INFORMATION NOTE ON REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS

INFORMATION NOTE ON REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS,
AS WELL AS ON THE TERRITORIES OF THE PARTIES OCCUPIED AS A RESULT OF MILITARY ACTIONS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH AND ADJACENT DISTRICTS
(Distributed at the United Nations by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia)

2 September 1997
(Unofficial translation)

To His Excellency
Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary-General of the United Nations
New York

Over the past several years, the Government of Azerbaijan has been actively disseminating fabricated and falsified information concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and the consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The information presented by Azerbaijan regarding occupied territories, refugees, and displaced persons does not correspond to reality.

We are convinced that the provision of inaccurate and unreliable information about Nagorno-Karabakh and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to mediators and the international community leads to erroneous decisions and conclusions.

The attached document, prepared on the basis of an impartial analysis and official sources, clarifies a number of issues and thereby contributes to a better understanding of the existing reality, facts, and the overall situation surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

I remain at your disposal to provide any additional information.

Sincerely yours,
Leonard Petrosyan
Acting President
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

17 August 1997

Copies of this letter have been sent to:
– United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
– United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
– International Organization for Migration
– Inter-Parliamentary Union
– Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS
– OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
– Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
– Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE Minsk Group member states on Nagorno-Karabakh

ANNEX

Data on Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Territories Occupied during Military Actions in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

When referring to the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees, and displaced persons in Nagorno-Karabakh, the leadership of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic uses such terms as “Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast” (NKAO), “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” (NKR), and “Nagorno-Karabakh” (NK).

The NKAO includes the territories that fell within the administrative boundaries of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) does not territorially encompass the entirety of Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh in its geographical and historical unity; rather, it includes the territories of the former NKAO and the Shaumyan District. It was on these territories that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) was proclaimed in accordance with the legislation of the USSR in force at the time, in particular Article 3 of the USSR Law “On the Procedure for Resolving Issues Related to the Secession of a Union Republic from the USSR” of 3 April 1990, as well as the Declaration of the Joint Session of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional and Shaumyan District Councils of People’s Deputies, with the participation of deputies of all levels, of 2 September 1991, and the nationwide referendum of 10 December 1991.

It was precisely the population of these territories that elected and formed the governing bodies of the NKR, which are referred to in the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group of March 1992 as “elected and other representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole constitutes a significantly larger territory. It also includes the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh (whose population prior to 1988 was predominantly Armenian), as well as a number of other districts (clearly illustrated on Map No. 1).

REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

In 1918, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh numbered between 300,000 and 330,000. Under normal conditions of regional development, the total Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh should have reached 700,000–800,000 by 1988. However, in 1918–1920, as a result of Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression aimed at the genocide of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, 20 percent of the region’s population perished.

In March 1920 alone, more than 20,000 Armenians were exterminated by Turkish-Azerbaijani forces in the regional capital of Shushi, one of the largest cities of Transcaucasia at that time.

Despite this, at the time of the establishment in 1923 of the Autonomous Oblast of Nagorno-Karabakh (AONK — the designation used until 1936 for the former NKAO), Armenians constituted 95 percent of the population of the autonomy, while Azerbaijanis accounted for only 3 percent.

During 75 years of Soviet-Azerbaijani rule, the absolute number of the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole, as well as in the NKAO, remained at approximately the same level due to discriminatory policies pursued by the authorities, which forced Armenians to emigrate (currently, more than 600,000 Karabakh Armenians reside in Armenia and the CIS countries). As a result, the proportion of Armenians in the NKAO declined to 77 percent, while the absolute number of Azerbaijanis increased severalfold due to mechanical population growth through resettlement from Azerbaijan.

According to the official data of the 1989 census, the population of the NKAO amounted to 189,000 persons, including 145,500 Armenians (76.9 percent) and 40,600 Azerbaijanis (21.5 percent). In the Shaumyan District, as of the same year, more than 17,000 Armenians (approximately 80 percent of the district’s population) and about 3,000 Azerbaijanis resided.

Approximately 23,000 Armenian refugees from Baku, Sumgait, and several other cities were not accounted for during the census. At the time of the census conducted in January 1989, they were in fact residing in the former NKAO but lacked local residence registration; therefore, in accordance with the previous registration stamps in their passports, they were counted as residents of their former places of residence.

Thus, the combined Armenian population of the NKAO and the Shaumyan District amounted to 185,000 persons, the Azerbaijani population to 44,000 persons, while approximately 3,500 persons were Russians, Greeks, Ukrainians, Tatars, and representatives of other nationalities.

The northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, transferred in 1921 by the Russian Bolsheviks to Azerbaijan as part of Nagorno-Karabakh, was not included—like the Shaumyan District—in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast established in 1923 on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (the boundaries of which Moscow had instructed Azerbaijan to define).

The territories of the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Karabakh Armenians lived in compact settlements, were repeatedly redrawn and subsequently incorporated into newly created administrative districts of the Azerbaijan SSR in the 1930s and later periods, with the deliberate aim of artificially transforming the Armenian population in these areas from an overwhelming majority into a minority. These included the Dashkesan, Shamkhor, Kedabek, and Khanlar districts, the latter encompassing the ancient Karabakh city of Gandja (formerly Elisavetpol, and during the Soviet period—Kirovabad).

Nevertheless, until 1988 Armenians continued to constitute an overwhelming majority of the population in the zone of compact Armenian settlement in Northern Nagorno-Karabakh (see Map 1), which encompassed the mountainous and partially foothill areas of the aforementioned districts of the former Azerbaijan SSR.

As of 1988, the Armenian population in these territories was as follows (by district):

– Khanlar District: 14.6 thousand persons
– Dashkesan District: 7.3 thousand persons
– Shamkhor District: 12.4 thousand persons
– Kedabek District: 1.0 thousand persons
– City of Gandja: 48.1 thousand persons

Total: 83.4 thousand persons

Thus, the Armenian population of Northern Nagorno-Karabakh exceeded by more than two times the Azerbaijani population of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (in the city of Gandja alone, there were 7,000 more Armenians than the total number of Azerbaijanis in the former NKAO, or four times more than the number of Azerbaijanis residing in the city of Shushi).

Accordingly, by the end of 1988, the total Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole (the NKAO, the Shaumyan District, and Northern Nagorno-Karabakh) amounted to 268,000 persons.

The Armenian population of the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh was forcibly deported during the period 1988–1991. Deportations began in the autumn of 1988 and were completed after the outbreak of the open armed phase of the conflict. The last Armenian settlements in this zone—Getashen and Martunashen—were depopulated in April–May 1991 during the joint Operation “Ring” conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan and the internal troops of the USSR, during which 24 settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh were completely deported and taken under Azerbaijani control.

At present, the overwhelming majority of refugees from Northern Nagorno-Karabakh reside in Armenia, partially in Russia, and only a small number in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

During the hostilities of the summer–autumn of 1992, the Azerbaijani army fully occupied the Shaumyan District, approximately two thirds of the Mardakert District, and parts of the Martuni, Askeran, and Hadrut districts of the NKR. As a result, 66,000 Armenians became refugees and displaced persons.

After the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh liberated most of the occupied territories (with the exception of the Shaumyan District and parts of the Mardakert and Martuni districts of the NKR), 35,000 refugees returned to the territory of the NKR. However, since their villages were either completely destroyed or remain under Azerbaijani occupation, the majority of these individuals should be classified as displaced persons.

Thus, the total number of Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh amounts to 114,000 persons, including 83,000 from Northern Nagorno-Karabakh and 31,000 predominantly from the Shaumyan and Mardakert districts of the NKR.

At present, the number of internally displaced persons in the NKR is approximately 30,000 persons.

Given the total Armenian population of the NKR in 1991—185,000 persons*—the number of refugees and displaced persons originating directly from the NKR currently stands at 61,000 persons, which constitutes 33 percent of the Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. In other words, one third of the population of the NKR currently consists of refugees or forcibly displaced persons.

Taking into account refugees from the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh (see above), the total number of Armenian refugees and displaced persons throughout Nagorno-Karabakh as a whole reached, as of 1988, 144,000 persons, representing 54 percent of the total Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh (the NKR and Northern Nagorno-Karabakh).

Thus, since 1988, every second Karabakh Armenian who was living in their homeland at that time became a refugee or a displaced person.

Despite the fact that the majority of Armenians who lived in Baku, Sumgait, and a number of other cities and districts of Azerbaijan and became refugees as a result of the conflict** originate from Nagorno-Karabakh, we deliberately confine ourselves to the geographical and demographic framework of Nagorno-Karabakh and do not address this largest category of Armenian refugees, which should be the subject of discussions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The figures presented above clearly demonstrate that, of the two principal parties to the conflict—Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan (data on the Republic of Azerbaijan will be presented below)—the former is in an incomparably more severe situation with regard to refugees and displaced persons. It should also be noted that, unlike Azerbaijan, the NKR receives virtually no assistance for its refugees and displaced persons from international organizations. At the same time, Azerbaijani refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh do receive humanitarian assistance from international organizations. Thus, there is also a de facto discrimination against refugees on the basis of nationality by international organizations.

