September 27 marks 3rd anniversary of Second Karabakh War

PanARMENIAN.Net - September 27 marks the third anniversary of the beginning of the Second Karabakh War – the 44-day war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the fall of 2020.

The anniversary comes amid the mass evacuation of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan launched another offensive and forced the authorities of Karabakh to accept a ceasefire on Baku’s terms.

In the wee hours of September 27, 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched large-scale hostilities along the entire line of contact and targeted peaceful settlements and civilian infrastructure immediately.

Throughout the six-week war, at least 4000 Armenians, including 88 civilians, were killed, according to official data, and more than ten thousand others were wounded. Nearly 90,000 citizens of Artsakh were displaced, lost their homes and property as a result of the Azerbaijani aggression.

After three unsuccessful attempts at establishing a ceasefire – all of them sabotaged by Azerbaijan – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev signed a trilateral statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. The President of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, also agreed to end the hostilities. Under the deal, the Armenian side returned all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Nagorno-Karabakh proper in hostilities.

Immediately after the ceasefire was declared, approximately 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as throughout Karabakh proper, for a mandate of at least five years. The warring sides kept control of areas they held within Nagorno-Karabakh at the time of the ceasefire, as well as agreed to open regional communications.

The parties later agreed to release the prisoners of war and civilian captives based on the "all for all" principle, but despite calls for the immediate repatriation by dozens of EU countries and international organizations, Azerbaijan prosecuted and tortured the Armenian PoWs and imprisoned dozens of them.

Since the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan has been constantly violating the ceasefire both with Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. As a result of numerous large-scale attaches, dozens of kilometers from the sovereign territory of Armenia have been occupied since May 2021.