YEREVAN—Azerbaijan continues to insist that the mass exodus of over 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2023 was voluntary, despite widespread evidence and international concern pointing to forced displacement.
In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan and foreign policy adviser, reiterated Baku’s position: “It was their own decision,” he said, referring to the Armenian population that fled following Azerbaijan’s military takeover of the region. When asked about the possibility of Armenians returning to their homes, Hajiyev responded, “Firstly, we did not expel Armenians from Karabakh. They made the decision to leave. Secondly, Azerbaijan prepared a fairly comprehensive reintegration plan, but it was rejected by the Armenian side.”
The so-called reintegration plan was introduced by the Azerbaijani government in the aftermath of a nine-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and a large-scale military offensive launched on September 19, 2023. By that time, nearly the entire Armenian population of the region had fled, citing security concerns and a lack of guarantees for their rights and safety.
According to the plan, the Aliyev administration pledged to safeguard the rights of Armenians who would accept Azerbaijani citizenship or legal residence status. It included promises to allow the use of the Armenian language, ensure freedom of religion and preserve cultural and religious heritage sites.
However, since the exodus and Azerbaijan’s full control of the territory, numerous reports and independent investigations have documented the widespread destruction of Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. Religious monuments, cemeteries, churches and cultural landmarks have been damaged or demolished, raising serious doubts about Baku’s commitment to preserving the region’s Armenian identity.
Critics argue that Azerbaijan’s narrative of voluntary departure serves to obscure the conditions that led to the Armenian population’s flight, including a prolonged blockade that caused severe shortages of food, medicine and energy and a sudden military assault that left civilians with little choice but to flee to avoid violence or persecution.
International human rights organizations have called for accountability and transparency, warning that the destruction of cultural heritage may constitute a violation of international law. Meanwhile, Armenian officials and diaspora representatives have condemned what they describe as an ongoing campaign to erase centuries of Armenian presence in the region.
In response to recent comments by Hikmet Hajiyev, the speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh, Ashot Danielyan, issued a strongly worded statement condemning what he described as a “cynical attempt to rewrite history and legitimize state-led crimes.”
Danielyan described the statements as “a gross falsification of reality,” asserting that “the people of Artsakh never voluntarily left their millennia-old homeland. They were forced to flee under conditions of siege, deprivation and military aggression.”
He detailed how the nearly year-long blockade—marked by critical shortages of food, medicine and fuel—followed by Azerbaijan’s September 19 military offensive, left residents with a stark choice: leave or face potential annihilation. “This was not reintegration,” Danielyan said. “It was submission without rights, without security and without any guarantees of survival.”
He further condemned what he characterized as Azerbaijan’s continued authoritarian policies, pointing to the detention of 23 Armenian individuals, including Artsakh’s former political and military leadership, who remain imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Danielyan described their prosecution as politically motivated and “conducted under fabricated charges in violation of international legal standards.”
“This is a regime governed by a policy of revenge, not reconciliation,” the statement read, adding that the international community’s silence only enables the continuation of these abuses. “When war crimes go unpunished, they become instruments of policy.”
Danielyan also criticized the destruction of Armenian cultural and religious heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s takeover, asserting that it reflects a broader campaign to erase Armenian presence from the region.
He concluded by emphasizing that the displacement of the Artsakh population has not extinguished their identity or resolve: “Thousands of Armenians from Artsakh now live as refugees—deprived of everything except their memory and dignity. History will be restored through truth, not propaganda. The voice of the people of Artsakh will not be silenced by the lies of Hajiyev or anyone else.”
Attention continues to be drawn to the fate of 23 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) still held in Baku on false allegations—of whom 16 are currently on trial in Azerbaijan’s military court system. According to international legal analysts, these proceedings fail to meet basic international standards of due process.
Moreover, since June 2025, these detainees have been held in complete isolation after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ceased operations in Azerbaijan at the government’s request. The ICRC had been the only organization regularly monitoring their detention conditions and facilitating brief communication with families.
