War moves wipe out Armenian enclave

After a one-day war initiated by Azerbaijan, the republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has dissolved its borders, state structures and military. It has effectively wiped itself off the map. Most of its population has fled.

The disputed ethnic-Armenian territory inside Azerbaijan had been blockaded for nine months. On 19 September, after demanding that Armenian troops evacuated the territory immediately (there was no proof of Armenian military in Artsakh), Azerbaijan began firing missiles and gunfire was heard throughout the area.

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan announced almost immediately that the Armenian military would not be coming to the aid of Nagorno-Karabakh. With no help from outside, and a starved, under-equipped army and population, Artsakh had little option but to agree to Azerbaijan’s terms.

Talks over the following few days saw an immediate demilitarisation and, shortly after, the dissolution of the Artsakh parliament and borders. By the end of September, over 100,000 Artsakh refugees had arrived in Armenia — almost the entire population of the region. It was not hard to guess why so many fled, as videos surfaced almost immediately of Azeri soldiers tearing down all Armenian-language signs, and fears of ethnic cleansing that have been present throughout the last nine months suddenly became a much more real possibility.

A major obstacle for many Artsakh residents trying to flee was a complete lack of resources: with electricity only recently returned, and deliveries of food and fuel coming in, people were forced to queue at temporary distribution centres before being able to escape to Armenia. On 25 September came the salt in the wound of the invasion: one of the fuel tankers at a temporary distribution centre exploded, wounding 200.

Azerbaijan is clearly hoping to use this victory to leverage further gains in the region. On 25 September, President Aliyev met with Erdogan in the exclave of Nakhchivan, a portion of Azeri territory on the western edge of Armenia. The talks between the two leaders almost certainly involved plans to force Armenia to agree to the long sought-after Zangezur corridor, a route from mainland Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan that, coincidentally, would cut all land ties between Armenia and Iran, a regional rival to Azerbaijan.

This has been a tragic end to a blockade that should never have started. It is a bleak consolation to the people of Artsakh that they have regained access to the food, resources and medical care they have been denied since last December.

• Background article in Solidarity 684 here