YEREVAN: Thousands of Armenians streamed out of Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of the breakaway region while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Azerbaijan Monday in a show of support to its ally.
The Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule.
A second round of talks between Azerbaijani officials and separatist representatives began in Khojaly Tuesday following the opening meeting last week.
While Azerbaijan pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and restore supplies after a 10-month blockade, many local residents feared reprisals and said they were planning to leave for Armenia.
The Armenian government said that 4,850 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of midday Monday.
“It was a nightmare. There are no words to describe. The village was heavily shelled. Almost no one is left in the village,” said one of the evacuees who spoke to The Associated Press in the Armenian city of Kornidzor and refused to give her name for security reasons.
Moscow said that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh were assisting the evacuation.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Monday that two of its soldiers were killed a day earlier when a military truck hit a land mine. It didn’t name the area where the explosion occurred.
In an address to the nation Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government was working with international partners to protect the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“If these efforts do not produce concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh in the Republic of Armenia with every care,” he said.
Demonstrators demanding Pashinyan’s resignation continued blocking the Armenian capital’s main avenues Monday, clashing occasionally with police.
Russian peacekeepers have been in the region since 2020, when a Russian-brokered armistice ended a six-week war between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinyan and many others in Armenia accused the peacekeepers of failing to prevent the hostilities and protect the Armenian population. Moscow rejected the accusations, arguing that its forces had no legal grounds to intervene, particularly after Pashinyan’s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
“We are categorically against attempts to put the blame on the Russian side, especially the Russian peacekeepers, who have shown a true heroism,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
He demurred when asked whether the Russian peacekeepers would remain in the region, saying that “no one can really say anything for now.”
Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During the 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 charged 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.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for Armenia and Armenians, saying that France will mobilize food and medical aid for the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, and keep working toward a ‘’sustainable peace’’ in the region.
France, which has a big Armenian diaspora, has for decades played a mediating role in Nagorno-Karabakh. A few hundred people rallied outside the French Foreign Ministry over the weekend, demanding sanctions against Azerbaijan and accusing Paris of not doing enough to protect Armenian interests in the region.
“France is very vigilant about Armenia’s territorial integrity because that is what is at stake,” Macron said in an interview with France-2 and TF1 television, accusing Russia of complicity with Azerbaijan and charging that Turkiye threatens Armenia’s borders.
Russia has been the main ally and sponsor of Armenia and has a military base there, but it also has sought to maintain friendly ties with Azerbaijan. But Moscow’s clout in the region has waned quickly amid the Russian war in Ukraine while the influence of Azerbaijan’s top ally Turkiye has increased.
Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave on Monday for talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss Turkiye-Azerbaijan ties and regional and global issues. Nakhchivan is cut off from the rest of Azerbaijan by Armenian territory but forms a slim border with Turkiye.
During his one-day trip to the region, Erdogan will also attend the opening of a gas pipeline and a modernized military base, his office added in a statement.
Asked about Erdogan’s visit, Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, voiced hope that it will “contribute to the regional security and help normalize life in Karabakh.”
Thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkish president visits Azerbaijan
https://arab.news/z2jx8
Thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkish president visits Azerbaijan
- Thousands of Armenians have streamed out of Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of the separatist region
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Azerbaijan in a show of support to its ally
UN chief visits Iraq to mark end of assistance mission set up after 2003 invasion
- Sudani said his country “highly values” the mission’s work in a region “that has suffered for decades from dictatorship, wars, and terrorism”
- Guterres praised “the courage, fortitude and determination of the Iraqi people”
BAGHDAD: United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Baghdad on Saturday to mark the end of the political mission set up in 2003 following the US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The UN Security Council, at Iraq’s request, voted last year to wind down the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), by the end of 2025. The mission was set up to coordinate post-conflict humanitarian and reconstruction efforts and help restore a representative government in the country.
Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said his country “highly values” the mission’s work in a region “that has suffered for decades from dictatorship, wars, and terrorism.” He said its conclusion showed Iraq had reached a stage of “full self-reliance.”
“Iraq emerged victorious thanks to the sacrifices and courage of its people,” he said in a joint statement with Guterres.
The ending of UNAMI’s mandate “does not signify the end of the partnership between Iraq and the UN,” Sudani said, adding that it represents the beginning of a new chapter of cooperation focused on development and inclusive economic growth.
The prime minister said a street in Baghdad would be named “United Nations Street” in honor of the UN’s work and in recognition of 22 UN staff who were killed in an Aug. 19, 2003, truck bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which housed the UN headquarters.
Guterres praised “the courage, fortitude and determination of the Iraqi people” and the country’s efforts to restore security and order after years of sectarian violence and the rise of extremist groups, including the Daesh group, in the years after the 2003 invasion.
“Iraqis have worked to overcome decades of violence, oppression, war, terrorism, sectarianism and foreign interference,” the secretary-general said. “And today’s Iraq is unrecognizable from those times.”
Iraq “is now a normal country, and relations between the UN and Iraq will become normal relations with the end of UNAMI,” Guterres added. He also expressed appreciation for Iraq’s commitment to returning its citizens from the Al-Hol camp, a sprawling tent camp in northeastern Syria housing thousands of people — mostly women and children — with alleged ties to the IS.
Guterres recently recommended former Iraqi President Barham Salih to become the next head of the UN refugee agency, the first nomination from the Middle East in half a century.
Salih’s presidential term, from 2018 to 2022, came in the immediate aftermath of the Daesh group’s rampage across Iraq and the battle to take back the territory seized by the extremist group, including the key northern city of Mosul.
At least 2.2 million Iraqis were displaced as they fled the IS offensive. Many, particularly members of the Yazidi minority from the northern Sinjar district, remain in displacement camps today.
