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 the reopening by Azerbaijan of the Lachin corridor – which connects the enclave with Armenia – after more than ten months of blockade and the brief war that, last week, led the Karabakh Armenians to the capitulation. According to the official statement, 377 people arrived in Armenian territory, of which 98 will receive housing.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 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 the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh who still remain there with about 125 tons of food and 65 tons of fuel.
“Families who have been left homeless as a result of recent military actions and wish to leave the republic will be sent to Armenia with the protection of Russian peacekeeping forces,” said a statement from the Information Center of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Republic. Karabakh, called Artsakh by the Armenians.
Both Armenia and the Western foreign ministries had demanded that Azerbaijan unblock the Lachin corridor so that Karabakh Armenians could receive essential supplies. It is unclear, however, how many will stay and how many will choose to leave as refugees. There is deep distrust of the guarantees that Azerbaijan promises after its military victory. In this regard, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinián, assured during a televised address yesterday that the Armenians of Karabakh “continue to face the danger of ethnic cleansing.”
“If real conditions for the life of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in their own homes and effective protection mechanisms against ethnic cleansing are not created, then the chances will increase that Karabakh Armenians will see exile as the only way out,” said. “All responsibility in case of such developments lies with Azerbaijan and the Russian peacekeepers,” he stressed.
Pashinian, after a day of protests on Saturday in three Armenian cities – Yerevan, the capital, Gumri and Vanadzor – for the capitulation of the Armenian-Karabakh forces, surprised by stating that Armenia must reform its foreign and security policy in order to to reduce its dependence on Russia. Already in the war three years ago, in which Azerbaijan reconquered several of the districts annexed to Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by the Armenians in 1992, Pashinián – 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 this: will Armenia be a sovereign, free and democratic country, or a frightened province?” Nikol Pashinian said on television, also veiledly accusing Moscow of encouraging recent protests.
Many analysts consider that Pashinián could not intervene in Karabakh, since that would have served as an excuse for the Azerbaijani army, much superior to the Armenian one, to also attack his country in order to occupy the south, which would allow him to have a border with his country. main ally, Turkey.
Precisely today, the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, and his Turkish counterpart 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 Nakhchivan with Azerbaijan. According to the Baku Government, the project is part of the ceasefire signed with Yerevan after the 2020 war.
