Azerbaijan did not provide security guarantees to the people of Artsakh – Samvel Shahramyanan

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YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. Former Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan in response to journalists' questions about the negotiations he held with the Azerbaijani side on the eve of the ethical cleansing in Artsakh in September 2023, said that no one could have predicted that the outcome would be exactly like that.br/pp

The people of Artsakh did not want to leave their homes, their places of residence until the last second, and we also negotiated with the Azerbaijani side to keep the situation stable and start negotiations on the future of Artsakh and its people. However, we did not receive appropriate guarantees from Azerbaijan that the people of Artsakh could continue to live there safely, he said./pp

In response to a question about how he managed to fly to Armenia by helicopter, while other members of the military-political leadership of Artsakh did not, Shahramanyan said that he couldn’t comment on decisions made in Azerbaijan./pp “The decisions to detain and capture these people were made by the Azerbaijanis, I don’t know why a similar decision was not made about me, we will get an answer to this in time,” he told journalists at the Yerablur military pantheon, which he visited in connection with the fourth anniversary of the start of the 44-day war in Artsakh./pp

About ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijan in Artsakh/pp

On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale aggression against Artsakh using artillery, UAVs and combat aircraft. On September 28, following negotiations with the Azerbaijani side, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan issued a decree that all state institutions of the republic would be dissolved and that the Republic of Artsakh would cease to exist from January 1, 2024./pp

Residents of Artsakh were forced to leave their homeland and moved to Armenia. According to the Armenian government, more than 115 thousand Artsakh residents have been registered. To assist them, the Armenian government is implementing a number of programs./pp

Azerbaijan officially confirms that it is holding only 33 Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, but Armenian human rights activists claim that there are another 80 Armenian prisoners./pp

The following are under arrest in Azerbaijan: former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, former presidents Bako Sahakyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, former Speaker of the Parliament David Ishkhanyan, former Foreign Minister David Babayan, former Deputy Commander of the Artsakh Defense Army David Manukyan. Among those arrested are former President Arayik Harutyunyan and former Commander of the Defense Army Levon Mnatsakanyan. -0-/pp nbsp;/pp nbsp;/p