The Forsaken Exodus of 100,000 People
Prof. Arman Tatoyan, former Human Rights Defender (Ombudsperson) of Armenia, walks us through the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh
A few weeks ago, Josh Schlicht, Co-Founder and fellow writer here at The Lookout Report, wrote in his excellent analysis of the shock early-December uprising in Syria: “There are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen”. That old quote of Vladimir Lenin, seemingly ever-more applicable in our current turbulent, fast-moving times, can serve as a point of reflection on the events of yesteryear. Wars, shock-elections results, rapid technological advancements: last year was packed with them. It is hardly incomprehensible then that in these times, some events fall through the cracks, and are either not covered, or too quickly forgotten. At TLR, the coverage of topics such as these is our mission - which we will vigorously continue to pursue in the new year.
On this day, exactly one year ago, in the opening hours of 2024, one topic, great in its importance, was over-looked; the year’s first victim of the exasperating pace life seems to move at in these times. A few strokes on a piece of paper came into effect, heralding a new reality for the denizens of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh in Azerbaijani). After a shock-offensive by Azerbaijani forces in the fall of 2023, the region was captured and the Republic forced to dissolve all its institutions, entering into force on that cold winter morning of January 1st.
Catch up on our recap of Romania’s Presidential Crisis by Mihnea Turcitu
Nestled in a mountainous border-region caught between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the region has been caught in a tug-of-war since the dissolution of the USSR, with major clashes breaking out in the early 90’s and 2020. Internationally recognized by the UN as a part of Azerbaijan, the area has been populated by ethnic Armenians for over 2000 years, who claim it as part of their ancestral lands. With the surrender of the Republic of Artsakh, almost its entire population of ethnic Armenians, more than a 100,000-150,000, fled to Armenia, a minor country of 2,7 million. Today, at least one in every 30 people now living in Armenia is a refugee from Nagorno Karabakh. What consequences does such a huge influx of refugees have on a country’s domestic politics? What happened to those who stayed behind in Artsakh? And what is the current status of the Azerbaijan-Armenia relationship, post-Nagorno Karabakh?
Wanting to know more about this issue, seemingly forgotten, and seeking answers to these questions, TLR has spoken to Prof. Arman Tatoyan, former Ombudsperson of Armenia from 2016-2022, tasked with upholding human rights. Previously Prof. Tatoyan also served as the Deputy Minister of Justice of Armenia, and as advisor to the President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia. In the international arena, Prof. Tatoyan is a permanent international advisor to the Council of Europe, and has been the Deputy Representative of the Government of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights.
Privately, Prof. Tatoyan heads the Foundation, "Tatoyan" Center for Law and Justice and holds a Master of Laws from University of Pennsylvania Law School.
When visiting Yerevan last year, I was struck by the murals of Armenian soldiers that lost their lives during the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. If you were to connect a few words to what the war meant for Armenia and yourself what would they be?
Well the 2020 war, the 44 day war, was of course a very disastrous war. It was a bloody, full large-scale conflict covering the entire line of contact between Artsakh or Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, including also border regions of Armenia. Throughout it, massive destruction of civilian communities of Armenia took place, casualties, beheadings, torture, mutilations. All of these crimes remain unpunished of course. There was a huge flow of hatred and violence. Azeris soldiers were filming tortures, atrocities, publishing them on different social media accounts on purpose, to spread this horror to Armenian society and, of course, to become heroes of their own society. Because, unfortunately, Armenophobia has been the main policy and racism based on ethnic belonging of the Azerbaijani authorities. But the war also was significant for its engagement of jihadists and terrorists, mercenaries, because there were credible evidence, and there is also a report of the UN Special Working Group confirming that on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh, there were mercenaries, terrorists, invited or collected from the northern parts of Syria, from Libya, and elsewhere. They also participated in the war. This is one of the factors that contributed to the very high scale of cruelties in this war. And of course, it resulted in the occupation of a big part of Artsakh and even some part of Armenia, as following the war in subsequent years, Azerbaijan also occupied some territories of Armenia proper.
On the Tatoyan Foundation website, you repeatedly mention the Gekhar Kunik, Vayots, Dezor and Syunik regions. Are those some of the regions that have been subject to posterior incursions by Azeri troops or what is the relevance of these regions today?