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH

When referring to the occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, the authorities of the NKR mean the territories of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic occupied by Azerbaijan, which, as noted above, do not encompass the entirety of Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh in its geographical, historical, and ethnic unity, but only the territories of the former NKAO and the Shaumyan District (see above), over which the authority of the NKR leadership fully extended at the outset of the open hostilities.

As a result of hostilities between Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), Azerbaijani forces occupied in 1992—and continue to occupy to this day—approximately 750 square kilometers of NKR territory, which constitutes 15 percent of its total area. This includes the entire Shaumyan District (600 sq. km), as well as parts of the Mardakert and Martuni districts (see Map 2).

AZERBAIJAN

According to propagandistic claims made by the Azerbaijani authorities and official representatives, it is alleged that 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan is currently occupied and that the country purportedly hosts over one million refugees and displaced persons. It is further claimed that this situation arose as a result of the so-called “aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and the seizure by Armenia of both Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent districts.”

It should be noted that none of the UN resolutions adopted in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict contain any reference to “aggression” by Armenia, nor do they include any demands for the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territory of Azerbaijan or Nagorno-Karabakh (see UN Security Council Resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884 of 1993).

THE ISSUE OF OCCUPIED AZERBAIJANI TERRITORIES

According to the maps presented by representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan (see Map 3), the total area of territories allegedly occupied by the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army amounts to 8,780 square kilometers, out of a total area of 86,600 square kilometers of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

A simple arithmetic calculation demonstrates that the territory of the seven districts adjacent to the NKR constitutes only 10 percent of the indicated area. Even if one were to accept—following the official claims of the Azerbaijani leadership—that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic itself is also an “occupied territory,” the total would still amount to not 20 percent, but only 13 percent*.

As noted above, neither UN resolutions nor OSCE documents have ever, at any time, referred to the “occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.” This assertion is a product of deliberate falsification by Azerbaijani propaganda. Since Nagorno-Karabakh cannot, by definition, occupy itself, the territory of the NKR under the control of its own authorities (approximately 4,300 sq. km) cannot, under any circumstances, be regarded as “occupied territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

It should be emphasized that the schematic maps presented by the Azerbaijani side:
first, frequently employ intentionally distorted scales, depicting Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions as larger than they actually are in relation to neighboring areas;
second, draw the line of Karabakh–Azerbaijani military contact significantly farther east than the actual lines of confrontation (see Map 3). This becomes readily apparent when Azerbaijani maps are compared with military and other maps used by the OSCE Minsk Group in its work on Nagorno-Karabakh.

Thus, in light of the above, the territorial figures cited by the Republic of Azerbaijan are inflated.

It is known that during the hostilities the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army fully took control of five districts of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Lachin, Kelbajar, Gubadli, Zangilan, and Jabrayil. The Agdam and Fizuli districts were occupied partially, overall by approximately 30 percent (see Map 2 and the maps of the OSCE Minsk Group).

According to Azerbaijani data****, the area and population of these districts are as follows:

Kelbajar: 1,936 sq. km; 50.6 thousand persons
Lachin: 1,835 sq. km; 59.9 thousand persons
Gubadli: 802 sq. km; 30.3 thousand persons
Jabrayil: 1,050 sq. km; 51.6 thousand persons
Zangilan: 707 sq. km; 33.9 thousand persons
Agdam: 1,094 sq. km; 158 thousand persons
Fizuli: 1,386 sq. km; 100 thousand persons

The total area of the first five districts is 6,330 sq. km.
The combined area of the Agdam and Fizuli districts is 2,480 sq. km, of which 35 percent of Agdam and 25 percent of Fizuli—that is, 383 sq. km and 347 sq. km, respectively—are under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army.

Accordingly, the Azerbaijani figure of 8,780 sq. km of occupied territory is likewise a fabrication.

The total area of the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan under the control of the NKR amounts not to 8,780 sq. km, but to 7,059 sq. km, which constitutes 8 percent of the territory of the former Azerbaijan SSR—two and a half times less than the repeatedly asserted figure of 20 percent, by which the leadership and representatives of Azerbaijan deliberately mislead the international community and world public opinion.

