In the early afternoon of September 19, Azerbaijan’s armed forces launched a large-scale military offensive along the entire length of the line of contact with Artsakh, using rocket artillery strikes and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Civilian infrastructure and homes in Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert and other towns and villages are under intensive shelling. The Artsakh Defense Army has reported that the Azerbaijani armed forces have attempted advances into Artsakh. The Artsakh Health Ministry recorded 80 injuries, 15 of whom are civilians, and five deaths.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry has called the attacks “anti-terrorist activities” for the purpose to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces” and “restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” Armenian authorities have said, however, that no units of the Armenian armed forces are stationed in Artsakh, which the International Crisis Group has verified.
The attack comes nine months into Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Artsakh. Azerbaijan has closed the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, the sole route connecting the region with the outside world. The blockade has precipitated a humanitarian crisis, depriving Artsakh residents of food, medicine and basic necessities. Azerbaijan has also disrupted Artsakh’s fuel and gas supplies, restricting the movement of ambulances and cars. According to local reports, some parents have been unable to locate their children and transport them to bunkers due to the fuel shortage.
Artsakh’s Foreign Ministry said that the purpose of the military offensive is to ethnically cleanse Artsakh of its Armenian population and force the residents of Artsakh to leave their homes. “The failure of international actors to lift the blockade and prevent genocide in Artsakh lit a green light for Azerbaijan to launch a military offensive against the 120,000 people in Artsakh under siege,” Artsakh’s Foreign Ministry said.
The office of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that in order for the “anti-terror measures to stop, the illegal Armenian military formations must raise the white flag, all weapons must be handed over, and the illegal regime must be dissolved.”
European Council President Charles Michel called the news from Artsakh “devastating.” “Military actions of Azerbaijan must be immediately halted to allow for a genuine dialogue between Baku and Karabakh Armenians,” Michel said.
Azerbaijani authorities said they alerted Russian peacekeepers based in Artsakh prior to launching the military operation. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denied this claim. She called for de-escalation from both sides.
The Weekly is closely monitoring developments on the ground.
Lillian Avedian
Latest posts by Lillian Avedian (see all)
- Book Review | Reparations of the Heart: Toward a SWANA Futurity - April 10, 2024
- The Region in Brief - April 10, 2024
- Armenia on the path to becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence - March 27, 2024
In the big picture, what’s happening in Armenia and Artsakh today is part of a greater geopolitical struggle taking place throughout Eurasia. The process we are in today started many years ago. More specifically, the said process accelerated as a result of the Western-financed coup in Kiev in 2014. Knowing that a global crisis was approaching the region Armenia is in today, what did we do as a people? Instead of making the necessary land concessions and moving deeper into Russia’s protective umbrella, we did the opposite. Armenians effectively maneuvered Armenia right out of political contention and straight into a dead-end. As a result, Armenia today is simply a pawn in the deadly game taking place in and around it. Consequently, Armenia is no longer in any position to control or to even influence events. Therefore, what will happen, will happen. Let things come to their logical conclusions. And whatever happens, let’s remember that in the big picture it will be our collective fault.
We collectively made Armenia and Artsakh vulnerable to Western and Turkish meddling ultimately because we wanted to distance ourselves from Russia’s perceived “overbearing” influence. We proudly used “complimentary politics” to avoid land concessions. We enthusiastically adopted all forms of Western agendas. We hosted an army of Western financed NGOs and one of the largest US embassies in the world. In a nutshell, we wanted to embrace the “progressive West” as a buffer against “repressive Russia”. We did everything possible to maintain “independence” from Russia, even while we knew we were almost totally dependent on Russia for survival. It was collective cognitive dissonance at work. All in all, we collectively alienated Russia from Armenia, and did so at the worst possible time. This is where the traditional Diaspora, to its eternal shame, played a significant role. The Diaspora has acted as a pack-animal for all sorts of Western – and Turkish – agendas inside Armenia throughout the past 30 years.
Putting all political nuances and speculations aside, if any of you reading this had at any time spoken against Serj Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan or Russia or President Putin, you contributed to what Armenia and Artsakh are going through today. Said otherwise, you got what you wanted in 2018 – a Western financed “democratic” revolution. You then got what you deserved in 2020 – a historic defeat. Said otherwise, if any of you reading this supported Nikol’s rise in any way, you also have blood on your hands, and you are also responsible for the tragedy taking place in Artsakh.
People deserve the governments they have. There are no free meals in politics. Political illiteracy has a high cost. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Revolutions end up eating their children. You reap what you sow.
Pashinyan and all Armenians who think like him, must be arrested.
