Armenian police block access to villages in “handed over” area; Azerbaijan Photo: James Kilner/The Telegraph
Vladimir Shahinyan is a proud Armenian, but he says he has been betrayed.
The 37-year-old is one of the losers in a deal encouraged by the US. and the EU for Armenia to hand over control of four border villages to arch-enemy Azerbaijan.
Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia's prime minister, sees the deal as a chance for peace, but Mr Shahinyan sees it as the betrayal it has created personal crisis. As a result of the redrawing of the border, his car repair garage will be moved within Azerbaijan and out of its reach.
“I don’t know what I’ll do when I lose my master class. I have two children that I need to provide for. I feel psychological pressure,” he said as he waited to pass a police checkpoint in this mountainous corner of northeastern Armenia.
Russia’s war in Ukraine is overshadowing flashpoints between Western democracy and Kremlin-inspired autocracy in the South Caucasus. But analysts say the conflicts are critical to strengthening influence in the strategic region connecting Asia and Europe.
Georgians also took to the streets because of the Kremlin-inspired law. Photo: GEORGI ARJEVANIDZE/AFP via Getty Images
In Georgia, balaclava-clad police have charged crowds of demonstrators in recent weeks against a Kremlin-backed law that undermines Western-backed NGOs, and here, in this lush border zone three hours from Yerevan, Armenian officials are ceding land to Kremlin-backed Azerbaijan after several military defeats since 2020.
Armenia's relations with the Kremlin have deteriorated due to Russia's failure to protect it, despite security guarantees in the context of the war with Ukraine.
In September, Azerbaijan completed its seizure of the disputed region Nagorno-Karabakh after Russian peacekeepers were ordered to stand aside minutes before the attack, which some believe was approved by the Kremlin.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was seen laughing and joking with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin days after Russia withdrew 2,000 peacekeeping soldiers from Nagorno-Karabakh because «they are no longer needed.»
Tigran Grigoryan, head of the regional center for democracy and security in Yerevan, said Azerbaijan's military superiority, often financed by oil and gas sales to Europe, the Kremlin's preoccupation with the war in Ukraine and Azerbaijan's importance to Russian trade routes to Iran urged Mr Aliyev to complete capture of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a peace deal imposed by Russia after the 2020 war.
“Azerbaijan is one of the biggest winners of the war in Ukraine, and besides Ukraine, Armenia is one of the biggest losers,” he said .
The demarcation process that Pashinyan is now trying to sell to Armenians would fix a border distorted by conflict and ethnic cleansing on both sides since the late 1980s, but most Armenians said they felt humiliated and did not believe Azerbaijan would keep the deal on its side. giving up the seized territory of Armenia.
Protesters arrested
Last week, police in Yerevan arrested dozens of people protesting against the transfer of land. Levon, an off-duty taxi driver smoking a cigarette on the street of Armenia's capital, rolled his eyes when asked about the deal and explained the deep-seated mistrust.
“You give them this much and then they take this much,” he said, first squeezing his thumb and forefinger together and then spreading his hands.
Armenians hold demonstrations against the transfer of lands to Azerbaijan. Photo: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP
And this remote border zone is currently at the center of Armenian fury.
Here, Mr. Aliyev claims sovereignty over four villages, including part of the village of Kirants, where mechanic Mr. Shahinyan lives. The village will be divided after the border moves more than a mile.
“My house will be right next to the border. I don’t know how my children can live there, because they know that their uncle was killed by Azerbaijanis in the war in 2020,” said Mr. Shahinyan.
The villages were part of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era and bear both Azerbaijani and Armenian names, but have been controlled by Armenia since the 1990s. Most of them were abandoned, although several people living in Kirantsa told The Telegraph they would lose their home and land with the demarcation of the border.
On Friday, several dozen police blocked the road leading to the villages because Before the handover border, the Armenian army cleared mines in nearby fields.
Bagrat Galstanyan, the charismatic local archbishop, campaigned against the transfer of the border and went to see the checkpoint.
“ It's all about geopolitics. Russia is playing dirty games,” he said.
The sight of the tall, black-robed archbishop apparently galvanized the anxious villagers crossing the police blockade, but most still refused to give their names. They all said they were angry and scared.
«They just gave up everything, the next thing that's going to happen is ethnic cleansing,» Artsrun said, gesturing at police and then returning to his battered car. where three small children were eagerly climbing into the back seats.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was seen laughing and joking with Vladimir Putin days before Russia withdrew its troops from Armenia. Photo: ROMAN ISMAILOV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Talks about ethnic cleansing in Armenia are very heated. Millions of Armenians were expelled from Turkey in 1915 and sought refuge in modern-day Armenia, Lebanon and Syria. Many died during the journey, which Armenians call the first genocide of the 20th century.
Nagorno-Karabakh
In September, after Azerbaijan completed its takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh, 100,000 ethnic Armenians also fled Stepanakert, their regional capital. The outcome effectively led to ethnic cleansing of the region.
Mr Aliyev, who has been in power since 2003 and won elections with 93 percent of the vote this year after jailing independent journalists and opposition activists, has become famous for his military victories, including the capture of sovereign Armenian territory overlooking the popular resort town in 2022. .
After the capture of Stepanakert, he was photographed in military uniform and standing on the flag of the Armenian rebels.
Although in the past few years, Armenia has signed arms deals with France and India Mesyatsev and added a defense attaché to its reinforced embassy in the UK , Mr. Grigoryan, an analyst, said that Azerbaijan is militarily dominant and can dictate affairs.
Back to the remote road in northeastern Armenia, this dominance has wreaked havoc among the Armenian villagers who are now facing with the unrest associated with their expulsion.
One exhausted middle-aged villager said she now does not know whether she will be able to return to the village and to In a telephone interview with Kirants, 56-year-old Khanum Tamrazyan said that she they said she would have to give up the house in which she had lived for 25 years.
“This is my land and my home. We have documents confirming that it belongs to me. There’s no way I’m leaving this,” she said. “Our fate is very unclear.”
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