2023-10-03 03:27:32
The UN mission that visited the territory of Nagorno Karabakh concluded that almost all its inhabitants have already left the region for Armenia. And it did not detect damage or violence against the population or civil infrastructure. “The mission saw very little local population in the city of Khankendi – the Karabakh capital – and the team heard from its interlocutors that between 50 and 1,000 Armenians remain in the Karabakh region,” said the statement from the United Nations office in Azerbaijan.
According to the Armenian authorities, more than 100,000 Karabakhs have left the territory since September 24: some officials and a minimal percentage of civilians would remain in the enclave. In the Karabakh capital “the mission did not see any open stores”, although it recognizes “the limited access to rural areas.”
“It is difficult to determine at this point whether the local population intends to return. What is clear is that there is a need to build trust, which will require time and effort on all sides,” says the UN.
The group, led by a senior official from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ramesh Rajasingham, and the resident coordinator in Azerbaijan, Vladanka Andreeva, was “surprised” by the haste with which the local population left their homes and “the suffering” that this must have caused them. “The mission did not come across any information from the local population interviewed or interlocutors about incidents of violence against civilians after the last ceasefire,” she notes.
The causes of the exodus
The Argentine-Armenian journalist Avedis Hadjian told Página/12 that the fact that Nagorno Karabakh has been emptied of Armenians “was foreseeable, because they are not willing to live under a genocidal regime that bombed them and promises them rights equal to those they enjoy. supposedly the other Azeri citizens, who are almost none. This is a regime that openly promotes hatred towards Armenians; It is also led by a dictator elected in fraudulent elections for 20 years who prohibits all freedom of expression. Now there is a waiting period; Azerbaijan claims to recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia, but it may well be a tactical phrase as is often the diplomacy of its patron Turkey, of making misleading statements and then carrying out surprise attacks. There are concerns that Azerbaijan will attack the southern Armenian province of Syunik, which together with Turkey, they want to invade to create a corridor under their control.”
The UN highlighted that during its visit on Sunday it did not observe “damage” to the infrastructure, be it schools, hospitals or homes, cultural or religious buildings, and did observe how the Azerbaijani authorities are preparing for the resumption of some public services.
In turn, it calls for ensuring “the protection of the rights of the local population” and the UN office in Azerbaijan is willing to support those who remain or wish to return to the region.
The self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabakh capitulated and then announced its dissolution as an independent territory since 1991 after the victorious Azerbaijani military operation launched by Baku on September 19.
The annexation plan
Azerbaijan presented on Monday its reintegration plan for the territory, which includes the appointment of special representatives of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev to head the administrative divisions populated by Armenians, and the holding of municipal elections.
The spokesman for the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, said that “100,520 forcibly displaced people from Nagorno Karabakh arrived in Armenia. As you can see, the number has practically not changed since Sunday, which means that the flow of people has stopped in for the most part and only officials and a limited number of the population remain there.
According to official data, the Karabakh population before the mass exodus amounted to about 120,000 inhabitants, 99% of them Armenians.
A dead Armenian soldier
The Armenian Ministry of Defense denounced this Monday the death of one of its soldiers in an Azerbaijani attack, which left two other soldiers injured. According to Defense, the Azerbaijani army fired at a car of the Armenian Armed Forces that was transporting food to a military position. “There is one dead and two wounded,” says the military statement.
He also called the Azerbaijani attack on an ambulance a “gross violation of humanitarian law.” These incidents occur after the Armenian army did not come to the defense of the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh during the military operation launched on September 19 by Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev considered that Yerevan’s position paves the way for the signing of a peace treaty. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián and Aliev will discuss this matter on Thursday in the Spanish city of Granada.
The “reintegration” plan
Azerbaijan presented outlines of its reintegration plan for the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which includes the appointment of special representatives of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev to head the administrative divisions populated by Armenians.
The Azerbaijani Presidency specified in a statement that residents in the region will be able to work in these special representations. According to Baku, issues regarding the citizenship of residents of Nagorno-Karabakh will be resolved through procedures provided for by the country’s law.
In the area of security, the Presidency highlighted that “the process of disarmament and demobilization continues” and that weapons are requisitioned from the inhabitants of the region.
Public order, the statement adds, is guaranteed by the Ministry of the Interior of Azerbaijan, in whose bodies Karabakhis can work.
1696308009
#confirmed #enclave #empty #Armenians #fled #lands #Nagorno #Karabakh #Azerbaijan #takes #control