Azerbaijani soldiers surround Friday Stepanakert, the “capital” of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh where the majority Armenian population is “hiding in cellars” for fear of violence, despite the ceasefire signed with Azerbaijan.
“The situation in Stepanakert is horrible, Azerbaijani troops are everywhere around the city, they are on the outskirts,” said Armine Hayrapetian, a spokesperson for the authorities of this breakaway territory.
“People fear that Azerbaijani soldiers could enter the city at any time and start massacres,” she continued.
Stepanakert and other regions of Nagorno-Karabakh have also been deprived of most basic services since the Azerbaijani army’s lightning offensive earlier this week to reconquer this enclave, added Mr.me Hayrapetian.
“No electricity, no gas, no food, no fuel, no Internet or telephone connections”, “people are hiding in the cellars”, she said again.
Accused of passivity towards its Azerbaijani neighbor, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian recognized during a council of ministers that “the situation” remained “tense” in Nagorno-Karabakh where “the humanitarian crisis continues”.
But “there is hope of positive dynamics”, added the head of government for whom the ceasefire which entered into force on Wednesday between the Armenian separatists and Baku is “generally” respected, despite “isolated violations” reported on Thursday .
According to the latest assessment of the Armenian separatists, the Azerbaijani military operation, which ended in 24 hours at midday on Wednesday, left at least 200 dead and 400 injured.
New events
On Friday morning, demonstrators hostile to the prime minister once again took to the streets of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to protest against the government’s management of the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Opposition parties accuse Nikol Pashinian of having made too many concessions to Baku and are calling for his resignation. Opposition leaders also announced their intention to open impeachment proceedings against Nikol Pashinian in Parliament.
Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday outside the prime minister’s offices following riots in which demonstrators threw bottles and stones.
Faced with the demonstrations, Mr. Pashinian urged Armenians on Thursday to take “the path” to peace, even if it is “not easy”.
Azerbaijan’s offensive was the subject of an exchange of arms between Yerevan and Baku on Thursday before the UN Security Council, meeting urgently at the request of France.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyana said there were not “two parties in this conflict, but an aggressor and a victim”, accusing Baku of having launched an “unjustified and planned” offensive, targeting to “finalize ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh.
His Azerbaijani counterpart, Djeyhoun Baïramov, for his part denounced a “disinformation campaign” led by Yerevan, which he accused of “fueling and supporting the separatists”.
Baku and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh nevertheless said they were ready to continue talks on a “reintegration” of this secessionist territory into Azerbaijan, which began Thursday in Yevlakh, a town located 295 km west of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
The Azerbaijani presidency, which described the two hours of discussions as “constructive”, announced that a new meeting would take place “as quickly as possible”.
“The parties insisted on the need to discuss all existing problems in a peaceful environment and expressed their readiness to continue the meetings,” the separatists commented in a statement.
Fears of mass departure
The Armenian Prime Minister, for his part, accused Russia, a contingent of which has been deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh since the war in autumn 2020, of having failed in its peacekeeping mission. “I don’t think we should turn a blind eye to the failure of the “Russian” contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said on television.
According to Azerbaijan, six Russian peacekeepers were killed in two separate incidents during its offensive. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “apologies” to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the deaths.
The military success of the Azerbaijanis fuels fears of a mass departure of the 120,000 inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh, even if Armenia has promised that no mass evacuation is planned. She nevertheless said she was ready to welcome “40,000 families” of refugees.
According to the Azerbaijani state news agency Azertag, Baku sent 40 tons of humanitarian aid to the region on Friday. More than 10,000 people, including women, children and the elderly, have already been evacuated, said a separatist official.
Nagorno-Karabakh has already been the scene of two wars between the former Soviet Caucasian republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia: one from 1988 to 1994 (30,000 dead) and the other in the fall of 2020 (6500 deaths).