Within the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, satellite tv for pc imagery reveals a whole bunch of incidents of what seems to be ransacking throughout the town of Khankendi, often known as Stepanakert to Armenians.
The overwhelming majority of particles piles might be seen immediately adjoining to empty residential tower blocks and civilian properties. Town has remained vacant for the reason that mass evacuation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian inhabitants in September 2023.
Mapping the frequency of the particles piles, highlights the sheer scale of what seems to be just like the ransacking of civilian properties throughout all the metropolis.
In September 2023, greater than 100,000 refugees fled Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s army offensive restored the nation’s full management over the area.
Nagorno-Karabakh — regardless of being internationally recognised as a part of Azerbaijan — has lengthy been house to a big ethnic-Armenian inhabitants. For greater than 30 years, it was ruled by a self-declared republic, backed by the Armenian authorities.
The 2 sides, Armenia and Azerbaijan, should now negotiate their phrases for peace, with a vital concern being the proper of return for these displaced.
The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) issued a preliminary order, calling on Azerbaijan to “be sure that individuals who’ve left Nagorno-Karabakh after 19 September 2023 and who want to return, are in a position to take action in a secure, unimpeded, and expeditious method.”
In response to the ICJ, Azerbaijan mentioned that they’ve begun to “put together for the return of those that want to return.”
Given the satellite tv for pc proof of metropolis broad ransacking, Bellingcat contacted the Azerbaijani authorities for remark, however they didn’t reply.
In attempting to ascertain when the a whole bunch of piles of particles appeared throughout the town, we had been unable to confidently determine them in Planet SkySat photographs all through 2024 as a consequence of lower-resolution imagery and constructing occlusion because of the off-nadir angle.
We discovered one video, posted by @armanava1998, an Armenian TikTok account, on August, 25. Filmed by an unidentified man talking in Azerbaijani, the video exhibits a number of males dancing and laughing on a balcony, with quite a few piles of what seem like private belongings, scattered throughout the courtyard beneath.
We had been in a position to geolocate this video to the town centre.
We additionally geolocated a second video, posted on Tiktok by @t.t..313, to the identical location. On this video, a plaque studying: “Qarabag College, pupil hostel,” is clearly seen on the entrance to the courtyard.
This similar location was visited by Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev on September, 20. We geolocated pictures posted on his instagram account and printed in native media.
The Azerbaijani authorities’s plans to renovate the town’s former college had been introduced in July, although there was no point out of extending the works past the campus to different elements of the town.
When requested by Bellingcat for particulars about their college renovation undertaking and every other developments throughout the town, the Azerbaijani authorities didn’t reply.
Renovation or ad-hoc demolition?
PlanetScope imagery exhibits the demolition of buildings near the college campus started someday between Could 2 and Could 9, 2024.
Reviews within the Armenian media, in addition to many residents say, a number of of the buildings had been civilian properties and destroyed with out session.
Former resident and trainer, Susanna Mezhlumyan, 63, says that one of many first buildings to be demolished was her house, a 36-unit house block.
Mezhlumyan, who was featured in a number of articles about being a trainer in Stepanakert, and who featured in a single video as just lately as April 2023, spoke on the cellphone and shared a number of different photographs detailing her house and previous life within the metropolis.
She shared with Bellingcat a photograph taken from a window within the block she mentioned she used to stay in.
Footage uploaded to YouTube in 2021 certainly seems to point out house buildings reverse the facade of the college.
At the moment residing as a refugee in Armenia, Mezhlumyan says her and her neighbours’ properties had been fully demolished with none warning.
Bellingcat requested the Azerbaijani authorities concerning the demolition of buildings highlighted by Mezhlumyan reverse the college however didn’t obtain a response earlier than publication.
Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, after visiting the area final yr following the exodus of its Armenian inhabitants, confused in her report:
“Individuals displaced by the battle have the appropriate to return to their properties or locations of recurring residence below situations of security and dignity.”
Extra analysis by Miguel Ramalho and Logan Williams
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