NGO from Nagorno Karabakh in the streets against the closure of the Minsk Group, the only institution with an international mandate for the conflict with Azerbaijan. A year after the Baku military campaign, Armenian exiles continue to live in precarious conditions in Yerevan or in camps and areas near the border, hoping to return to their homeland.
Yerevan () – Representatives of NGOs from Artsakh, the Nagorno Karabakh region annexed to Azerbaijan, have staged a protest action in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Yerevan, asking the authorities not to submit to Baku’s demand to dissolve the Minsk Group of the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the only institution with an international mandate for the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Artur Grigoryan, one of the representatives of the associations, inspired by the “Tavowš in the name of the Fatherland” movement of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, announced that he had handed over to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ararat Mirzoyan, an appeal signed by members of more than 50 groups that had already presented a similar request to the OSCE president, Ian Borg, deputy prime minister of Malta, at the end of September.
In the document, the “People of Artsakh” recalls the commitments of the Republic of Armenia in the defense of Nagorno Karabakh, in accordance with the norms of national and international law. “Azerbaijan blatantly demands that Armenia sign a joint request for the dissolution of the OSCE group, but the authorities in Yerevan must not submit to this and other impositions of the authorities in Baku, because it would be humiliating and would deprive all Armenians of their rights most important,” Grigoryan said, insisting that “the defense of the interests of the people of Artsakh and the international mechanisms that guarantee them, is one aspect of the more important issue of defending the national interests of Armenia.”
In addition to Bishop Galstanyan, Artsakh Revolutionary Party Chairman Artur Osipyan also expressed his full support, stating that “the Nagorno-Karabakh issue remains open, and the international community has not given a comprehensive definition; Even members of the UN have declared that the status of the independent republic is still to be resolved, it is a task for the entire Armenian world.
The calls of the Armenian citizens, now displaced, from the region that remained under Azerbaijani control were renewed after the first anniversary of the war conquest, on September 20, 2023, which was carried out through a military action of aggression that extended to the use of heavy weapons, artillery and assault aviation. On September 28, the then president of Artsakh, Samvel Šakhramanyan, was forced to dissolve all republican institutions, and as of January 1, 2024, Artsakh officially ceased to exist.
The Armenian people of the occupied region were forced into a biblical exodus of more than 115,000 people to their historic homeland, where they still largely live in precarious conditions, without ever giving up defending their rights, considering the annexation of Artsakh to be illegitimate. Azerbaijan. The Yerevan government has launched a series of programs to help refugee groups with their most urgent needs and their integration into Armenia, with a special section of the Ministry of Social Policy.
Many refugees have found temporary accommodation in the capital and other cities, but a considerable number continue to live in camps and in areas near the border with Azerbaijan, hoping to return to their homeland of Artsakh. One of these areas is the province of Tavowš, from where the leader of the local eparchy, Archbishop Bagrat, has led the great popular protest movement that demands the resignation of Minister Nikol Pašinyan and the entire government, which they judge to be selfish and “traitor”, for having handed over Artsakh to Azerbaijan without resistance. They accuse him of also being willing to give up other territories, without defending the integrity and identity of the Armenian homeland.
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