State Dept: Washington does not have clear assessment of whether what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh was immigration or ethnic cleansing
ArmInfo.Until the completion of an independent investigation, Washington does not have a clear assessment of whether what happened in Nagorno-Karabakh was immigration or ethnic cleansing. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien told RFE/RL's Armenian Service.
"We have stated that we will conduct an independent investigation into what happened in September 2023 (in Nagorno-Karabakh, ed. note), as well as beyond. We are currently busy with this. Responsible international organizations have access to these places and can provide us with the necessary information," the official added. He called on Yerevan and Baku to answer the question themselves about whether there is a need to dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group. O'Brien assured that neither side has asked the United States for guarantees.
"What role we can or cannot play is up to both sides to decide. We are not claiming to be a superpower in the region. We are here to support the legitimate desire of the peoples of the region to conclude a long-term peace agreement. At this stage, the parties are talking to each other quite well directly," the American official concluded.
On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan, under the pretext of an "anti-terrorist operation," undertook another act of aggression against Artsakh. As a result of enemy aggression, hundreds of Artsakh residents were injured, and more than 200 deaths were reported, including civilians. On September 20, Artsakh fell. Azerbaijan began the forcible subjugation of the NKR. In addition, on September 20, late in the evening it became known that Azerbaijan had deliberately shot two vehicles of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, killing 6 people, including the deputy commander of the RPC. On September 22, the process of abolishing the Artsakh Defense Army began. During search operations from September 21 to 24, the NKR Ministry of Internal Affairs discovered the bodies of 105 Artsakh residents, including brutally murdered children and elderly people. Today Artsakh is completely de-Armenized; its entire indigenous population, over 100 thousand people, was forced to flee to Armenia under the threat of physical violence. On September 25, near Stepanakert, an explosion occurred at a fuel warehouse, and a tank with gasoline exploded. At the time of the explosion, there were a large number of people on site who were queuing for gasoline to leave Artsakh amid the latest Azerbaijani aggression. According to the Investigative Committee of Armenia218 people were killed from an explosion at a fuel warehouse, 215 of them were identified. At least 120 people received injuries of varying severity, mainly in the form of burns. At the moment, according to the investigation, the whereabouts of 21 people are unknown. Since the enemy aggression that began in the fall of 2020, which ended in September of this year with the complete ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, over 150 thousand Artsakh residents have become homeless.