After Azerbaijan invaded the Nagorno-Karabakh region and forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Armenians, there were fears that Armenia itself would also be attacked. Now the former Soviet republic reports shelling from the neighboring country and that there are “casualties on the Armenian side”.
The Azerbaijani army opened fire on an Armenian vehicle at the border between the Caucasus states, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan said in the online service Telegram. There were ‘victims’; the ministry initially gave no further details about the number. Baku denies the accusations.
According to the ministry, the incident took place near the village of Kut in the east of the country. Accordingly, the vehicle transported food for Armenian border guards.
Numerous politicians and officials were imprisoned
Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive in the Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19. After their surrender just a day later, the pro-Armenian forces had to accept the dissolution of the local, internationally unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. Azerbaijan has since reported numerous detentions of former pro-Armenian politicians and officials. Baku accuses them of, among other things, “terrorism”.
Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, but until now the majority of ethnic Armenians have lived there. Almost all residents of the region have now fled to Armenia for fear of reprisals from Azerbaijan. Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing”. Azerbaijan emphatically rejects the accusations and promises “reintegration” to Armenians who want to stay.
More than 100,000 people have been forcibly relocated
According to Armenian information, the last refugee bus has left the area for the time being. This means that 100,514 forcibly displaced residents have now arrived in Armenia, government spokeswoman Naseli Bagdassarian said on Monday. People also left Nagorno-Karabakh in private vehicles. Many displaced people have health problems or are bedridden.
Anyone still in Nagorno-Karabakh should contact the International Committee of the Red Cross, they said. Azerbaijani leaders, on the other hand, emphasized, as they had done for days, that there was no reason to flee and that people would be integrated into life according to the country’s laws. Unlike Armenia, the South Caucasian Republic of Azerbaijan is an authoritarian country without media freedom or democratically elected leadership. The country is internationally criticized for human rights violations.
Settlement of Azerbaijanis announced
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev emphasized at an event on Monday that the country has long been characterized by a society with many ethnicities and confessions. “We live as a family,” he said, according to Azerbaijani media. “Now is the time to build peace in the Caucasus. Our agenda is peace in the region, cooperation and mutual benefit,” he said in the capital Baku. Aliyev had previously announced the settlement of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Source: Krone
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