The idea that America will protect Armenia is ridiculous.
99.99% of Americans can’t find Armenia on a map.
Russia and only Russia can protect Armenia but why should any Russian put his life in danger when Armenia treats Russia with such disrespect?
Holding military drills with America was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Armenia must get rid of all pro-Americans, beg Russia to stop the Turks and then behave as a loyal and faithful ally of Russia.
There is no other way.
Although I do completely disagree with you on your “Kiev 2014 coup” theory, I believe you are right that the Armenian strategy was very stupid. Territorial compromises would have been the only way to save at least parts of Armenian Karabakh. Also the need to assemble friendly neighbours locally was quite obvious to me. Why should the US or Europe invest much in an isolated state far away in the Caucasus? Armenian geography is very very unlucky. What I do not understand is why there is no iron clad friendship at least between Armenia and Georgia.
Regarding Russia, well, looking at the map the strategy to insert oneself in their back side (even by propagating pro Russian nonsense) made some sense when Russia seemed strong. But it failed and it would also have failed if Armenia hadn’t distanced itself from Russia. Russia has always broken down periodically in history, and it is now obvious that it will do so again soon, with an unwinnable war combined with a corrupt leadership bleeding its strength.
it makes me laugh when I hear Armenians still calling for the independence of what is essentially an entity controlled by Russia. under no circumstances will the west recognize artsarkh or south Ossetia or transnistria etc areas of sovereign countries with a Russian presence in them. to think otherwise is an exercise in fantasy, devoid of harsh truth of reality.
Absolutely and Armenians will painfully see the light about Russia and see it for what it is and it doesn’t deserve reverence. It hasn’t supported Armenia like that USA has with Israel and the Kosovo Albanian cause hence should not be revered as though it does which incredibly many Armenians in their parochial thinking do!
,@ Austin Onah there has been an excessive amount of Russian military equipment and tactics being overstated known as a Vatnik i guess if 80 years later we still have people gushing over the Wehrmacht known as Wehraboos then one is bound to have some very infatuated and deluded people out there for some time!
The fact that the west and Russia are in a proxy war in Ukraine means that Armenia as an ally of Russia even if on the basis of its own protection not a conspiracy against the west would get no sympathy from the west and whilst Armenia had done nothing to instigate the collapse of the post cold war honeymoon into outright acrimony was something that Armenia couldn’t ignore either and given Russia reverses meant cold hard questions of Armenian interests not Russian had to be made. Posters like concerned and Gurgen who parrot Armenia must unite with Russia are either delusional or Kremlin shills as it would be suicide not salvation in the current situation if Russia had conquered Ukraine disbanded NATO bombed Baku to force them to relinquish Arktash then it would be great thing to unite with Russia.
As i had warned an Azeri attack was expected with Azerbaijan seeking to compel the Armenian population to surrender and accept Azeri authority citizenship only or leave. Meanwhile Russia will be balancing (not intervention) as Putin dreams of recreating his childhood by restoring the Soviet Union. Hopefully Armenia is better prepared than in 2020 !
Shame on Armenia if it doesn’t come to Artsakh’s defense. Pashinyan is a traitor. Shame on all Armenians who still support this traitor.
VARTAN!!! EXACTY HOW SHOULD ARMENIA COME TO ARTSAKH’S DEFENSE??? DO YOU WANT ARMENIA TO ENTER INTO AZERBAIJAN WITH ITS MILITARY AND DECLARE WAR AGAINST AZERBAIJAN??? ARE YOU PREPARED TO FLY THERE WITH YOUR MALE FAMILY MEMBERS AND DIE FIGHTING? IF ARMENIA DECLARES WAR, TURKEY WILL JUMP IN TO DEFEND ITS GARBAGE COUSINS AND THAT’S THE END OF BOTH ARTSAKH AND ARMENIA!!!! AS MUCH AS I WANT ARTSAKH TO EXIST, SADLY IT IS GAME OVER BECAUSE NEITHER ARTSAKH NOR ARMENIA HAVE ANY MILITARY STRENGTH TO RULE THAT REGION!!! ARMENIA NEEDS NUCLEAR WEAPONS LIKE ISRAEL TO DEFEND ITSELF!
We have a military don’t we? Do you want Armenian men women and children to die? Armenia is next. You grew up there didn’t you? Don’t you want to defend the home and people you grew up with? Instead of telling me to come and fight while you run to come to the US? Shame on you.
