More than 78 thousand residents of Nagorno-Karabakh moved to Armenia. The press secretary of the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers, Nazeli Baghdasaryan, announced this on September 28.
“As of 22:00 (21:00 Moscow time), 78,354 internally displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh arrived in the Republic of Armenia,” Baghdasaryan wrote on her Facebook page (owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation).
Earlier that day, Baghdasaryan reported that 70.5 thousand people came to the country from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The resettlement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh began after the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense announced on September 19 the start of “local anti-terrorist measures” in the region. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated that the only path to peace in Nagorno-Karabakh is the complete withdrawal of Armenian military personnel from there. The next day it became known that the conflicting parties had agreed to a complete cessation of hostilities.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on September 20 that all evacuated residents of the region were provided with places for temporary accommodation and hot meals. Peacekeepers delivered more than 50 tons of humanitarian cargo to the city of Stepanakert.
On September 28, it was announced that the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic would cease to exist on January 1, 2024. The population of the region, including residents outside its borders, need to familiarize themselves with the conditions for reintegration that Azerbaijan has presented.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia deteriorated against the backdrop of disputed ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh, which in 1988 declared secession from the Azerbaijani SSR. During the military conflict of 1992–1994, Baku lost control over the region.
In 2022, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a statement in Prague recognizing the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration, according to which Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory of the Azerbaijani state.
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