Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

At the “Armenian Democracy Forum” held on July 1st, we presented the summary of the report “Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh”. After the forced displacement of the Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh, several organizations came together  to prepare this report; 

• Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor
• Democracy Development Foundation
• Freedom House
• International Partnership for Human Rights  
• Law development and Protection Foundation
• “Protection of rights without Borders” NGO
• Truth Hounds

During the forum, Anton Ivchenko, the coordinator of the Democratic Institutions Monitoring and Reporting Department of the HCAV, stated that the purpose of the fact-finding mission was not only to document what happened in all its details, but also to collect people's oral records. 

"Years later, for a person who has been subjected to violence, who has suffered from these actions, it is very important not to be forgotten."

Ivchenko notes, that people returned to Karabakh after the 2020 war, because they had two security points to lean on, "On the one hand, it was the de facto authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh remaining in place, and on the other hand, the presence of Russian peacekeepers on the ground. The Russian peacekeepers will ensure the security, while the authorities will rebuild and reorganize everyday life”.

• After one year of the presence of the Russian peacekeepers, an Azerbaijani military base appeared between the settlements of Hin Shen and Mets Shen, because of which the population of Hin Shen was cut off  from the Lachin Corridor, Stepanakert, RA and remained in the blockade. 

• The situation was similar in the village of Yeghtsahogh, the Azerbaijani armed forces set up bases on the hill and kept the settlement and that part of the Lachin corridor completely under the target.

• Such a situation, where military bases appeared to directly target the settlements, was quite common practice throughout the whole territory of NK. If we closely look at the satellite pictures and compare them with the testimonies of the population and the maps of peacekeepers, we will see that the bases cut that smooth contour quite strongly.

• If before the blockade, the presence of the Russian peacekeepers was ensuring some kind of security during agricultural work, then during the blockade, especially in the summer months, it was evident how the ability of the Russian peacekeepers to ensure security was decreasing. 

• We have many mentions to how individual Russian soldiers were trying to report the superiors about the shalling and to reach an agreement to end the shalling, because it was merely agricultural work, and were receiving a response to leave the territory and order to stop the agricultural work; this sufficiently changed the economic situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ivchenko has also referred to the misinformation spread by Azerbaijan of sending SMS messages to the peaceful population during the September attack. After several moments of  attack, according to the press release of the military department of Azerbaijan through SMS messages, leaflets and loudspeakers, it informed the Armenian population about the actions being carried out and announced about the "humanitarian corridors and reception points created on the road to Lachin and other places for evacuation from the danger zone".  During the fact-finding mission, all respondents noted that they have not received any message and only few mentioned that they recognized someone who  received such a message. We also have no testimony about the humanitarian corridors presented by Azerbaijan. 

In fact, we have isolated settlements and entire territories, such as Martakert, where people tried to escape through the forests to escape the shelling and, unfortunately, some people died on the way. During the military actions, we had blocked settlements in the Lachin Corridor, which supposedly should have been humanitarian corridors.