Azerbaijan Demands Citizenship from Armenians Seeking to Return from Armenia, Says Beglaryan

Azerbaijani authorities have imposed conditions on Armenians from Artsakh who wish to return from Armenia. They have demanded that Artsakh residents accept Azerbaijani citizenship and stated that everyone must be checked before crossing. This was reported by Artak Beglaryan, the former Prime Minister of Artsakh.

He noted that on April 4, 27 Artsakh residents were accompanying Russian peacekeepers from Goris to Artsakh as per a prior agreement; however, in a blocked section of the Lachin corridor, the Azerbaijanis stopped the vehicles and did not allow them to continue their journey. Russian peacekeepers engaged in negotiations with the Azerbaijanis for five hours, but these yielded no results.

The Azerbaijanis intimidated individuals in the vehicles, even entering one of the cars and making threats. Conditions for entry into Artsakh were set: “accept Azerbaijani citizenship” and check all individuals. Out of the 27, 23 returned to Goris at night without entering their homeland. As a result of the Azerbaijani intimidation, the health of four women sharply deteriorated, three of whom lost consciousness. The accompanying peacekeepers called for emergency assistance, and those four were transported to the medical center in Stepanakert in Russian and Azerbaijani vehicles. The Azerbaijani side did not allow the peacekeepers to use Artsakh's ambulances and attempted to transfer the patients to a hospital in Shushi under their control. However, the individuals protested and demanded that the patients be taken to Stepanakert,” Beglaryan wrote on his Facebook page.

Beglaryan emphasized that this is another manifestation of Azerbaijan's complete blockade of Artsakh. “Specifically, they are obstructing our citizens’ entry into Artsakh not only while traveling in their own cars, but even accompanied by Russian peacekeepers and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as happened yesterday. Sometimes they create fewer obstacles for exiting, as Aliyev announced on January 10, since their goal is visibly the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians,” the former Prime Minister stated.

According to him, given the state policy of racial/ethnic discrimination and hatred in Azerbaijan and its regular manifestations, the international community must understand the existential threat level to the people of Artsakh under any Azerbaijan control. The ongoing blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, periodic racially motivated crimes, psychological terror, and the failure of the international community to effectively protect the people of Artsakh and to prevent new crimes demand urgent, decisive, and practical actions to ensure the security and rights of the people of Artsakh, including the right to self-determination,” Beglaryan wrote.

It should be noted that yesterday, Russian peacekeepers attempted to transfer 27 citizens from Goris, Armenia, to Artsakh, but Azerbaijani 'eco-activists' blocked the passage of vehicles in a blocked section of the Goris-Stepanakert highway. Due to Azerbaijani intervention, the condition of four of our citizens deteriorated.