International law, however, offers a potential alternative. According to Siranush Sahakyan, head of the Center for International and Comparative Law, consular visits remain a legally recognized mechanism—even in the absence of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. “A neutral third country accredited in Azerbaijan can be authorized to carry out consular visits on Armenia’s behalf, with mutual consent,” she explained.
Recent reports suggest Switzerland may be willing to offer consular assistance under the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations. Political analyst Gevorg Ghukasyan confirmed that discussions had taken place, but emphasized that the Armenian government must formally request such a mechanism—something he claims has not yet happened.
Meanwhile, the public has limited insight into the conditions or well-being of the 16 prisoners on trial, aside from occasional courtroom footage. These visuals, however, have raised concerns about the detainees’ physical health and mental state.
Sahakyan argues that Azerbaijan is using these trials not only to avoid international accountability but also to legitimize the continued detention of POWs. “The trials serve as a smokescreen,” she said. “Detaining protected persons beyond a reasonable timeframe without due legal justification constitutes a war crime. Azerbaijan is using the legal process as a shield to avoid these accusations.”
The 16 individuals currently on trial fall under two separate legal cases: one involving former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, and another involving seven senior Artsakh officials and eight others who participated in the 2020 and 2023 military conflicts. Several other Armenian POWs have already received sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years.
Sahakyan also highlighted more severe violations: documented cases of execution, torture and enforced disappearance of Armenian POWs—some of which are supported by video evidence. “There are confirmed cases of group executions. Others remain missing after capture, with no information on their fate. This represents another category of serious breach under international humanitarian law.”
The treatment of Armenian prisoners of war and former political and military leaders held in Azerbaijani custody serves as a telling indicator of the broader conditions that would likely prevail for Armenians under Azerbaijani control. Ongoing reports of due process violations, extended isolation, lack of access to international humanitarian mechanisms and credible allegations of mistreatment underscore a systematic disregard for international legal norms and human rights obligations.
These practices are not merely legal anomalies but part of a broader pattern that calls into question the sincerity of Baku’s stated intentions to peacefully reintegrate the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. If individuals afforded the highest levels of visibility and international attention are subjected to such treatment, it raises grave concerns about the safety and rights of ordinary civilians who would have remained in the region.
The current reality, therefore, lends weight to the argument that the Armenian population’s exodus was not voluntary but driven by well-founded fears of persecution. It also reinforces the broader conclusion that, under present circumstances, a safe, dignified and rights-based existence for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijani authority remains unfeasible.
Turks do not know the meaning of the word “truth”.
Question: How do you know when Aliyev and Hajiyev are lying?
Answer: When their lips are moving.
The world is catching on to the fact that the regime in Azerbaijan is full of pathological liars.
The title of Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan and foreign policy adviser, should tell you all you need to know about this scoundrel. He is basically an advisor to a dictator who considers all Armenians, regardless of where they are born and raised, as number one and arch-enemies of the 107-year old artificial republic of Azerbaijan, a gas station disguised as a country. You should have seen the look on his face when after the end of the 2020 joint Turkish-Azerbaijani invasion of Armenian liberated territories when a foreign reporter showed him video clip of a father and son executed in cold-blood in Hadrut when they had already disarmed and were in their full custody. He was also shown the before and after pictures of an Armenian chapel when it was demolished and wiped off the map as if it never existed. He was tongue-tied and looked like a deer caught in headlights. When these people talk about Armenians, rest-assured they are knowingly and deliberately lying because, given the fact that they have established themselves on our ancestral lands, their existence and legitimacy is preconditioned on denigrating, dehumanizing, marginalizing and even eliminating us off the map. We also shattered many of those Turkish myths drilled into their heads since childhood when we handed them their devastating and utmost humiliating defeat in their short and artificial history with our 1994 victory they will not forget in a thousand years!