Whose fault is that ? Armenia didn’t spend the years building up its military – then it elects pashinyan who is anti Russian and loses Russian support – no surprise what is happening. The diaspora would help, it has been helping, but most of the people there seem ready to give up or run
Interesting remark from you regarding nuclear weapons… I fear Russia’s attack on Ukraine (which gave up their inherited nuclear weapons) will convince many smaller nations that they will need nuclear weapons. Even more if Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons on Ukraine’s soil which I expect.
The box of Pandora has been opened. It will not be closed in our lifetime anymore.
VARTAN!!! I WAS NOT BORN IN ARMENIA AND I DO NOT WANT ARMENIANS TO DIE!!! HOWEVER, OUR IDIOT LEADERS FROM THE FIRST DAY OF ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE ROBBED AND DESTROYED THE COUNTRY FOR 30+ YEARS THROUGH RAMPANT CORRUPTION!!!! PEOPLE FROM 1988 EARTHQUAKE ARE STILL LIVING IN TERRIBLE CONDITIONS!!! THEY RAN ARMENIA INTO THE GROUND AND FORCED EVERYONE TO FLEE ARMENIA TO OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE THEY HAD LAW AND ORDER, JOBS, SAFETY, GREAT ECONOMY, SECURITY, AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE! ARMENIAN LEADERS DID NOT DO ANY OF THAT AND ONLY CARED ABOUT STEALING THE DIASPORA’S BILLIONS AND THE BILLIONS INVESTED BY FOREIGN NATIONS. WHEN ARMENIA DOES THAT FOR 30+ YEARS INSTEAD OF BUILDING UP THE COUNTRY AND ITS MILITARY, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN AZERIS ATTACK ARMENIANS WITH NO DEFENSE? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DEFEND WITH? OLD WEAPONS, LIMITED SOLDIERS, NO DRONES, NOTHING! YOU ARE 1,000% RIGHT: ARMENIANS DID NOT SPEND THE $$$$ OR TIME BUILDING UP ITS MILITARY!! HORRIBLE WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW!!! CHILDREN ARE DYING!!! WORLD DOES NOT CARE!!! THIS IS A STREET FIGHT AND ARMENIANS WILL LOSE AGAIN WHEN AZERIS SUPPORTED BY TURKS! ARMENIA MUST DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Kocharian and Sargysyan were not perfect but they were smart enough to know that they needed to stay aligned with Russia. They should’ve done a better job arming Armenia with modern weapons but they did keep Armenia and Artsakh safe. The stories of their corruption are exaggerated. There is no proof to most of those stories. And people in Armenia were not starving. There was work. But too many people want an easy fanciful life. They thought pashinyan would magically make Armenia a rich European country. But he just turned out to be wolf in lambes clothing – a real Trojan horse. This is really like the fall of Troy part 2. The west has had its eye on Armenia because they have their eye on Iran and they want to undermine Russia. Pashinyan was their tool.
@Vartan. My thoughts exactly.
I think we should withdraw from Artsakh and put all our strength into strengthening Armenia
Important! Armenian government in N-K has aggreed a ceasefire which entails surrender of authority and weapons – the dream is dead! Now give sanctuary to this who don’t wish to accept the Azeri flag over them. Tell Russia it’s peacekeeping mandate as agreed 9 November 2020 which was supposed to exist until 2025 that as Azerbaijan has taken control Russia will have to negotiate with Azerbaijan whether they are to stay until 2025 as it’s now a matter between Baku and Moscow thus if Baku terminates their mandate they are to leave via Azerbaijan as Armenia is no longer party. Call for a session of parliament to discuss whether to continue the alliance with Russia and it’s base. Call for a session of parliament to discuss about security arrangements with other countries. Open a public hearing about national policy and what failings led to the current circumstances. Best wishes in this difficult time Charles
Pashinyan and all Armenians who think like him, must be arrested.
The idea that America will protect Armenia is ridiculous.
99.99% of Americans can’t find Armenia on a map.
Russia and only Russia can protect Armenia but why should any Russian put his life in danger when Armenia treats Russia with such disrespect?
Holding military drills with America was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Armenia must get rid of all pro-Americans, beg Russia to stop the Turks and then behave as a loyal and faithful ally of Russia.
There is no other way.
The Azeris will not stop at Artsakh. Pashinyan needs to be removed asap and we need a capable leader to take charge and re-align with Russia and protect what is left of Armenia. If there is anyone capable available.
The west and their stooge have done their damage.
