a region at the heart of a conflict with Azerbaijan

The ceasefire, declared on Wednesday September 20 between the separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, has been violated on several occasions. The tension remains very high. “Nagorno-Karabakh is this mountainous region (…) attached to Azerbaijan for more than a century, but it is populated by Armenians. There are still 120,000 today“explains journalist Etienne Leenhardt. “At the end of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence with the support of Armenia“he continues.

5,000 Armenians had to flee the region

This declaration “caused two wars: the first won by Armenia in the early 1990s, which left 60,000 dead, and the second in 2020, more than 6,000 dead. It was Azerbaijan which took the opportunity to recover the territories.“ After a third, shorter one, the pro-Armenians “had to lay down their arms and engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan“remember Ehere Leenhardt. 5,000 Armenians have already fled the region. The risk that Azerbaijan wants to empty the region of its Armenian population to install an Azeri population there “is real, notably because those who could intervene, like Russia (which has long supported the Armenian cause), but also the West are looking elsewhere: towards the conflict in Ukraine“concludes the journalist.