Wednesday,
Exodus Continues From Karabakh
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh walk along the road from
Nagorno-Karabakh to Kornidzor village, .
Tens of thousands more residents of Nagorno-Karabakh fled to Armenia on
Wednesday in a continuing exodus of the region’s population triggered by last
week’s Azerbaijani military offensive.
As of 6 p.m. local time, 53,629 people making up nearly half of Karabakh’s
estimated population have crossed into Armenia through the Lachin corridor,
Nazeli Baghdasarian, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, told
reporters.
The road connecting Karabakh to Armenia remained jammed by hundreds of cars,
buses and trucks carrying Karabakh Armenians unwilling to live under Azerbaijani
rule.
“Poor people are left without any help as they hit the road to come here,”
complained one of the refugees. “There is no escort, nothing. Neither the
Russians nor anybody else gives directions.”
The middle-aged woman spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the border town of
Goris where an aid center set up by the Armenian government continued to offer
them medicine, food, warm clothing and temporary housing. Local government
officials working there were again joined by many volunteers from private
charities also helping the refugees.
Armenia - Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh sit in the back of a truck upon their
arrival in the border village of Kornidzor, .
Baghdasarian said earlier in the day that only about 8,000 refugees have
accepted accommodation provided by the government in hotels, resorts and public
buildings across Armenia. Most of them have been resettled in the Kotayk and
Ararat provinces north and south of Yerevan.
The majority of the arriving refugees kept telling government officials and aid
workers that they will live with relatives or have other places of residence in
Armenia.
Visiting Goris on Tuesday, Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), said Washington will provide $11.5 million in
humanitarian assistance to the refugees. The European Union announced, for its
part, a relief aid package worth 5 million euros ($5.1 million) for both the
forcibly displaced Karabakh Armenians and people remaining in Karabakh. Similar
sums were separately promised by France and Germany.
A road jammed by vehciles carrying people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, September
27, 2023.
"I have decided to significantly increase our humanitarian aid once again and to
increase our additional funding for the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) from 2 to 5 million euros ($5.28 million)," German Foreign Minister
Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday.
The ICRC is the only international humanitarian organization allowed by
Azerbaijan to operate in Karabakh. Power said Baku must also give other aid
agencies “full and unimpeded access to the Lachin corridor and into villages and
towns of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Washington also called for the dispatch of an international monitoring mission
to Nagorno-Karabakh. Baerbock similarly urged Baku to allow international
observers to enter the war-torn region.
West Accused Of Pressuring Armenia To Quit Russian-Led Bloc
RUSSIA – Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speaks during the
International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, June 15, 2022.
Russia on Wednesday accused Western powers of whipping up its tensions with
longtime ally Armenia and pressuring the South Caucasus country to leave the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
“According to incoming information, Washington and Brussels are telling Armenia
to leave the CSTO, step up cooperation with NATO, reorient [military-technical
cooperation] and sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan without taking into account
the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians,” said Maria Zakharova, the
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
She claimed that this was the main purpose of this week’s visits to Armenia by
Samantha Power, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Yuri
Kim, a senior State Department official, and Senator Gary Peters.
In that context, Zakharova also accused the United States and the European Union
of turning a blind eye to what she described as a brutal police crackdown on
participants of protests organized by the Armenian opposition in a bid to oust
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. She said the “beatings and arrests of
demonstrators” in Yerevan are at odds with “democratic values” championed by the
West.
The protest leaders blame Pashinian for Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive
in Nagorno-Karabakh which led to an ongoing exodus of the region’s ethnic
Armenian population unwilling to live under Azerbaijani rule. Pashinian has put
the blame on Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh.
Armeni - Police officers detain a demonstrator during a protest against Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, September 22, 2023.
In a weekend addressed to the nation, the Armenian premier implicitly accused
Moscow of fomenting the street protests. He also stated that the military
alliance with Russia is not enough to ensure Armenia’s national security.
The U.S. Statement Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, echoed that statement
late on Monday, saying that Russia is “not a security partner that can be relied
on.” Miller’s remark was denounced by the Russian ambassador in Washington,
Anatoly Antonov.
“We call on Washington to refrain from extremely dangerous statements and
actions that help to strengthen artificial anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,”
Antonov said on Tuesday.
