Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Karabakh
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday accused Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” in Nagorno-Karabakh but said he stood ready to normalise relations with Baku by the end of the year.
The broadside came ahead of planned EU-mediated talks in Brussels later this month between Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. “We, the international community, have been unable to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan told a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
“Nagorno-Karabakh has been cleansed of Armenians... in a matter of one week,” he went on. “Azerbaijan has clearly and unequivocally demonstrated its decision to render life for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh impossible.”
Tensions remain high between the two Caucasian neighbours. In September Aliyev´s troops recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway enclave in Azerbaijan. Most of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who had been living there fled to Armenia.
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