2023-09-29 19:27:00
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani security forces reported the arrest of a senior commander of the pro-Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh. The United Nations announced the first UN mission to Nagorno-Karabakh in over 30 years.
Journalists from the AFP news agency saw numerous people arriving in the Armenian border town of Goris on Friday. According to the latest information from the government in Yerevan, more than 80 percent of the 120,000 Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh have now left the region.
Burnt your belongings
Families told AFP reporters how they burned their belongings to prevent them from falling into Azerbaijani hands. Angelina Agabekyan showed a video of her husband setting fire to his uniform and military documents before the family joined the flow of people rushing out of Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin corridor – the only road link to Armenia.
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More than 90,000 people are now fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh
Meanwhile, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, announced a UN mission in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ten-person team, led by staff from the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), will begin as early as the weekend “trying to assess the situation on the ground and identify humanitarian needs, both for those who remain and for those who flee”. Dujarric added that the UN has not had access to Nagorno-Karabakh for “around three decades,” so the mission is “very important.”
“Catastrophic humanitarian situation”
In view of the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” on site, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) asked for support of around 20 million euros. Hospitals are at the end of their resources, and accommodation is “urgently” needed given the onset of cold weather, explained the IFRC Regional Director for Europe, Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen.
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Nagorno-Karabakh will be dissolved on January 1, 2024
Meanwhile, the death toll from the explosion at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh rose to at least 170 people, according to police. According to the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic, the number of injured is 349. The remains of the dead should therefore be sent to Armenia for identification. The cause of the accident remained unclear. After the Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, many people stocked up on gasoline at the fuel depot for their escape to Armenia.
Military offensive started
On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive in the region. Just one day later, the pro-Armenian fighters there had to admit defeat. The dissolution of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on January 1, 2024 was announced on Thursday. Nagorno-Karabakh, which was predominantly inhabited by Armenians, would “cease to exist,” a decree said.
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Nagorno-Karabakh: Another escalation of a decades-long conflict
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani security forces announced the arrest of a senior pro-Armenian commander. Davit Manukyan must be remanded in custody for four months, it said in a statement on Friday. The deputy commander of the pro-Armenian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh is suspected of being involved in “terrorist” activities and other crimes in the Armenian enclave. He is also accused of “leading illegal armed groups”.
Schallenberg criticizes
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) criticized the Azerbaijani military offensive and demanded “security assurances” from Baku for the Karabakh Armenians. With a view to other conflicts in the region, the minister sees “the potential for a massive conflagration in the South Caucasus.” At the same time, he announced to journalists on Friday two million euros in aid for the Karabakh refugees from additional funds from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). They are intended to benefit the displaced people through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Armenia is an ADA priority country. 18 projects have been running since 2019, some ending this year, others in 2027. They are endowed with a total of 38 million euros, to which the additional two million euros mentioned are now added. The Foreign Ministry speaks of 211,000 beneficiaries so far.
Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but so far the majority of ethnic Armenians have lived there. The region declared independence in 1991 after a referendum that was not internationally recognized and boycotted by the Azerbaijani minority.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been fighting over the region since the collapse of the Soviet Union and have therefore fought two wars, most recently in 2020. At that time, after six weeks of fighting with more than 6,500 deaths, Russia, which had long been an ally of Armenia, brokered a ceasefire agreement that forced Armenia to give up large areas. The Russian forces stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh did not oppose the latest Azerbaijani offensive.
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