First anniversary of Azerbaijan`s aggression against Artsakh 

ArmInfo.Exactly one year ago, on September 19, 2023, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, after an  almost ten-month total blockade of the Republic of Artsakh, initiated aggression against the Republic fighting for its right to self-determination.

Against the backdrop of the inaction of the entire international  community, left alone with an enemy tens of times larger in numbers,  Artsakh fell on September 20.

As a result of the enemy aggression, hundreds of Artsakh residents  were injured, and more than 200 were reported killed, including  civilians.

Azerbaijan began the violent subjugation of the NKR. In addition,  late in the evening of September 20, it became known that Azerbaijan  deliberately fired at two vehicles of the Russian peacekeeping  contingent, killing 6 people, including the deputy commander of the  RMK. On September 22, the process of abolishing the Artsakh Defense  Army began. During search operations from September 21 to 24, the NKR  Interior Ministry found the bodies of 105 Artsakh residents,  including brutally murdered children and old people.  Artsakh was  completely de-Armenianized, its entire indigenous population of over  120 thousand people was forced to flee to Armenia under the threat of  physical violence.

During the mass exodus, on September 25, an explosion occurred at a  fuel depot near Stepanakert, a tank of gasoline exploded. At the time  of the explosion, there were a large number of people at the scene  who were standing in line for gasoline to leave Artsakh amid the  latest Azerbaijani aggression. According to the Investigative  Committee of Armenia, 218 people were killed in the explosion at the  fuel depot, 215 of whom have been identified. At least 120 people  received injuries of varying severity, mainly burns. At the moment,  according to the investigation, the whereabouts of 21 people are  unknown.

Since the enemy aggression that began in the fall of 2020, which in  September 2023 ended in the complete ethnic cleansing of Artsakh,  over 150 thousand Artsakh residents have become homeless.

Today, memorial events will be held in Yerevan for those who laid  down their lives for the Motherland.