Vartan, I agree with you completely. All Armenians who didn’t born in Armenia and didn’t live in Armenia, don’t realize in reality what’s going on in Armenia and around. Armenians, wake up, don’t repeat the same mistakes more than 100 years! Nobody from West and Europe helped us during this long period of time. Why you believed traitors LTP and now Pashinyan? Because they are great speakers? Read again History of Armenia and analyze why big Armenia became small? Don’t blame others. Only we are responsible for our acts!Only consolidation and real patriotism, not talk talk “patriotism” of all Armenians can help.
If we are saying that Armenia/Artsakh should have not alienated itself from Russia, then the best thing we could have done was to become part of the soviet union again. If we cannot govern ourselves then we are left with having others do it for us.
Brothers and sisters!
What’s with all the complaints and sadness? We won! We finally got what we wanted in 2018? Come on dear people don’t tell me you didn’t know who you were supporting back in 2018. We all knew who Nikol was back then. Remember his essays about Gharabagh and Russia going back to the early 2000s? Remember his role in trying to bring democracy to Armenia in 2008, hand in hand with our great statesman Levon Ter Petrosyan nonetheless? We knew exactly who our Western oriented and democratic prime minister Nikol was. We knew what our dear leader Nikol wanted. We voted for him not once but twice. Remember? So why are you all complaining now? The man is honest, he did what he said he will do. We the people empowered him to do what he said he will do. We democratically elected our great and glorious leader not once but TWICE for two purposes – free Armenia from the 30-year old problem called Gharabagh and finally free Armenia from those oppressive and utterly undemocratic Russians.
Forget that little troubled region called Gharabagh, it was just a big headache. Gharabagh stopped Armenians from being happy with their wonderful neughbors. Wake up people. The real problem Armenia has is Russia. We need to make friends with Turks and unite with the civilized world (i.e. freedom and democracy loving West) and defeat aggressor Russia. Like a great Armenian historian and Nikol supporter said recently – it’s better to be a Turk’s dog than an agent of Russia. The dear man is correct! Wake up people!
Anyone watching BBC and CNN to see what’s going on in the world? Russia wants to takeover the whole world and stop all people from being westernized and happy. Putler (i.e. Putin+Hitler=Putler) must be stopped – now! Armenia must be liberated from Russia – now! This is the most important thing in the universe – now! Our freedom loving and democratically elected leader Nikol Pashinyan started the process to free Armenia from Russian rule in 2018 with all our help, but the poor man is not done yet. So please stop the silly complaining and protests and just let our duly elected, freedom loving and enlightened Pashinyan finish his sacred work of freeing Armenia of its Gharabagh problem and start valiantly fighting the Russian Bear, side by side with our freedom and democracy loving brothers and sisters in Slava Ukraine!
This is simply not the time to complain and protest. Besides, we won. Remember? We won! We got what we wanted in 2018. We got what we wanted in 2020. We got what we wanted in 2021. Now, just relax and let our wonderful prime minister finish his work. There will be plenty of time afterwards to protest Armenia’s and Gharabagh’s disappearance from the world and feed and shelter Armenian refugees.
I thought I was reading a paid announcement straight from the Azerbaijani-Turkish departments of misinformation. Pashinyan a “great and glorious” leader? That must be the joke of the day. Pashinyan a “freedom loving” leader? How many freedom loving Armenian leaders can you name who send truck loads of help to unrepentant genocidal terrorist Turkey while keeping Artsakh, NOT “Gharabagh”, Armenians hungry and in the dark? Is this the same Pashinyan who tells Artsakh Armenians that Artsakh is Armenia before his humiliation and does a one-eighty and finds Artsakh within enemy artificial boundary afterwards? The same Pashinyan who questions the Armenian claims to Shushi the cultural capital of Artsakh because before its liberation in 1992 it had 93% Azerbaijani inhabitants brushing aside the 1920 joint Azerbaijani-Turkish destruction of Armenian quarters of Shushi and the massacre of 20,000 of its native Armenians and ignoring the town’s occupation for seven decades under USSR? Is that a statement that an “enlightened” leader and a former journalist would make who is supposed to know such historical events and facts? Pashinyan democratically elected? By whom? By a bunch of uninformed, misinformed, deceived and politically ignorant gullible population for whom the most important criteria to vote him in, to lead a country in a state of war for the last thirty years, were “freedom of expression”, increase in “monthly stipends & social security” and “paving the roads”? Not a word about Artsakh not just because it has been inhabited exclusively by indigenous Armenians since time immemorial and an individible part of the Armenian state but also because is extremely important for the security of Armenia! Are those the most important criteria for electing a leader in a state of war? The list goes on!
P.S. What a so-called “Velvet Revolution” is known at any time and in any part of the world that has served the interests of the enemies of the state rather than the interest of the people of that state?