It should be recalled that Azerbaijan, for its part, occupies 15 percent of the territory of the NKR.

REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS IN AZERBAIJAN

During 1988–1989, 168,000 Azerbaijanis left Armenia*****. These 168,000 persons departed Armenia 8–10 months after the pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait and the forced expulsion of more than 350,000 Armenians from the Azerbaijan SSR. The majority of them exchanged or sold their homes, while the remainder received monetary compensation from the Government of Armenia. In contrast, Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan have received no compensation to this day.

During 1991–1992, as a result of military operations, virtually the entire Azerbaijani population of the former NKAO—40.6 thousand persons, or 21.5 percent of its population according to the 1989 census—left the region. It should be noted that Azerbaijan deliberately inflates the number of Azerbaijanis in the former NKAO, claiming “60,000 Azerbaijanis” or “one third of the population of the NKAO.”

The Azerbaijani population of the Shaumyan District remained in their homes in all four Azerbaijani villages located along the northern and eastern perimeter of the district (where the Karabakh–Azerbaijani front line passed in 1991–1992). The Azerbaijani population was also not affected in the territories adjacent to the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, nor in the settlements of Northern Nagorno-Karabakh itself, from which 83,000 Karabakh Armenians were deported in 1988–1991.

Moreover, more than 100,000 Azerbaijani refugees**** were settled in the houses and apartments of Armenians expelled from Northern Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the same Azerbaijani data cited above, the population of the seven districts fully or partially occupied by the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army amounted in 1989 to 483.9 thousand persons. Taking into account that the Agdam and Fizuli districts were only partially occupied, the total number of displaced persons who left these districts amounted to approximately 420,000 persons, of whom 45,000, according to Azerbaijani data, returned to their homes in 1997.

Thus, out of the total population of the seven districts in question, only 37.5 thousand persons are refugees and displaced persons*******.

The total number of Azerbaijani refugees and displaced persons in the Republic of Azerbaijan consists of the aforementioned figure, to which must be added the number of refugees from Armenia (168,000 people who, as noted above, exchanged homes or received compensation and therefore can only loosely be considered refugees) and from Nagorno-Karabakh (40,000 people).

Thus, as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan counts 583,000 refugees and displaced persons, amounting to 7.9 percent of the officially declared population of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Claims of “one million refugees in Azerbaijan” are as much a product of propagandistic falsification as assertions of “20 percent of Azerbaijani territory being occupied.”

It should be recalled that in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, one-third of the population consists of refugees and displaced persons. According to data from the Republic of Armenia, refugees in Armenia make up 12 percent of the population. In addition, 300,000 people in Armenia lost their homes as a result of the 1988 earthquake, while the country continues to remain under blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and by Turkey, a member of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh.

Key Comparative Data (in percentages)

Category	Nagorno-Karabakh Republic	Azerbaijan
Territory under control of opposing side	15% (occupied by Azerbaijan)	8% (under control of the NKR Defense Army)
Refugees and displaced persons (as % of population)	33%	7.9%

Source: Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the NKR.

Information sources: – USSR Population Census, 1989 – Statistics Department of the NKAO Regional Council – Shaumyan District Executive Committee – NKAO Committee on Refugee Affairs

Notes:

Over 350,000 Armenians left Azerbaijan; they now reside in Armenia, Russia, CIS countries, and abroad.
Figures take into account the actual areas occupied by Azerbaijan and the NKR.
Data from the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, disseminated by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia in autumn 1994; population censuses; Azerbaijan SSR – Administrative-Territorial Division, Azgosizdat, Baku, 1979; Azerbaijani newspaper Mukhalifat, April 3, 1996, etc.
According to official data at the beginning of 1988, their number in Armenia was exactly as stated; in Baku, figures of 200,000 or even 250,000 are arbitrarily cited.
Based on the 1989 USSR census, the average Azerbaijani family size in the Azerbaijan SSR was 5.6 persons, while the Armenian family size was 3.85 persons; moreover, due to 70 years of discriminatory policy against Armenians in the Azerbaijan SSR and their gradual expulsion from the republic, many houses in Armenian villages remained vacant, their owners having departed in previous years for Armenia, Russia, and other republics of the former USSR.
Of these, 40,000 moved to Russia, where, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, approximately 1.5 million Azerbaijani citizens are currently residing. 787

Yuri Barsegov “Nagorno-Karabakh in International Law and Global Politics”

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INFORMATION NOTE ON REFUGEES AND DISPLACED PERSONS