UN returns to Nagorno-Karabakh after 30 years

(Patria) - A United Nations (UN) mission arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh today, Azerbaijani authorities announced, reports AFP.

This is the first time in 30 years that this international organization has gained access to the region.

A spokesperson for the Azerbaijani presidency told AFP that the "UN mission arrived in Karabakh on Sunday morning mainly to assess humanitarian needs".

Armenian separatists, who controlled the region for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government, and reintegrate with Baku after a one-day Azerbaijani offensive last week.

Following this, almost all 120,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh fled the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, causing a refugee crisis.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing".

"This is a direct act of ethnic cleansing that we warned the international community about," Pashinyan said at a government session on September 28, calling for concrete action from the international community.

Baku has rejected accusations of ethnic cleansing and states that it wants to "reintegrate" the ethnic Armenian population of the enclave into Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on ethnic Armenians on September 28 to remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.

France has criticized Azerbaijan for allowing the UN mission access to the region after most of the residents had already fled.

The end of Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist aspirations has dealt a heavy blow to the centuries-old dream of Armenians for reunification, AFP reported.

Armenian Prime Minister's spokesperson Nazeli Bagdasaryan said that 100,483 forcibly displaced persons had arrived in Armenia by Sunday morning, October 1.

She also stated that more than 45,000 refugees are in temporary accommodation.

Following the lightning action by the Azerbaijani army, the two sides signed a ceasefire agreement on September 20.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the last three decades over the region, which had been a majority ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The region initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, aided by the Armenian army, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994.

However, during the 2020 war, Azerbaijan regained parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territories.