The Armenian Government announced yesterday the evacuation of a first group of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, who were escorted by the Russian peacekeeping forces present in the territory. This has been possible after Azerbaijan reopened the Lachin Corridor – which connects the enclave with Armenia – after more than ten months of blockade and the brief war that, last week, brought the Karabakh Armenians to surrender. According to the official statement, 377 people arrived in Armenian territory, of which 98 will receive housing.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 311 people were evacuated yesterday, including 102 children, and taken to a humanitarian aid center in Kornidzor, in the Armenian region of Siunik. Meanwhile, Russian forces provided about 125 tons of food and 65 tons of fuel to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh who are still there.
“Families who have become homeless as a result of the recent military actions and wish to leave the republic will be sent to Armenia under the protection of Russian peacekeeping forces,” said a statement from the Information Center of the self-proclaimed republic. of Nagorno-Karabakh, called Artsaj by the Armenians.
Both Armenia and Western chancelleries had demanded that Azerbaijan unblock the Lachin Corridor so that the Karabakh Armenians could receive essential supplies. It is not clear, however, how many will stay there and how many will choose to leave as refugees. There is deep distrust in the guarantees he promises after his military victory. In this regard, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Paixinian, assured during a televised speech yesterday that the Armenians of Karabakh “continue to face the danger of ethnic cleansing”.
“If the real conditions for the life of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in their own homes and effective mechanisms of protection against ethnic cleansing are not created, then the chances that they will see exile as the only way out will increase,” he said. . “All responsibility in the event of the aforementioned development of events rests with Azerbaijan and the Russian peacemakers”, he stressed.
Paixinian, after a day of protests on Saturday in three Armenian cities – Yerevan, the capital, Gyumri and Vanadzor – over the capitulation of Armenian forces, surprised when he stated that Armenia must reform its foreign and security policy in in order to reduce its dependence on Russia. Already in the war three years ago, in which Azerbaijan reconquered some of the districts annexed to Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by the Armenians in 1992, Paixinian – who was the protagonist of a democratic revolution – felt abandoned. Despite a defense assistance agreement and the existence of a Russian military base in the country, Russia armed Azerbaijan.
“The deep meaning of what has happened to us in recent years is the following: will Armenia be a sovereign, free and democratic country, or a fearful province?” Nikol Paixinian said on television, and further veiledly accused Moscow of ‘encourage the recent protests.
Many analysts believe that Paixinian could not intervene in Karabakh, as this would have served as an excuse for the Azerbaijani army, which is far superior to the Armenian one, to also attack his country in order to occupy the south, which would allow him to have border with its main ally, Turkey.
Precisely today, the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, and his Turkish counterpart, Recep T. Erdogan, will meet in the Nakhchivan district, formally an autonomous Azeri republic but geographically separated from Azerbaijan. On the agenda, the Zengezur corridor project, about 30 kilometers through Armenian territory to connect Nakhichevan with Azerbaijan. According to the Government of Baku, the project is part of the ceasefire signed with Yerevan after the 2020 war.
