Thousands of ethnic Armenians have left Nagorno Karabakh after Azerbaijan took control over the territory in a military operation last week. According to Armenian authorities, a total of 13,550 people had entered the country by the morning of Tuesday, September 26.
The local authorities in Nagorno Karabakh claimed that Armenian people do not want to live under Azerbaijan’s rule as they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he expects almost all of 120,000 people from the breakaway region to come to the country.
Nagorno Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory. However, the ethnic Armenians living there had declared their independence from Azerbaijan in 1988. There were several wars in which Azerbaijan tried to take control over the territory. It was finally able to do so in last week’s military operations, as announced by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the issue has become a major geopolitical event involving Russia and the US.
On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a harsh criticism of Pashinyan’s allegations against its peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh.
Pashinyan had questioned the Russian peacekeepers and held them responsible for failing to check Azerbaijan’s military operation last week.
“It has become clear to all of us that the instruments of CSTO and the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership are insufficient to ensure Armenia’s national security,” Pashinyan claimed on Sunday during Armenia’s independence day speech.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is a military alliance formed in 2002 with Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as its members.
Russia had deployed a 2,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh as part of the ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan during the last major battle in 2020.
Alleging that Pashinyan’s statement was inspired by the West, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement that Russia had actively contributed to Armenia’s security and economic and cultural development. It stated that it was due to Russian efforts that Yerevan was able to avoid total defeat in 2000.
Russia claimed that Armenia did not stick to the peace process it initiated with Azerbaijan and instead went ahead and participated in talks in Europe where it recognized Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno Karabakh, seriously hampering Russian efforts.
Head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, and US State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian affairs, Yuri Kim, have already arrived in Yerevan.
“We are convinced that the government in Yerevan is making a huge mistake by deliberately seeking to destroy complex and centuries long ties between Armenia and Russia, as well as making their nation a hostage to the geopolitical games of the West,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.
