On Monday, September 25, the first convoy of as many as 6500 ethnic Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh. According to reports, the entire community of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians may be on the verge of abandoning its ancestral homeland, after Azerbaijan seized control of the disputed regions in a lightning military onslaught last week, stoking fears of persecution at the hands of Azerbaijani authorities.
Several pictures have emerged showing ethnic Armenians, who are mostly Christians, preparing to leave the Muslim-majority Azerbaijan. In the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, crowds of people were loading belongings into buses and trucks as they left for Armenia.
More videos and images emerged wherein Armenians are seen stocking up vehicles and sitting in tailbacks which have brought the mountainous road to Armenia to a standstill.
Traffic Jam At Lachin Corridor As Ethnic Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh https://t.co/kNIJCyFCkY pic.twitter.com/zQi45s2PoE
— SoCalArmenianRadio (@ArmenianUS) September 25, 2023
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said it was highly likely that ethnic Armenians would flee the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, fearing persecution https://t.co/QyhOGjijyL pic.twitter.com/vhaOIeC5Sz
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 24, 2023
Ethnic Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh As Yerevan Protests Grow https://t.co/SPq8zeiK81 pic.twitter.com/iyTFNucCca
— SoCalArmenianRadio (@ArmenianUS) September 25, 2023
On Sunday, September 24, Reuters quoted the ethnic Armenians, who call Karabakh home as saying that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia because they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing. The majority of Karabakh Armenians do not have faith in Azerbaijan’s promises to guarantee their rights after the recent military offensive.
Confirming the mass exodus of Armenians from Azerbaijan, the Armenian government said that as of 5 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, September 25, more than 2,900 people from Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed into Armenia.
Armenia’s PM Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan has warned that ethnic cleansing is ‘underway’ in the region. “That’s happening just now, and that is a very unfortunate fact because we were trying to urge the international community on that,” Nikol Pashinyan told reporters.
Nikol Pashinyan added that “responsibility for such a development of events will fall entirely on Azerbaijan, which adopted a policy of ethnic cleansing, and on the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Reportedly, the dire humanitarian crisis ethnic Armenians are facing in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after the Azeri soldiers launched a military assault in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19. At least ten persons have been killed.
After Azerbaijan’s latest military offensive to regain control of the area, Turkey-backed Azerbaijan had promised to preserve ethnic Armenians’ rights and to reopen the supply routes that were cut in December. However, Artak Beglaryan, a former adviser to Artsakh’s government, told the media that people are afraid of retaliation and ethnic cleansing, thus “almost all the villages” and huge areas of the largest city Stepanakert, known in Azerbaijan as Khankendi, “are emptying.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Trapped between Turkey and Azerbaijan is the tiny country of Armenia. The Azeris are ethnic Turks and have the same religion and culture as Turkey. For a long time, the mostly Christian Armenians were colonized by the Ottoman Empire. The Soviets took over the land in the 1920s and Armenia was cut up between three Soviet Republics: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
When the Soviet empire collapsed in the 1990s, both Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent. But a portion of land, populated by ethnic Armenians, remained part of Azerbaijan. This region is known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions erupted and this area declared independence in the 1990s, supported by Armenia. The stalemate has been around for nearly three decades until Azerbaijan (with Turkish support) unilaterally broke the ceasefire in 2020.
Following this, a major escalation in the conflict took place. Thousands of people were reported killed in six weeks of fierce fighting.
Azerbaijan took over large swaths of land, and by the time both sides agreed to sign a peace deal negotiated by Russia in November 2020, it had grabbed all of the regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Armenia since 1994.
Armenian troops were forced to withdraw from these areas by the terms of the agreement and have since been confined to a smaller section of the region.
The presence of Russian soldiers temporarily halted the violence, although tensions had been rising for months before the recent military operation.
What led to the latest military onslaught by Azerbaijan soldiers
Fears of renewed bloodshed arose when in December 2022, Azerbaijan effectively blocked a vital passage into the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
The Lachin Corridor is the only road that connects the Republic of Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh’s approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians. It is a vital supply route, and inhabitants in Nagorno-Karabakh have reported serious shortages of basic food and medication in recent months.
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of using the road to bring in military supplies, which Armenia denied. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan claimed that it offered food and aid several times via another road but Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh refused it.
Furthermore, observers claimed a buildup of Azerbaijani forces during the period of siege of the Lachin corridor, which Baku denied.
In mid-September, a small number of relief vehicles run by the International Committee of the Red Cross were allowed into Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor and, independently, the Aghdam Road from Azerbaijan.
