After Surrender in Nagorno-Karabakh, Leaders Discuss Armenians’ Fate

One day after Azerbaijan used force to assert its authority over a mountainous breakaway region in the South Caucasus, its officials met with representatives of the pro-Armenian enclave on Thursday to discuss the future of the residents there under new rule.

Escorted by Russian peacekeepers, a delegation of the government from the enclave, Nagorno-Karabakh, met in Azerbaijan with representatives of the Azerbaijani government.

The meeting, which took place in the town of Yevlakh, was described by the Azerbaijani presidential administration as having been held in a “constructive and positive atmosphere,” but did not produce any immediate results.

Azerbaijan’s brisk military recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh — a strategic slice of land slightly bigger than Rhode Island that is internationally considered to be part of Azerbaijan — could further alter power dynamics in the combustible region where the interests of Russia, Turkey and Western states collide.

Azerbaijan’s victory also posed a humanitarian challenge for tens of thousands of Armenians living there. Citing multiple historic grievances, many Armenians have been adamantly opposed to coming under Azerbaijani rule.

And while Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, an address on Wednesday, promised to create “a paradise” for Armenians in Karabakh and claimed they could “finally breathe a sigh of relief,” few in Nagorno-Karabakh were persuaded. They instead heard a message coming from the leader of a nation many Armenians see as bent on destroying them.

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