Christian Armenians Forced To Leave Lands For Azeri Muslims
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Under the Russian orchestrated ceasefire Armenia had to give up its rights to the land with a deep Christian origin that is symbolic in their history. From Wednesday morning the Azerbaijani Muslims have been populating parts of Nagorno Karabakh.
Most of Lachin's Armenian residents fled before the soldiers approached. The takeover of the region was agreed in the ceasefire agreement.
The Azerbaijani army has taken over the third and final region that Armenia must hand over to the neighboring country under the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement. Azerbaijani soldiers hoisted their national flag over an administrative building in the city of Lachin on Tuesday morning, AFP reporters reported. In the past few weeks, Armenia had already handed over the regions of Aghdam and Kalbajar to Azerbaijan.
A column of Azerbaijani military vehicles accompanied by Russian armed forces entered the region at night. Before the arrival of the army, most of the previous Armenian residents had fled the Lachin region, and many took all their belongings with them. Some of the Armenians also set fire to their homes.
An important road runs through the Lachin region, connecting Nagorno Karabakh and the regional capital Stepanakert with Armenia. According to the armistice agreement, this corridor will be secured by around 2,000 Russian soldiers.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev did not wasted opportunity to pursue its propaganda of the dawn of "a new reality" in a televised address. "We drove the enemy out of our country. We restored our territorial integrity. We ended the occupation," he said. But the historic truth is much more complicated than the Baku wants to admit, reminded the independent analysts.
Russian soldiers secure the corridor
After six weeks of heavy fighting over the South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the warring neighboring states of Armenia and Azerbaijan concluded a ceasefire around three weeks ago with the mediation of Russia.
The agreement of November 9th stipulates that both warring parties may keep the areas in which they currently have control - for Armenia this means major territorial losses. Since the agreement there have been protests against the government in the country. According to the agreement, Russian troops are responsible for controlling the ceasefire.