'I left to stay alive': Nagorno-Karabakh empties of ethnic Armenians

Euronews ^ | 27/09/2023 - 08:26•Updated 11:52 | By Euronews with AFP

[MeganC]

Baku has promised to guarantee the safety of residents, but Armenia's prime minister warned of "ethnic cleansing".

Armenian authorities said on Wednesday they have received 42,500 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, following Azerbaijan's lightning offensive last week.

That's more than a third of the separatist Caucasus region's total population.

[MeganC]

The criticism of Russia in this article is somewhat misplaced. Russia's presence as a peacekeeping force was laudatory and the peacekeeping force is escorting Armenians back to Armenia.

I'm often a critic of Russia over their war on Ukraine but in this case it's good to see them saving lives for a change. Credit where credit is due.

[dfwgator]

Armenians can’t get a break.

[pierrem15]

Putin is trying to save Russia's reputation as an ally of Armenia but the Ukraine war makes Turkey and Azerbaijan much more important as allies.

This conflict, by the way, like the Georgia/Ossetia one was deliberately stirred up by the KGB as the Soviet Union collapsed precisely to give Russia an excuse to intervene. Putin used the same playbook to cause trouble with the Russian population in Ukraine leading up to the 2014 invasion.

[NorseViking]

False dichotomy. The West wants Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan, Pashinyan was installed to make Armenia a part of Western sphere if influence. Losing Karabakh and baking Russia for it is a part of the game.

[wardaddy]

Haven’t we kind of played both sides here?

Historically

[wardaddy]

True
But it’s not as much their own poor decisions as Georgia makes

I’m not a proponent of either in this case

I think they’ve been squabbling over this beak of land what 90 years?

[Shadow44]

Unfortunately we've been on the wrong side of this conflict for a long time. The West cares more about the Caspian Sea pipelines, and Armenians are a little people who have nothing to offer.

When the ethnic cleansing is complete, the Azeris will move to claim the "Zangezur corridor" which will connect their enclave of Nakhchivan to the rest of Azerbaijan. The only thing stopping this ironically was Iran, which is where about 75% of the Azeris live and doesn't like the idea of an expansionist Azerbaijan that could make territorial claims against them.

However the calculus seems to have shifted recently, and quite frankly it's debatable if Armenia continues to exist as a sovereign country in 10 years. The Era of "Vae Victis" has returned.

[MeganC]

“Haven’t we kind of played both sides here?”

We’ve been all over the map in that area. Kinda hard to keep track, really.

[Clemenza]

Feel really really bad about the displaced Armenians, but this region belongs to Azerbaijan, and the Armenian separatists have refused to budge after years of failed peace talks.