the two nations resulted in ethnic Armenian separatists gaining control of most of Nagorno-Karabakh, displacing hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians in the process.
In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive, defeating Armenia and forcing it to relinquish its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia brokered a truce and deployed peacekeeping forces to the region, which remain there to this day.
Last week, after a 9-month blockade, Azerbaijan initiated another military offensive, leading to the quick capitulation of ethnic Armenian authorities. The leader of the unrecognized Armenian state, the Republic of Artsakh, announced its dissolution, signaling the end of its existence by year-end.
Efforts to protect the rights of Karabakh Armenians by Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, have been met with skepticism, as he has previously propagated a nationalist narrative denying the historic presence of Armenians in the region. Furthermore, reports have emerged of Armenian cultural sites being destroyed and defaced in areas recaptured by Azerbaijan in 2020.
While some Azerbaijanis displaced during the war in the 1990s have returned to areas reclaimed by Azerbaijan since 2020, concerns remain over the protection of Karabakh Armenians’ rights. Azerbaijan’s security services detained another former senior Karabakh Armenian official as he attempted to leave the enclave with other refugees. This comes after the recent arrest of a former leader of the unrecognized state, who now faces terrorism charges.
As the international community expresses concerns about the displacement and protection of the Armenian population, the fate and future of Nagorno-Karabakh hang in the balance, with its ethnic and cultural landscapes under threat.