Armenian Speaker Blasts Karabakh Residents For Fleeing After Azeri Assault

Azerbaijan launched the offensive in Karabakh on September 19, 2023, nearly three years after a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia 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 leaders 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 to Armenia. They maintain that this was the only way of guaranteeing the physical safety of the Karabakh Armenians.

At least 198 soldiers and 25 civilian residents of Karabakh were killed during the 24-hour hostilities. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry acknowledged roughly 200 combat deaths among its military personnel involved in the operation. Armenian opposition lawmakers emphasized this fact when they strongly condemned Simonyan’s accusations.

“Alen Simonyan is outraged by the fact that the Artsakh Armenians did not stay under the threat of genocide and were not exterminated,” Kristine Vartanyan of the main opposition Hayastan alliance charged on the parliament floor.

“Within hours, the Artsakh Armenians killed at least 203 Azerbaijani soldiers and wounded over 500 others,” she said. “This figure is five times the official average number of Azerbaijani soldiers killed on a daily basis during the 2020 war. This is how they fought.”

Gegham Stepanyan, Karabakh’s exiled human rights ombudsman, also condemned Simonyan’s “hate speech” against the Karabakh Armenians.