Despite his strong criticism of Moscow, Pashinian has so far not signaled plans
to pull Armenia out of the CSTO. Nor has he indicated any alternative
geopolitical arrangements which he thinks could protect Armenia’s borders.
Zakharova expressed confidence that Russian-Armenian relations will eventually
be mended, saying that most Armenians remain sympathetic to Russia.
“We shouldn’t pay attention to those who are making various types of extremist
statements, casting doubt on our relations,” she told a news briefing. “This
will pass. We have seen this in other countries.”
Former Karabakh Premier Arrested By Azerbaijan (UPDATED)
• Karlen Aslanian
• Artak Khulian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Ruben Vardanyan, the Karabakh premier, addresses a rally in
Stepanakert, December 25, 2022.
Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born billionaire businessman who held the
second-highest post in Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership until February, was
arrested by Azerbaijani authorities on Wednesday while fleeing the region along
with thousands of Karabakh Armenians.
Azerbaijan’s state security service said that he was detained in the Lachin
corridor and taken to Baku. It gave no reason for the arrest.
“Vardanyan was handed over to relevant state bodies so that they make a decision
regarding him,” the APA news agency quoted it as saying.
Baku also circulated a photograph of a handcuffed Vardanyan escorted by
Azerbaijani officers at an unspecified airfield.
Vardanyan’s Russian wife, Veronika Zonabend, appealed for his immediate release
shortly before the official confirmation of his arrest.
“Ruben stood with the Artsakh people during the 10-month blockade [by
Azerbaijan] and suffered along with them in the struggle for survival,” she said
in a statement. “I ask for your prayers and support to ensure my husband’s safe
release.”
Azerbaijan -- Ruben Vardanyan is escorted by Azerbaijani security officials
following his arrest.
Vardanyan was appointed as Karabakh’s state minister last November a few months
after relocating to Karabakh and renouncing his Russian citizenship. The
Azerbaijani government condemned his appointment, saying that it was engineered
by Russia. Moscow denied that.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in February that he will be ready to
negotiate over the “rights and security of Karabakh’s Armenian minority” only if
Vardanyan resigns and leaves “our territory.” Although the latter was sacked a
week later, Baku never lifted its blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Vardanyan, 55, is a former investment banker who made his fortune in Russia in
the 1990s and 2000s. He is also known as a philanthropist who has financed many
charity projects in Armenia and Karabakh.
Vardanyan has been increasingly critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in
recent months, repeatedly denouncing his recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty
over Karabakh. Just hours after his arrest, the Armenian government asked the
European Court of Human Rights to order Baku to urgently provide information
about his whereabouts and detention conditions.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said it will do its best to try to secure the
prominent tycoon’s release and expects the support of Russia and “other
international partners” in that endeavor.
“The Armenian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed the necessity of
unimpeded movement of people from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia through the Lachin
corridor,” it said in a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Karabakh’s current leadership did not immediately react to the arrest that came
during an ongoing exodus of Karabakh’s population resulting from Azerbaijan’s
September 19-20 military offensive.
Vardanyan is the first Karabakh leader taken into Azerbaijani custody since
then. It was not clear whether other current and former Karabakh officials could
also be arrested in case of leaving Karabakh. Baku had issued arrest warrants
for some of them.
Meanwhile, Moscow pointedly declined to comment on the arrest. “I don't have
such information, so I can't say anything about that issue,” Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
68 Confirmed Dead After Blast At Karabakh Fuel Depot
A handout photograph taken and released on September 25, 2023 by the
Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Ombudsman shows a fire at a fuel depot outside
Stepanakert.
At least 68 people died in Monday’s powerful explosion and fire at a fuel depot
in Nagorno-Karabakh, an official in Stepanakert said late on Tuesday.
Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, said 105 other people went
missing and remain unaccounted for.
The explosion, which destroyed the gasoline storage facility outside
Stepanakert, also left 290 Karabakh Armenians wounded. In Stepanian’s words, 168
of them were transported to hospitals in Armenia earlier in the day: 96 by
helicopters from Armenia and belonging to Russian peacekeepers, and 72 patients
by ambulances accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The blast occurred as tens of thousands of Karabakh residents fled to Armenia
following an Azerbaijani offensive that paved the way for the restoration of
Baku’s control over the region. Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of
cars parked near the depot, waiting to fuel up and head to Armenia.
Another Karabakh official told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the blast was most
probably an accident caused by “negligence.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.