Yes, these incursions still happen there and Azerbaijan keeps occupying parts of these lands. We are talking about 200 square kilometers. But this is not just about the territory, the size. They control heights, strategic objects such as hydroelectric power plants, dams, and water reservoirs etc. These are critical objects for the security of Armenia and in these areas, in many places, Azerbaijan also controls roads and they keep targeting them. Roads are vital to Armenia and in 2022, for example, Azerbaijan attacked Armenia from September 13th to 14th, and the first thing they did was hitting a road and targeting an ambulance. They hit this car and they blocked the road which was connecting villages of Armenia with the main part of the community. That is why these occupations also causes huge problems to Armenian society.
In these villages, in these communities, people are deprived of pastures, arable lands, grasslands, water, their gardens, houses, the roads are in danger, freedom of movement. So there is an entire bunch of rights, fundamental rights internationally recognized that are right now being violated.
In your view, what do Azerbaijani armed forces pretend to obtain from controlling these strategic locations and resources. Do they use it as a type of blackmail against the Armenian community?
Yes, we could say so yes, because, for example, in several villages there is no water at all, as Azerbaijan control nearby water sources. There are places where people simply do not even have drinking water.
You served as ombudsman for the Republic of Armenia, in the preceding and succeeding years of the 2020 war, what do you view as the most severe human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan in the past years?
Of course the biggest violation, has to be last year’s events of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity that Azerbaijan commited in Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh. When the Republic of Artsakh was disbanded in September of 2023, 120,000 people subsequently left their territories. Taken together with about 30- to 40,000 people that fled as a result of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, or 44-day war, we are talking about 150,000 people that have left their territories permanently. In Artskah there is also Armenian culture, heritage, churches, monasteries, khachkars, etc. All of them right now are being erased and destroyed by Azerbaijan because they seek to destroy the Armenian identity and want to erase anything that can remind people that “Armenians used to live here”. In reality, these territories are indigenous territories for Armenians and Armenians are the indigenous people. These territories are the indigenous homeland of Armenians. And the people that fled were not just some kind of national minority, it was their homeland. They are indigenous people, living in the homeland of their ancestors, having lived there for centuries. So this would be of course the biggest, most horrible violation, combined with massive, massive, forced deportations.
I believe that one of the most underreported subjects in wake of the dissolution of Artsakh, has been the effects or the consequences for domestic Armenian society, that comes with incorporating all these refugees into a relatively small country. How have you handled this and what consequences has it had for Armenian society?
Well, these people of course, as you rightly said, they all moved to Armenia. They had to move to Armenia. Some of them, however, have already left to other countries. According to some non-official statistics; 15- 20,000 of these refugees have left Armenia. Some of them have gone to Russia some to the US, some to Europe. I think the biggest part of them went to Russia because there is no language barrier, etc. as most Armenians know Russian.
Most of them right now, nonetheless, are in Armenia. And there are certain projects, programs that are being implemented right now by the Armenian government, but these are not fair. There was recently even mass demonstrations of Artsakh Armenians who are here against these government programs.
What are these programs, if I may ask?
These programs are about social assistance for these people, related to monthly payments. There are also some programs related to housing issues etc. But the Armenians from Artsakh, keep saying that the programs are unfair and a violation of the rights of Artsakh Armenians.
How come they feel they are unfair?
Because, for example, when it comes to the newly established housing support program that is implemented by the Armenian government, this is not a special program designed for Artsakh Armenians, but for all Armenians, including Armenians who live in Armenia. And Artsakh Armenians claim that this program does not reflect their needs, special needs, and because they are absolutely deprived of anything. They left everything in Artsakh, in Nagorno-Karabakh, so they claim they should have had a special program just for them, whereas this is for all Armenians. If they want, they can benefit, but it does not reflect their real needs.
Has that had any consequences for Armenian domestic politics? Where does this bloc of Artsakh Armenians find themselves politically or do they not have voting rights on par with regular Armenians?
They don't have voting rights because they had to change their passport. So they have three types of status. We can divide their status into three kind of forms. Three groups based on their status. The first group, are people who hold the passport of Artsakh. They are not citizens of Armenia. The second group are people who accepted Armenian citizenship, applied and received Armenian passports, the passport of the Republic of Armenia. They are full citizens. They have all the rights, including the right to vote. The third group, are people who received refugee status so they applied to UNHCR and they received travel documents and other ID documents certifying that they're refugees.
