Global Courant
Prime Minister Pashinyan says fears of “ethnic cleansing” will lead to a mass exodus after last week’s defeat by Azerbaijan’s armed forces.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians are likely to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, with Armenia saying it is ready to take them in after Azerbaijan’s military victory last week in a conflict dating back to the fall of the Soviet Union.
About 120,000 citizens in the South Caucasus region will leave for Armenia because they do not want to live in part of Azerbaijan and fear “the danger of ethnic cleansing,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday.
“It is increasingly likely that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out,” he said.
Armenia “will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan added, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Armenia said more than 200 people were killed and 400 injured in Azerbaijan’s military operation last week. The fate of the ethnic Armenian population, which makes up the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population, has raised concerns in Moscow, Washington and Brussels.
Separatist fighters from Nagorno-Karabakh – an area internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but previously administered by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh – were forced to declare a ceasefire on Wednesday after a decisive 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani army.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared victory over the enclave on Thursday, saying it was fully under Baku’s control and that the idea of an independent Nagorno-Karabakh was finally consigned to history.
He promised to guarantee the rights and security of Armenians living in the region, but years of hate speech and violence between the rivals have left deep scars. Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want.
Vehicles seized by Nagorno-Karabakh forces are displayed at a position occupied by Azerbaijan’s army (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP)
‘Shame and disgrace’
Nagorno-Karabakh, called Artsakh by the Armenians, is located in an area that over the centuries has come under the rule of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and the Soviets. It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
Azerbaijan has said it will guarantee rights and integrate the region, but Armenians have said they fear repression.
“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan – 99.9 percent prefer to leave our historic country,” said David Babayan, adviser to the Karabakh leadership. “The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a shame for the Armenian people.”
Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to the president of Azerbaijan, told Al Jazeera that citizens in the region have been asked for a “direct dialogue” about their future, “including political integration (and) socio-economic issues.”
‘Very much in danger’
Sheila Paylan, an international human rights lawyer, said she does not believe ethnic Armenians will be treated fairly under Azerbaijani rule.
“There has been a policy of hatred towards Armenians for decades. That just doesn’t stop overnight. There is no reasonable basis for confidence that any safety or security or rights will be protected for the Armenians of Karabakh. … They are very much in danger right now,” Paylan told Al Jazeera.
Armenia has called for the immediate deployment of a UN mission to monitor human rights and security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian authorities said about 150 tons of humanitarian aid from Russia and another 65 tons of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had arrived in the region.
“Given the scale of the humanitarian needs, we are increasing our presence there with specialized personnel in the areas of healthcare, forensics, protection and weapons decontamination,” the ICRC said in a statement.