However, maintaining these transportation links, particularly the Lachin Corridor, has been highly reliant on the presence of Russian soldiers stationed in the area since 2020 but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has distracted Moscow’s attention and military resources from the region.
Last week, the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia once again escalated the Turkey-backed Azerbaijani forces launched a military offensive in the region. The onslaught that lasted for 24 hours claimed the lives of as many as 10 innocent civilians and left several injured.
The following day, a cease-fire deal mediated by Russia was struck. The agreement stated that the military forces of Karabakh would be entirely disarmed and abolished. There will now be discussions about integrating the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave into Azerbaijan.
On September 20, the prime minister stated that Armenia was not a party to the deal, accusing Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan of attempting to draw Armenia into a confrontation. Pashinyan also urged Russia to “fulfil its obligations” and secure ethnic Armenians’ safety in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan stated the next day in a speech that, “if peacekeepers have proposed a peace deal, it means that they completely and without any reservations accepted the responsibility of ensuring the security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, and provide the conditions and the rights for them to live on their land and in their homes safely.”
Amidst all this, over 1,20,000 ethnic Armenians living in the region started fleeing Muslim-majority Azerbaijan fearing persecution and ethnic cleansing by the Azeri authorities.
Karabakh Crisis
The ethnic Armenians, who form the majority in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing a dire humanitarian crisis and grave uncertainty about their future.
Azerbaijan’s latest blitz comes after months of hardship in Nagorno-Karabakh caused by Azerbaijan’s blocking of the Lachin road connecting the area to Armenia. Since mid-June, Azerbaijan has barred any humanitarian aid sent by Russian soldiers and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).
For months, the region’s population (tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians) has faced severe shortages of food, medicine, sanitation commodities, and other necessities. Azerbaijan’s embargo has also prevented the Red Cross from transferring medical patients out of the enclave on several occasions.
Nagorno-Karabakh victory brings pride: Turkey hails Azerbaijan military onslaught that rendered thousands of ethnic Armenians homeless
It is notable here that at a time when thousands of these ethnic Armenians, including aged, women and children, have been rendered homeless, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have hailed Baku’s military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to reports, Turkey’s Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave on Monday (September 25) and at a joint news conference with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, Erdogan said Azerbaijan’s victory in Karabakh inspired pride.
“It is a matter of pride that the operation was successfully completed in a short period of time, with utmost sensitivity to the rights of civilians,” Erdogan said.
Russia’s silence over Azerbaijan offensive that has resulted in a massive humanitarian disaster
Russia has historically served as Armenia’s security guarantor, especially in moderating tensions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. After Azerbaijan grabbed regions in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, killing thousands, Russia negotiated a ceasefire deal between the two South Caucasus countries in 2020, which was overseen by Russian troops.
However, the once-friendly relationship between Armenia and Russia has deteriorated dramatically in recent months, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly questioning Moscow’s lack of attention during its invasion of Ukraine. In another indicator of Armenia’s mistrust of Moscow, the country staged a joint military training with the United States in September this year.
Hinting at the betrayal, Armenian officials said Tuesday they had not been warned by Moscow of Azerbaijan’s plans after Baku said it gave Russia advance notice.
Meanwhile, Russia has mostly remained silent, even as Armenia’s prime minister and ethnic Armenians in the region implored the Russian govt to strike another truce deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In such a situation, Azerbaijan’s current military offensive has further fuelled the flames rather than repairing the schism between Russia and Armenia.
According to media reports, days before Tuesday’s (September 19) escalation, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a journalist about escalating tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh that Armenia’s leadership had de facto acknowledged Azerbaijan’s sovereignty. “If Armenia itself recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, what do we have to do with it?” he said.
How the West turned a blind eye towards the Armenian crisis
What has been happening to the ethnic Armenians in Ngorno-Karabakh is a major humanitarian crisis. An ethnic conflict with a religious divide. The Muslim majority Turks on one side and the Christian majority Armenians on the other. Two much larger and more powerful countries coming together to crush a tiny neighbor. Thousands of people killed. Thousands of civilians forced to flee their homes.
But why is the West, especially the global liberals who has always been steadfast in protecting the human rights of even stone pelters and terrorists, never spoken about this? When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Western liberals went crazy lambasting Russia for reoccupying Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine, and getting involved in the war militarily. The news went on the front pages of global newspapers for months. However, thousands of ethnic Armenians leaving their homes behind? Their lives have become footnotes in global media.
