A new exodus, after years of conflict. A few days after the announcement of the dissolution of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabakh, a separatist enclave in Azerbaijan, more than 100,000 refugees arrived in Armenia, according to Nazeli Baghdassarian, the spokesperson for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. According to official figures, around 120,000 Armenians lived in the enclave before its dramatic dissolution was announced earlier in the week and Azerbaijan’s calls to stay appear to have had no effect.
“There are at most a few hundred civil servants, emergency workers, volunteers and people with special needs left, who are also preparing to leave,” the former Nagorny rights ombudsman wrote on X (ex-twitter). Karabakh, Artak Beglarian, specifying that this information is “not official”. The UN announced the sending this weekend of a mission to Nagorno Karabakh mainly to assess humanitarian needs, even though the organization had not had access to this region “for around 30 years”.
The enclave decreed on Thursday the dissolution “of all government institutions (…) on January 1, 2024”, signaling the end of the existence of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Nagorno Karabakh” more than three decades ago. In a few days, more than 80% of the 120,000 official inhabitants left their homes for fear of reprisals by burning their personal belongings before joining the column of refugees. This predominantly Christian region, which seceded from predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan upon the disintegration of the USSR, opposed Baku for more than three decades, notably during two wars between 1988 and 1994 and in the fall 2020.