A first international aid convoy entered Nagorno Karabakh on Saturday, where the Azerbaijani army showed the press, on the heights of the “capital” Stepanakert, hundreds of weapons seized from the separatists since its lightning offensive at the start of week in this secessionist region mainly populated by Armenians.
“The ICRC passed through the Lachin corridor to bring mainly 70 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the population,” said an official from the International Red Cross, interviewed by AFP at the Armenian checkpoint of Kornidzor, Armenia. , as trucks pass.
Since the end of 2022, Armenia has accused Baku of blocking this only road which directly connects it to Nagorno Karabakh and thus causing significant shortages there.
Azerbaijan, for its part, announced on Saturday that it would proceed with Russia to “demilitarize” the Armenian secessionist forces, during a press trip in which AFP participated.
In the surroundings of Choucha, a town in Nagorno Karabakh controlled by Baku, not far from Stepanakert – which is surrounded according to local officials – hundreds of small arms seized from the separatists but also tanks marked with a white cross were shown to journalists.
In the courtyard in which the military arsenal is displayed, is written in large black letters: “Karabakh is Azerbaijani”.
“In close cooperation with Russian peacekeepers, we are carrying out the demilitarization” of separatist troops and providing “support to civilians,” Anar Eyvazov, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani army, told the press.
In Choucha, mortars are positioned on a hill, facing Stepanakert. Asked about a plume of smoke emanating from this city below on Saturday at the end of the day, he did not comment.
But an Azerbaijani soldier was injured during a ceasefire violation, the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed in this enclave announced Saturday evening, a sign of the volatility of the situation on the ground.
Azerbaijan said residents were setting fire to their homes. “Armenian residents are mass burning houses in Aghdara,” the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday evening, publishing aerial images appearing to show burned houses.
Defeated at the end of the assault launched on Tuesday by Baku, the separatists capitulated and concluded a ceasefire the next day and the population is anxious about its future in this region where thousands of people remain confronted with a humanitarian emergency situation.
The spokesperson for the Azerbaijani army assured that camps were being set up to accommodate civilians.
This mountainous enclave, attached in 1921 by Soviet power to Azerbaijani territory, has already been the scene of two wars between the former republics of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia: one from 1988 to 1994 (30,000 deaths) and the other in the fall of 2020 (6,500 deaths).
Originally from Stepanakert, Yana Avanessian, a 29-year-old law teacher, describes the situation there as “horrible”, like many other Armenians managing as best they can to contact their loved ones.
“We hope for evacuations soon, in particular of people whose homes have been destroyed,” the young woman told AFP, in the middle of a small group consumed by worry at the Armenian checkpoint of Kornidzor.
“I’ve been waiting for three days and three nights. I sleep in the car,” says Garik Zakarian, who lived until last December in the village of Eghtsahog, almost within reach, on the other side of the valley, where friends, his mother-in-law and his brother-in-law still live.
“I have no hope (of seeing them quickly evacuated) but I couldn’t do nothing. Just being there, seeing the Russian base a kilometer away, I feel better physically,” said the 28-year-old man. .
An AFP correspondent noted that Stepanakert was deprived of electricity and fuel and that its population suffered from a severe lack of food and medicine.
Azerbaijani troops “are everywhere around Stepanakert, they are on the outskirts”, a spokesperson for the local authorities, Armine Hayrapetian, told AFP.
The Azerbaijani military operation, which ended in 24 hours at midday on Wednesday, left at least 200 dead and 400 injured, according to Armenian separatists.
Visiting the region at the head of a delegation of American parliamentarians, Senator Gary Peters spoke on Saturday in favor of sending “international observers” to Nagorno Karabakh.
“The Azerbaijani government has told us there is nothing to fear. If that is the case, we should allow international observers to go and see for themselves so the world can know exactly what is happening “, he said, according to an AFP correspondent.
Azerbaijan promised on Saturday at the UN to treat the Armenians, the majority in Nagorno Karabakh, as “equal citizens”.
“Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate the Armenian inhabitants of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens,” Foreign Minister Jeyhoun Bayramov told the United Nations General Assembly.
Accused of passivity towards Azerbaijan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian admitted on Friday that “the situation” remained “tense” in Nagorno Karabakh. But “there is hope of positive dynamics”, he added, noting that the ceasefire was “generally” respected.
People hostile to Mr. Pashinian demonstrate every day in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to protest against the management of the crisis by the executive.
Several opposition leaders, for their part, have announced their intention to open impeachment proceedings in Parliament against the head of government.
According to the Armenian police, 19 “protesters” were arrested on Saturday – compared to 98 demonstrators the day before – while Mr. Pashinian calls for calm and to take “the path” to peace, although it is “not easy”.
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23/09/2023 22:48:25 – Shoucha (Azerbaijan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
