YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am) — Armenian opposition figures and Nagorno-Karabakh’s exiled leaders visited a military cemetery in Yerevan on Thursday, September 19 on the first anniversary of an Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and displaced its ethnic Armenian population.
The Armenian government did not organize or attend any ceremonies on the occasion. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not comment on the anniversary as he chaired a weekly meeting of his cabinet in Yerevan.
Azerbaijan launched the offensive in Karabakh on September 19, 2023 nearly three years after a ceasefire deal brokered by Russian halted a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Its troops greatly outnumbered and outgunned Karabakh’s small army that received no military support from Armenia. Also, Russian peacekeepers deployed in Karabakh did not try to prevent or stop the offensive.
After 24-hour hostilities, Karabakh’s leadership agreed to disband the Defense Army in return for Baku stopping the assault and allowing the region’s more than 100,000 remaining residents to flee their homeland. Virtually all of them took refuge in Armenia over the next two weeks.
According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, at least 198 soldiers as well as 25 civilian residents of Karabakh were killed in the brief but fierce fighting. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry acknowledged around 200 combat deaths among its military personnel involved in the operation.
