UN sends first mission to Nagorno-Karabakh
- 2 October, 01:05
The United Nations has sent a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, a first in the conflict’s 30 years of conflict. after Azerbaijan fully recaptured the breakaway region last month.
The mission arrived on Sunday to mainly assess the humanitarian situation on the ground, the Azerbaijani presidential spokesman said. The mission, led by a senior UN official, is the organization’s first visit to the region since the conflict between Armenian and Azerbaijan started three decades ago.
The visit comes after’s Azerbaijan’s full recapture of the breakaway region last month in a lightning victory on September 19. The “anti-terrorist” operation launched by Baku enabled Azerbaijan to disarm local Armenian militants in the region. Azerbaijan’s victory was followed by mass exodus of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population. According to estimates of the Armenian authorities, around 100,000 Armenians have left for Armenia. Azerbaijan earlier gave security assurances to the region’s Armenian population and offered Azerbaijani citizenship for those wishing to stay. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said there was no security threat for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh but welcomed “our brothers and sisters” wishing to come to Armenia.
Azerbaijan said the migration service has already started working in Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani) to ensure the Armenian population’s “sustainable reintegration” into the Azerbaijani society.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” – an allegation Baku has strongly rejected.
