Ethnic Armenian refugees began to leave Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday for the first time since Azerbaijan launched an offensive designed to seize control of the breakaway territory and perhaps end a three-decade-old conflict. This week\u2019s lightning operation could mark a historic geopolitical shift, with Azerbaijan victorious over the separatists and Armenia now publicly distancing itself from its traditional ally Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, we had to put down our rifles. So we left,\u201d a man in his thirties from the village of Mets Shen told AFP as the first group of a few dozen people crossed the border and registered with Armenian officials in Kornidzor. Most of the other refugees who crossed were women and children, including some from nearby Eghtsahogh, who had taken shelter around a Russian peacekeeping base after their village allegedly came under Azerbaijani shelling.<\/p>\n
Separatist leaders have said they are negotiating the fate of some 1,20,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in talks with Azerbaijani officials mediated by Russian peacekeepers. Many have seen shortages of food, water and power during a nine-month blockade. The Armenian Health Ministry said 23 ambulances were carrying seriously wounded citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh to the border, accompanied by medics and Red Cross workers. Crowds of angry relatives gathered on the Armenian side awaiting news. As drama unfolded on the border, Armenia\u2019s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan \u2014 himself a target of protests over Karabakh\u2019s defeat \u2014 sought to deflect the blame onto long-standing ally Russia, signalling a breakdown in the countries\u2019 security pact.<\/p>\n
In nationally televised comments, the Armenian leader said the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Moscow-Yerevan military-political cooperation were \u201cinsufficient\u201d to protect the country, suggesting that he would seek new alliances. The CSTO members pledge to defend one another from outside attack. But, bogged down in its own war in Ukraine, Russia refused to come to Armenia\u2019s assistance in the latest Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, arguing that Yerevan itself had recognised the disputed region as part of Azerbaijan. Now, Russian peacekeepers are helping Azerbaijan disarm the Karabakh rebels. Mr. Pashinyan said Armenia should ratify the treaty which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
Armenia also announced that Mr. Pashinyan would meet his Azerbaijani counterpart President Ilham Aliyev at the summit of the European Political Community in the Spanish city of Granada on October 5, along with EU leaders like President Emmanuel Macron of France and Germany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Meanwhile, tension was running high at the Kornidzor crossing, five kilometres from the Hakari bridge on the convoy\u2019s route, where angry relatives had gathered to await news and one man was so frustrated he pulled out a knife in front of police. Wild rumours spread through the agitated crowd and concern for missing relatives was mixed with fury over the lightning Azerbaijani offensive that this week seems to have defeated Karabakh\u2019s separatist rebellion after decades of fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son was in the army in Artsakh. He\u2019s alive, but I\u2019m worried for him,\u201d said Alik Blbuyan, 43, using the name Karabakh\u2019s ethnic Armenian population gave their breakaway statelet. \u201cI came here to get news but I\u2019m also hoping armed groups will cross the border. If they do, I\u2019ll go with them to rescue my son.\u201d On the other side of the border in Azerbaijani settlements like Terter and Beylagan, locals had no sympathy for their Armenian neighbours and were celebrating their government\u2019s victory over the rebels. State television played music paying tribute to the nation and its army, and the roadsides were lined with flags and portraits of dozens of local \u201cmartyrs\u201d, fallen in the fighting during the previous 30 years.<\/p>\n
Famil Zalov\u2019s 18-year-old brother was among those killed, and he\u2019s in no mood to forgive. \u201cI support the operation. Our beautiful land got liberated. I\u2019m proud my brother was avenged,\u201d the farmer, now in his early fifties, told AFP. Asked whether he could imagine living alongside ethnic Armenians in peace now, he said he could not: \u201cThe president has shown them the way. The corridor is open. They can use it and go away.\u201d While some argue that Armenians have no future in Azerbaijan, others like Minaya Valiyeva, a smallholder in her seventies, go further and argue they have no past there either. \u201cIf you take a shovel and dig in the mountains you will find belongings; the wool jacket of our grandfather. You will find our grandmother\u2019s combs. You\u2019ll not find anything that belongings to Armenians or Russians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The bad blood between the communities will only fuel international concern that Azerbaijan\u2019s sudden victory could trigger another round of persecution in a conflict that has seen abuses on both sides. In a call on Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Pashinyan that Washington had \u201cdeep concern\u201d for ethnic Armenians there, a spokesman said. But Baku\u2019s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told the General Assembly: \u201cAzerbaijan is determined to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens.\u201d Baku will also secure further diplomatic backing from key ally Turkey, whose leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan\u2019s Nakhchivan exclave on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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