How has these people been received by regular Armenian citizens? Given that they undoubtedly must have arrived in Armenia, with traumas and other phycological scars?
As these were our people, I mean Armenians, same ethnicity, when it comes to regular Armenians, everyone tried to help. Yes, there were certain areas and cases when people were targeted, Artsakh Armenians, by some Armenians of Armenia, who live here, but in general it was okay. We had problems with the government, with government policies, because the current government refuses to use, for example, the word Artsakh - they call it Nagorno-Karabakh.
That seems like a break with tradition. Why is that?
They have announced, that it is due to some security ruling because they have recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. And Azerbaijan claims that there is no Artsakh in Azerbaijan. That is why they don't use it. In the beginning there was also some hatred, let's say, I would say intolerance, towards Armenians of Artsakh. The main issue is that these people, many of them want to return but unfortunately the Armenian government does not push this agenda forward.
Do you know of any Artsakh Armenians that have stayed behind in Artsakh or Nagorno Karabakh?
Yes, there are 14, as we know, only 14 Armenians, 14, one four, Armenians left….
One four, okay, that little?
Yes, 14 out of 150,000. These people, they remained, and yes, we have no information about them. Recently there was a little snippet of information in the news that one of them died. A civilian, an elderly. But we have no information basically about the status of these people. Nothing.
For this next question I have conflicting prior information. On one hand, I have heard of Azerbaijani official sources saying that Armenians would be free to stay after the takeover. On the other I have heard they would be persecuted. What has the experiences been of the Armenians that had contact with the Azerbaijani authorities? Were there any sort of policy in place, giving them a road to Azerbaijani citizensship?
No of course not. All of these things are just games that Azerbaijani authorities play. Of course, this is not realistic and this is not honest. They are trying to be seen as peace building, as people who want peace, but in reality, Azerbaijan does not want peace and they wanted Artsakh, always wanted Artsakh without Armenians. Because there is a deeply rooted, highly sponsored hatred and racist policy against Armenians. If any Armenians stayed there under Azerbaijani authority, it would have been the same as pushing a Jewish community to live under a Nazi regime. This is the same situation.
In a video for the Tatoyan Foundation, you claim that Armenophobia, this practice you mentioned before, is essentially necessary for the Azeri government to keep itself in power. As a way of creating an exterior enemy that you can galvanize the population around. Could you elaborate on why this is the case?
Yes, because this is the only survival factor for Azerbaijani authorities. Thanks to Armenophobia or due to Armenophobia and racist xenophobic policies against Armenians, they distract the attention of their population from their own problems. Without xenophobia and racism and Armenophobia, what would they do? They would have to speak about reforms, human rights, I don't know, anti-corruption initiatives, etc., many things. So what is their main narrative? The main narrative is anti-Armenianism. That is why they need it for the reproduction of their power, to stay in power, on their posts, etc.
This sounds like bleak prospects for the region going forward. Do you not see any way that you could create a sustainable path to peace in the future of the region? You mentioned briefly before that the current government, as the result of a new policy, has recognized Nagorno Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Could removing the conflict around Artsakh or Nagorno Karabakh be a first step on the road to a sustainable peace?
This is not the way. Because, Azerbaijan after having received a Nagorno Karabakh or Artsakh, without Armenians, they have not calmed down and they continue claiming, already again, that Armenia belongs to Azerbaijan and that Armenia is so-called Western Azerbaijan. So that is why the purpose of Azerbaijan is anti-Armenianism in general and their policies against Armenians in general. That is why, they keep continuing and always bring an endless list of requirements related to this. So Azerbaijan will definitely not stop. These authorities will not stop. You know, it's the same as, imagine what would happen after World War Two, if no one punishes Hitler and his regime, but instead they start praising him. What would happen? This man would never want peace, right? It is like the story of Chamberlain who went to sign the infamous Peace-In-Our-Time document before World War Two. He came home and said: “I signed the peace, everything will be okay”. And then what happened? This is the same.
So you see no viable sustainable way to lasting peace in the Caucasus?
With the current Azerbaijani authorities no. Because it is not possible for them. They need Armenians tortured, dead, ethnically cleansed, to cleanse themselves of their own crimes.