How can one make peace with these people? This is not a rhetorical question. The fool Pashinyan can delude himself as much as he wants. But really? How on earth can peace be possible with such a genocidal regime, which regards Armenians as the eternal arch-enemy, dehumanizes them, and teaches to hate Armenians from kindergarden onwards and in their 100% state-controlled media?
It is shameful that the world watched as another genocide attempt (driven by Turks)
PS: Politics and greed (on both sides) is changing humans and there writes (look at what’s happenin to Palestine
Apart from the ethnic cleansing of all Armenians from Artsakh, Azerbaijan continues with its destruction of Armenian heritage in Artsakh. It just destroyed a statue of Ivan Aivazovsky, simply because he was Armenian. And this documented state-sanctioned vandalism by Azerbaijan, is just the tip of the iceberg, because many more remain undocumented and shrouded in secrecy, because Artsakh is off-limits to foreigners and even to most Azerbaijani civilians. Only satellite photos scratch the surface of this cultural Armenian Genocide, and the scope is surely much worse, because so many acts of vandalism remain secret. The Armenian (Pashinyan) government’s reaction to this cultural Armenian Genocide, remains shamefully muted. And there are too many idiots in Armenia, whether it is the government or its supporters, who entertain the idea that peace is possible with that genocidal fascist dictatorship called Azerbaijan, when its genocidal mentality has not changed a bit since 1915, just like Turkey’s, which just pretends to play the “good cop” to Azerbaijan’s “bad cop”.
Azerbaijan clearly didn’t have an utmost and humiliating defeat in 1994 that they won’t forget in a thousand years if so they would be good little puppy like Germany and Japan are with the USA. Certainly wouldn’t have been able to successfully reverse their losses a generation later. Besides in a thousand years who knows what the world will be then? Thus whilst it was clearly a defeat exaggerated hyperbole decieves and deludes …
Charles
I don’t know if you are being too native about Azerbaijanis or you somehow missed all that the rest of us witnessed as to what actually took place over the years. I know them up-close like you can never know them. I know their true character and I know how they think, act and react. They are like an open book to me. If you think I’m just saying things like I have some kind of hangup or even an “inferiority complex” for saying those things or displaying a knee-jerk reaction then you are very much mistaken. We were responsible for putting Azerbaijan on the map for the whole world to see with our victory that drew world’s attention to the region. This terrorist artificial petrostate was practically unknown to the world before their devastating and humiliating defeat. They have been crying and begging for a quarter century. They won’t forget our 1994 victory over them for a thousand years because we gave them a cemetery with hundred thousand dead Azerbaijani soldiers buried in there up-to-date. Every time they visit that cemetery they will remember how we shattered all those empty Turkish myths drilled into their heads since childhood that they belong to a “noble” race and are “invincible” like Germans thought they were. You have a birds-eye view of them but I see things you don’t and can’t because, like I said, you don’t know them like I do. Deep down in their psyche they had lost their manhood to us and had to recover and even then they could not and had to hire NATO member Turkey’s terrorist defense ministry and fatherless Syrian ISIS paid-mercenaries to try to recover it for them.
These people have never been able to fight us on their own. When they did they lost. Remember what Turkey’s genocide denier and terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an said referring to Israel’s attack on Gaza and the mass killings of the Palestinians and I quote “We can enter Gaza just like we entered Libya and Karabakh” taking credit for what took place humiliating Aliyev!
Few conflicts are single players no man is an island. The affairs in Ukraine and Israel now are cases in point but that’s the way of the world. Bit like Charles de Gaulle in Paris in 1944 “by the France and for the France. ” Granted Armenia fought the good fight and Azerbaijan which on the face of it had the advantage lost but its all context and degrees . Alas international protocols and lack of support and confidence by Armenia and the destructive tie in with Russia meant a generation later it was lost.
As for Erdogan he is just engaging in hyperbole for the Muslim mob regarding Gaza whist keeping contract in serving as conduit for Azeri oil and gas for Israel which helps support their war machine.