Armenian activists demand not to transfer villages in Lachin Corridor to Azerbaijan

Today, a group of activists have held a rally in Yerevan demanding not to transfer three settlements in the Lachin Corridor to Azerbaijan. The transfer of land planned for August 25 can be cancelled if the Armenians manage to achieve “the consolidation of the nation” in this matter, the protesters believe.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on August 20, Azerbaijani firefighters accompanied by Russian peacekeepers arrived in the town of Lachin (Armenian name is Berdzor, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”) after two residents of a village in the Lachin Corridor burned their houses before evacuation.

The territories in the Lachin Corridor will be handed over to Azerbaijan on August 25, the head of the Kashatag District of Nagorno-Karabakh reports. Local residents complain that they are given very little time to find new housing and evacuate.

After the 2020 war, more than 200 people lived in the community of Akhavno (Azerbaijani name is Zabukh, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”) and up to 200 people lived in Berdzor (Azerbaijani name is Lachin, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”). On August 5, residents of those communities were told that they were to leave their houses by August 25, as the Lachin Corridor would be handed over to Azerbaijan. Later, the end date for the evacuation was announced by the authorities as August 20.

The President of Azerbaijan has stated that people “illegally settled” in Lachin and the villages of Zabukh and Sous should leave, and Azerbaijani citizens who left those places in the 1990s will settle there. The President of Azerbaijan has also emphasized that the specific date of the evacuation of the residents of the mentioned communities is not important to him.