The last peaceful morning in Artsakh dawned two years ago. After a 9-month blockade, on September 19, 2023, at noon, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale offensive in all directions— Martuni, Martakert, Askeran, and Stepanakert.
The Azerbaijani armed forces directly targeted the civilian population, blocked inter-community roads, and destroyed vital infrastructure—creating panic and an ungovernable situation.
To survive, people were forced to walk tens of kilometers, making detours; Azerbaijani servicemen had turned the entire Artsakh into a dead end. There was no fuel, and vehicles could not be operated.
As a result of two days of bloody fighting, according to official data, we had 223 killed, at least 21 civilians among them, including 5 children, 244 wounded, and about 20 missing.
But the catastrophe is not only in these numbers— Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was depopulated. More than 110,000 Artsakh Armenians left their homeland, deprived even of the possibility of visiting the graves of their relatives. This should also be seen in the context of the forced displacements during the 44-day war of 2020; in this case, the number of forcibly displaced persons exceeds 150,000.
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Our commemoration of the day, however, should not be merely emotional. We are obliged to preserve all the evidence proving ethnic cleansing, which is precisely what the Center for Law and Justice “Tatoyan” Foundation is consistently working on.
Facts presented in special reports have shown that the Azerbaijani armed attacks of September 19–20, 2023, against Nagorno-Karabakh had a specifically designed tactic.
First, they cut the connection between defensive positions and communities, so that Armenian soldiers could not warn civilians about the Azerbaijani attacks.
The attacks began on September 19, around 12:30 p.m., also targeting schools. Many people had left on foot since morning to obtain food or meet other vital needs. Many were unable to find their family members, including children.
In addition, the Azerbaijani armed forces immediately destroyed civilian infrastructures and cut off Nagorno-Karabakh’s four regions with their villages—Stepanakert, Martuni, Askeran, and Martakert—from each other. Even rural and forest paths that could have given civilians a chance to escape were blocked.
For the Azerbaijani side, isolating Stepanakert had strategic importance, because this way they created chaos, and the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh had no ability to manage the situation.
According to one fact-finding report, on September 20, a grandfather, together with his sons-in-law, not knowing that Azerbaijani servicemen had established positions near Stepanakert, decided to go to the village of Harav to visit his grandson. As a result of gunfire, the car turned into a “mesh”; the elderly man was killed, and the two sons-in-law were wounded. It should be emphasized that the incident took place in broad daylight, under clear visibility conditions.
Numerous such facts included in the report—including evidence about the captivity and treatment of civilians—destroy Azerbaijan’s thesis that its actions were not directed against the civilian population.
At the root of all this lies Azerbaijan’s state policy of hatred and racism against Armenians on ethnic grounds, a policy that has always existed. The Azerbaijani authorities have never renounced it.
From time to time they try to mask it and appear as peacemakers to mislead the world—but that does not change the real situation. The evidence is in the described actions. Even now, they are advancing their expansionist plans against Armenia.
P.S. Attached is a video from Charektar showing Azerbaijani armed forces firing at civilian houses.
Center for Law and Justice “Tatoyan” Foundation