Azerbaijan President Pledges To Protect Churches As Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – The president of Azerbaijan has pledged that Christian churches will be protected when his strongly Muslim nation takes over control of areas in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ilham Aliyev spoke as thousands of predominantly Christian Armenians fled several areas in the enclave leaving behind torched homes.

While Armenians left, Russian peacekeepers entered the town of Susha in Nagorno-Karabakh. They are here under a Russian brokered peace deal that ended six weeks of fighting between forces loyal to Azerbaijan and Armenia over the contested enclave.

Shusha, or Sushi in Armenian, was the town where authorities say the Azerbaijani army seriously damaged its famous Armenian Holy Savior Cathedral cathedral.

But Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev now says he will protect Christian churches. His office said he made the promise in a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, Armenians remain fearful here. They are fleeing areas that on Sunday were handed over to Azerbaijan as part of the controversial peace agreement.

Residents in the village of Charektar were among those burning their homes ahead of a handover of this region to Azerbaijan.

VILLAGERS LEAVING

Some villagers told reporters that they did not want to leave anything useful for Azeris. “We will take what we need,” Vagan Dallakyan said as he watched his friend’s house burn. “We will leave the land empty. That’s it.”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of combatants and civilians, have been killed since fighting flared anew in late September.

Nagorno-Karabakh is technically part of Azerbaijan but was controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war over the enclave in the 1990s killed 30,000 people.

The Russian-brokered peace deal is aimed at preventing a broader war in the region. But it will take time before wounds have been healed in this troubled region.

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