- President Samvel Shahramanyan has signed the dissolution of all State institutions one week after Azerbaijan’s attack on the small Armenian country in the Caucasus. From January 2024 Nagorno Karabakh will therefore not exist. Half of the population has already fled, fearing the repression of the Azerbaijanis.
After suffering total military failure in 24 hours, the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh announced last week their dissolution, but political representatives have had a period of one week to negotiate the dissolution of the country itself. Caravan President Samvel Shahramanyan signed the decree on Thursday.
The decree that is disseminated via Facebook states that all state entities and associations dependent on Nagorno Karabakh must be dissolved before 1 January 2024. "The republic of Nagorno Karabakh ceases to exist," it holds as its title. According to Shahramanyan, they have made a decision "for the difficult political-military situation".
The Azerbaijani attack killed dozens of people on 19 September, and many saw it as the last war between the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis three years ago. On this occasion, Azerbaijan recovered two-thirds of the territory of Nagorny Karabakh, lost by another war in the 1990s.
Every war and every attack has the same consequence for the losers of the relay, on one side and the other: death and exodus. The Armenians know that. We have also known the atrocities of Azerbaijani soldiers during the 2020 war.
Every war and every attack has the same consequence for the losers of the relay, on one side and the other: death and exodus. And that is what the Armenians know.
65,000 people on their way to Goris
The Azerbaijani Government has said that it will promote the "integration" of the Armenians, and the majority are not faithful to these words of Kabu. In Nagorno Karabakh, 120,000 Armenians lived until last week, but 65,000 people have left the country. Shahramanyan’s decree requires that citizens stop passing through the Latxin pass without restrictions, with their cars and assets, “including the militants who have left the guns.”
The Latxin crossing had been closed for months by the Azerbaijani militiamen, a blockade that has left serious consequences for the population of Nagorno Karabakh. According to CNN, using sources from the US International Development Agency, many of those who have come to exile have reached a "regrettable" situation and suffer from "severe malnutrition".
Most of the exiles have taken refuge in Goris, a tourist city on the border with Armenia.El The Guardian correspondent has written that hundreds of refugees arrive in this city every hour, travelling through the endless caravan stretching over a hundred kilometres through the capital of Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh.
Next Armenia?
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has become a sacrifice in this area between Europe and Asia. The distance between Russia and Armenia and Turkey’s ability to influence relations between the West and Russia have to do with it.
Thus, as the journalist Karlos Zurutuza explains in this article by Naiz, the next piece may be Armenia itself. In the capital of Armenia, Erevan, protests against its president, Nikol Pashinian, are increasing: "But a change of face in small Armenia will not prevent its people from living the most difficult times since the genocide in Anatolia," says Zurutuza.