Okt 4, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Yerevan.
Since Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Samvel Shahramanyan signed a
decree on September 28, to dissolve the republic officially by January 1, 2024,
in effect, no Armenians remain in Artsakh anymore.
The decision was made after Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attack on what had remained of Artsakh, on September 23.
As of October 1, 100,514 forcibly displaced people have arrived in Armenia
from Nagorno-Karabakh, a government spokesperson reported.
The mass evacuation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population has
been practically completed, outgoing authorities in Stepanakert indicated
late on Sunday after at least 100,000 local residents fled to Armenia, refusing
to live under Azerbaijani rule.
“The last bus from Artsakh reached [the Armenian border town of] Goris with
15 passengers on board,” Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan,
wrote on Facebook on October 1.
He said that a “small team of dedicated people” will stay in Karabakh for
now to look for “helpless” civilians who may be stuck in their homes and unable
to join the exodus on their own.
“If you still have clear information about lonely or helpless people left
behind in Artsakh, you should contact the International Committee of the Red
Cross or provide us with relevant information to be forwarded to the ICRC,”
added Stepanyan.
A separate Karabakh government statement issued around the same time said
Shahramanyan and a “group of other officials” will stay in Stepanakert until
the ongoing search for people who died or went missing as a result of last
week’s hostilities and powerful explosion at a local fuel depot is over. They
will also help people remaining in Karabakh “for various reasons” and eager to
relocate to Armenia, said the statement.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan predicted on Thursday that “there will be no
Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days.” He accused Azerbaijan
of practically finishing “ethnic cleansing” there. Baku rejected the
accusations, saying that it still hopes to “reintegrate” the Karabakh
Armenians.
Artak Beglaryan, a former Karabakh premier, said late on Saturday that the
region is already “almost fully empty, with at most a few hundred people
remaining, who are also leaving.”
Karabakh’s population officially stood at around 120,000 prior to the
exodus. The figure included thousands of people who were unable to return from
Armenia to Stepanakert and other Karabakh towns and villages after Baku blocked
traffic through the Lachin corridor last December.
Earlier on Sunday, October 1, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor-general said that
Baku wants to arrest and prosecute about 300 current or former political and
military leaders of Karabakh.
They apparently include three former Karabakh presidents. A Karabakh
official told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that Shahramanyan is trying
to convince Azerbaijani authorities to let them as well as other prominent
Karabakh Armenians leave the region.
Karabakh’s former premier Ruben Vardanyan, former Foreign Minister Davit
Babayan, former army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and his ex-deputy Davit
Manukian were arrested in recent days while traveling to Armenia through the
Lachin corridor.
(Stories from News.am, PanARMENIAN.Net and Azatutyun were used to compile
this report.)