At least 100,000 people have now fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karbakh \u2013 more than four-fifths of the population \u2013 since Azerbaijan reclaimed the territory in a lightening offensive, authorities in neighboring Armenia said. <\/p>\n
The rapid exodus has prompted the United Nations to send its first mission to the territory in about 30 years. <\/p>\n
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said the UN team on the ground would \u201cidentify the humanitarian needs for both people remaining and the people that are on the move.\u201d <\/p>\n
Though internationally seen as part of Azerbaijan, the Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karbakh had spent decades under the control of a separatist, de facto government until Azerbaijan\u2019s victory last week. The former breakaway republic will cease to exist as of next year. <\/p>\n
Azerbaijan has long been clear about the choice confronting Karabakh Armenians: Stay and accept Azerbaijani citizenship, or leave. <\/p>\n
As of Saturday morning, 100,417 people had been \u201cforcibly displaced,\u201d the Armenian prime minister\u2019s spokeswoman, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, told reporters. <\/p>\n
Armenian authorities have responded to the outflux of people by asking the International Court of Justice, a judicial arm of the UN, to tell Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops \u2013 citing fears of \u201cpunitive actions.\u201d <\/p>\n
They requested the court order Azerbaijan to \u201cwithdraw all military and law-enforcement personnel from all civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh,\u201d while refraining from \u201ctaking any actions directly or indirectly\u201d that would have the effect of displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians or preventing those who fled from returning. <\/p>\n
Azerbaijan should also allow people to leave the region \u201cwithout any hindrance\u201d if they wanted to, the Armenian authorities demanded. <\/p>\n
Armenia also asked the court to direct Azerbaijan to grant the UN and the Red Cross access to Nagorno-Karabakh. <\/p>\n
Azerbaijan should \u201crefrain from taking punitive actions against the current or former political representatives or military personnel of Nagorno-Karabakh,\u201d the Armenian authorities said. <\/p>\n
The appeal comes as Azerbaijani state media reported Friday that the security services in the country had detained two former commanders of the self-proclaimed \u201cRepublic of Artsakh\u2019s\u201d military. <\/p>\n
Loven Mnatsakanyan and Davit Manukyan were intercepted while attempting to cross from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia via the Lachin Corridor, the one road connecting the landlocked enclave to Armenia. <\/p>\n
Mnatsakanyan, who reportedly served as defense minister from 2015 to 2018, was arrested Friday and taken to the Azebaijani capital of Baku, according to state media. He was accused of illegally entering its territory. <\/p>\n
Manukyan, who reportedly served as the former deputy commander of Nagorno-Karbakh\u2019s armed forces, was detained Wednesday, Azerbaijani state media reported. <\/p>\n
He was accused of engaging in terrorism, setting up illegal armed groups, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegally entering Azerbaijan, though no evidence was presented to support the claims. <\/p>\n
The announcement of the arrests came after the indictment of prominent Nagorno-Karabakh politician and businessman Ruben Vardanyan on multiple charges in Azerbaijan Thursday after being detained while trying to cross into Armenia the day before, according to state media citing the Azerbaijani State Security Service. <\/p>\n
A former Minister of State of the self-proclaimed republic, Vardanyan is accused of financing terrorism, participating in the creation and activities of illegal armed groups, and illegally crossing Azerbaijani borders, according to state media. Azerbaijan has not presented evidence to support its claims. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, local politician David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the self-styled \u201cRepublic of Artsakh,\u201d wrote on Telegram that he would hand himself over to Azerbaijan. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy failure to appear, or worse, my escape, will cause serious harm to our long-suffering nation, to many people, and I, as an honest person, hard worker, patriot and Christian, cannot allow this,\u201d Babayan wrote. <\/p>\n\n
At least 100,000 people have now fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karbakh \u2013 more than four-fifths of the population \u2013 since Azerbaijan reclaimed the territory in a lightening offensive, authorities in neighboring Armenia said. The rapid exodus has prompted the United Nations to send its first mission to the territory in about 30 years. Stephane <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}