Nearly 100K ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia since Baku’s assault on unrecognized Artsakh Republic in Nagorno-Karabakh
The number of ethnic-Armenian refugees who were forced to flee from Nagorno-Karabakh, in the wake of Baku’s military assault on the region, has reached 97,735. This figure was reported by Nazeli Baghdasaryan, press secretary to Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
In recent years, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population was estimated to be 120,000. This predominant majority was behind the Republic of Artsakh, a breakaway state established in the region in 1991, with military and economic aid from Armenia.
Both Armenian and Artsakhi officials predicted that all of the republic’s Armenian population would be displaced after Baku’s conditional cease-fire, predicated on complete dismantling of Artsakh and its government.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described Baku’s actions as an act of ethnic cleansing of Karabakh Armenians.
David Babayan, an advisor to Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan, said that he was forced to surrender to Azerbaijani authorities to prevent even greater harm to other ethnic Armenians, who fear being persecuted by Azerbaijan.
On September 28, Samvel Shahramanyan signed an order to dissolve the unrecognized state of Artsakh and all of its governmental institutions by January 1, 2024.
