By Astghik Bedevian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Armenian opposition figures and Nagorno-Karabakh’s exiled leaders visited a military cemetery in Yerevan on Friday, September 19, on the second 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 any ceremonies on the occasion. Nor did Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan or other government officials make public statements on it.
Instead, Pashinyan posted on his Facebook page an Armenian pop song from the 1980s to show followers his “nice start to the workday.” Later in the day, he attended an awards ceremony held at the presidential palace in Yerevan ahead of Armenia’s independence holiday.
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 assault.
After 24-hour hostilities, Karabakh’s leadership agreed to disband the Defense Army in return for Baku stopping the assault and allowing Karabakh’s more than 100,000 remaining residents to flee the enclave. Virtually all of them took refuge in Armenia over the next two weeks.
