Karabakh Leader Hopes For Mass Repatriation

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population, which fled to Armenia following the recent Azerbaijani military offensive, could and should be able to return to its homeland, Karabakh’s exiled president said over the weekend.

Samvel Shahramanian also defended his decision to accept the Azerbaijani terms of the ceasefire that stopped the September 19-20 offensive. It allowed more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, including military personnel, to “safely leave Artsakh,” Shahramanian said in an interview with Karabakh television posted on social media. He noted Russian peacekeepers’ failure to try to stop the assault.

The Azerbaijani demands accepted by him included the dissolution of Karabakh’s government bodies and armed forces. In addition, Shahramanian signed a decree on September 28 saying that the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), set up in September 1991, will cease to exist on January 1.

“Hours after the start of the hostilities I realized that we are alone in the face of that aggression,” Shahramanian told Artsakh Public Television. “It can be said that the Russian side was acting like an observer, and we had to solve our issues on our own.”

“It was clear to us that we must stop the hostilities because we were greatly outnumbered and the longer we held out the more casualties we would have suffered,” he said, adding that his administration managed to “save the lives” of not only the surviving Karabakh soldiers but also civilians.

Shahramanian implied that his September 28 decree is null and void when he was confronted by dozens of angry Karabakh refugees in Yerevan on October 20. He sounded more ambiguous on that score in his latest interview.

“Without going into details, I want to state that we know the validity and impact of that document and we will get to discuss it,” said the Karabakh leader.

Shahramanian further made clear that one of his top priorities now is to assert “the right of our citizens displaced from Artsakh to return home.”

“Various political centers — the American, European, and Russian ones — are interested in the issue of the return of the population,” he said. “I think that Azerbaijan is also interested in that because they are accused by the international community of forcibly deporting the population. And I think that negotiations should start on that issue.”

The Azerbaijani government has said that the Karabakh Armenians are free to return to their homes if they agree to live under Azerbaijani rule. Only a few dozen of them are thought to have stayed in the depopulated region.

Shahramanian was elected president by Karabakh lawmakers just ten days before the Azerbaijani offensive. His predecessor Arayik Harutiunian, who was arrested by Azerbaijan after the assault, was seen as a figure more loyal to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Pashinian’s political allies have openly blamed the Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh on the leadership change in Stepanakert. Shahramanian dismissed their accusations. But he was careful not to echo Armenian opposition claims that Pashinian himself precipitated the fall of Karabakh with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory.

azatutyun.am