By Jacob Rampino 
Photo credit: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
On Sept. 20, 2023, Azerbaijan was able to regain sovereignty over the formerly semi-autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh region. For over thirty years, Azerbaijan has wrestled with the local Armenian minority for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians refer to as Artsakh.
The local administration of the Karabakh region was under the de facto control of the Republic of Artsakh, which Azerbaijan referred to as an “illegal regime” and a “criminal junta”. On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan initiated a “counter-terrorism” operation against the authority, and the surrender came just 24 hours later. This action broke a 2020 ceasefire between the two sides, something Azerbaijan has done several times.
In response to the surrender, thousands of protestors gathered in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Pashinyan has been criticized for his lack of results in protecting the over 120,000 ethnic Armenians who preside in Karabakh.
As a result of the attacks by Azerbaijan, approximately 10,000 Karabakh Armenians have been displaced, with another 200 having been killed and 400 wounded, among them civilians, including women and children. On Sept. 21, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan accused the Azerbaijani government of “ethnic cleansing” at the UN Security Council.
Despite this, Azerbaijan has continued to portray the campaign as one of anti-terrorism. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reinforced this idea, demonstrating Armenian possession of “heavy weapons such as tanks and other armored vehicles, artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and electromagnetic weapons”, with photographs as evidence.
Though Azerbaijan has stated it wants a “smooth reintegration process” and will allow “some forms of self-government”, thousands of Armenians are still waiting at the local airport in Khankendi in hopes of leaving. It is uncertain whether those Armenians in Khankendi will be allowed to leave by the Russian authority, which controls the airport.
The response of the international community remains to be seen.