Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians
On 19–20 September 2023 Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region which ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and the disbandment of its armed forces. Up until the military assault, the region was internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians.
Date
24 September 2023 – 3 October 2023
(1 week and 2 days)
218 from the Berkadzor fuel depot explosion
70 en route to Armenia
Before the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, the region had an estimated population of 150,000 which decreased in the aftermath of the war.[6] Faced with threats of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan and struggling amid a nine-month long blockade, 100,400 ethnic Armenians, representing 99% of the remaining population of Nagorno-Karabakh,[7][8][9] fled by the end of September 2023, leaving a couple dozen people within the region.[10][2][3]
This mass displacement of people has been described by international experts as a war crime or crime against humanity.[11] 218 civilians died during an explosion at a fuel distribution center, and 70 civilians died en route while fleeing to Armenia.[12][13][14][15] While the Azerbaijani government issued assurances that the Armenian population would be safely reintegrated,[16] these claims were not deemed credible due to Azerbaijan's established track record of authoritarianism and repression of its Armenian population.[17][18][19]
Azerbaijani concentration camp plans
In August 2023, Armenian diplomat Ara Papian reported that Azerbaijan was building a concentration camp intended for 30,000 Armenian males. The newspaper Hraparak reported the same information a month later, citing an anonymous military source. In January 2024, New Lines investigated these reports using Planet Labs satellite imagery and discovered a large and unfinished complex in a remote area of the Aghdam District that had been recently built. Satellite records showed construction of the site had begun in July 2022 and ended in late August or early September 2023. Applying spatial analysis methods, several similarities between the site and known prison structures were identified, and New Lines concluded the facility was likely intended to be a prison. New Lines also speculated the location of the site was chosen for its close proximity to Tigranakert of Artsakh, ruins of a 2,000-year-old Armenian city, as a form of psychological trauma.[133]