Fall of an enclave in Azerbaijan stuns the Armenian diaspora
The swift fall of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani troops and the exodus of much of its population has stunned the large Armenian diaspora around the world. Traumatized by a widely acknowledged genocide a century ago, they fear the erasure of what they consider a central and beloved part of their historic homeland.
The separatist ethnic Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday announced that it was dissolving and that the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by year's end -— a seeming death knell for its 30-year de facto independence.
Azerbaijan, which routed the region's Armenian forces in a lightning offensive last week, has pledged to respect the rights of the territory's Armenian community. Tens of thousands of people — more than 80% of the region's population — had fled to Armenia by Friday morning, and the influx
continues, according to Armenian officials.
Many in Armenia and the diaspora fear a centuries-long community in the territory they call Artsakh will disappear.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has termed it “a direct act of an ethnic cleansing.” Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the accusation, saying the departures are a “personal and individual decision and has nothing to do with forced
relocation.”
Armenians abroad also accuse European countries, Russia and the United States — and the government of Armenia itself — of failing to protect the population during months of a blockade of the territory by Azerbaijan's military and a swift offensive last week that defeated separatist forces.
Armenians say the loss is a historic blow. Outside the modern country of Armenia itself, the mountainous land was one of the only surviving parts of a heartland that centuries ago stretched across what is now eastern Turkey, into the Caucasus region and western Iran.
Many in the diaspora had pinned dreams on it gaining independence or being joined to Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh was “a page of hope in Armenian history,” said Narod Seroujian, a Lebanese-Armenian university instructor in Beirut.
“It showed us that there is hope to gain back a land that is rightfully ours. … For the diaspora, NagornoKarabakh was already part of Armenia.”