Azerbaijan does not want a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and is not encouraging anyone to leave the “liberated” region, Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Britain, said on Thursday.
Mr Suleymanov said Azerbaijan, which took back control of Karabakh last week in a military operation, had not yet had a chance to prove what he said was its genuine commitment to provide secure and better living conditions for those ethnic Armenians who choose to stay.
Some 70,500 people had crossed from Karabakh into Armenia by early Thursday afternoon, Russia’s RIA news agency reported, out of an estimated population of 120,000. Earlier Ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh said they were dissolving the breakaway statelet they had defended against Azerbaijan for three decades.
Many of those leaving have said they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Azerbaijan. Some critics have said the exodus, which has shown how little trust many Armenians have in Azerbaijani promises, is what Baku wants as it will make it easier to resettle the area with Azerbaijanis.
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Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a six-week war in 2020 Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.
In December, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, alleging that the Armenian government was using the road for mineral extraction and illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces.
Armenia claimed that the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh’s approximately 120,000 people. Azerbaijan rejected the accusation, arguing the region could receive supplies through the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam – a solution long resisted by Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, who called it a strategy for Azerbaijan to gain control of the region.
After the blockade was lifted following an offensive and a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russian peacekeepers, more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population have fled to Armenia.
Mr Suleymanov, who issued a call on social media appealing to ethnic Armenians to stay and be part of a multi-ethnic Azerbaijan, told Reuters he understood why many civilians were frightened, but that those who chose to stay would benefit from planned rebuilding and infrastructure projects.
“What should Azerbaijan do? We cannot keep them by force, we don’t want to keep anyone by force, [but] we don’t encourage anyone to leave,” he said, adding that Azerbaijani authorities had delivered requested medical, fuel and other supplies.
“We would prefer for people at least to be in a position to make a more informed decision on whether they want to stay. So far Azerbaijan has not had any chance to prove anything because the time was very short.”
He said Karabakh Armenians will enjoy the same rights and protections as other citizens of Azerbaijan. Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
He rejected Armenian fears that Azerbaijan would now proceed to destroy Armenian churches and monasteries in Karabakh, saying Baku had “no reason” to destroy historic monuments.
Baku’s use of force to retake Karabakh has fuelled fears among some Armenians that it may also use force to carve out a land corridor via Armenia to link up western Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, a strip of territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
Mr Suleymanov said the idea was to reopen transport corridors and make the wider region more prosperous and that he hoped a road and rail corridor could be agreed on via negotiation. “Nobody is going to open anything by force,” he said. “That defeats the purpose. Nobody is going to put troops there, we’re not going to invade them [Armenia].” – Reuters