LIBERATED LANDS AROUND NKR – COMPENSATION FOR ARMENIAN REFUGEES
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.01.2010 19:14 GMT+04:0
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani-Armenians is
not simply a historic and moral issue, ex-Foreign Minister of Artsakh
(Nagorno Karabakh) Republic Arman Melikyan finds.
"It’s a legal issue envisaging the problem compensation," he told
Tuesday a news conference devoted to the 20th anniversary of Armenian
pogroms in Baku.
The Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic
cleansing launched by Azerbaijan in the final years of the Soviet
Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the
ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of
Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of
Nagorno Karabakh defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been
holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
In January 1990, Azerbaijani authorities instigated the Armenian
pogroms in Baku. Some 400 Armenians were killed and 200 thousand
were exiled in the period of January 13-19. The exact number of those
killed was never determined, as no investigation was carried out into
the crimes.
On January 13, a crowd numbering 50 thousand people divided into
groups and started "cleaning" the city of Armenians. On January 17,
the European Parliament called on EU Council of Foreign Ministers
and European Council to protect Armenians and render assistance to
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. On January 18, a group of U.S. Senators
sent a letter to Mikhail Gorbachev to express concerns over the
violence against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan and called
for unification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia.
The Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent
republic located in the South Caucasus, bordering by Azerbaijan to
the north and east, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west.
After the Soviet Union established control over the area, in 1923
it formed the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) within the
Azerbaijan SSR. In the final years of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan
launched an ethnic cleansing which resulted in the Karabakh War that
was fought from 1991 to 1994.
Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several
regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the
control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated
by the OSCE Minsk Group.