Ethnic Violence Spreads Across Armenia and Azerbaijan Despite Emergency Rule
Mass expulsions and refugee crisis deepen as tit-for-tat attacks force hundreds of thousands from their homes
Despite two months of emergency rule, ethnic violence continues to spread across Armenia and Azerbaijan, creating a massive refugee crisis that Moscow seems powerless to stop.
What began as a political dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh has evolved into systematic ethnic cleansing, with Armenians fleeing Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis escaping Armenia in one of the largest forced population movements in Soviet history.
The Human Toll
UN officials estimate that over 200,000 people have been displaced since the Sumgait pogrom in February. Refugee camps overflow in both republics, with winter approaching and inadequate supplies of food, medicine, and shelter.
“We left everything behind,” says Anahit Sargsyan, who fled Baku with her three children after their apartment was attacked. “Neighbors we’d known for years suddenly turned against us. We escaped with nothing but our lives.”
Similar stories emerge from Azerbaijanis fleeing Armenia. In the border town of Kazakh, Azerbaijani refugees describe being given hours to leave villages their families had inhabited for generations.
Systematic Campaign
What makes this crisis particularly disturbing is its organized nature. In major cities like Baku and Yerevan, lists of minority residents circulate openly. Factory managers pressure minority workers to resign. Schools segregate or expel minority children.
“This isn’t spontaneous violence - it’s planned ethnic cleansing,” observes Dr. Galina Starovoitova, a Soviet ethnographer and deputy. “Local authorities are either complicit or powerless to stop it.”
The violence follows a grim pattern: threats, beatings, apartment seizures, and finally forced departure. Mixed families face particular persecution, forced to choose sides or flee altogether.
Moscow’s Failure
The Kremlin’s response has been ineffective and often counterproductive. Military units deployed to maintain order frequently stand aside during attacks or arrive too late to prevent violence. Some commanders openly sympathize with local majorities.
“Soviet power exists only on paper here,” admits one Interior Ministry officer privately. “Real authority belongs to national movements and local strongmen.”
The Communist Party, long the arbiter of ethnic relations, has lost credibility with all sides. Party buildings stand empty or converted to nationalist headquarters.
Regional Destabilization
The conflict’s effects ripple across the Caucasus. Georgia watches nervously as its own ethnic minorities grow restive. The North Caucasus sees increased tension between various ethnic groups.
Arms flow into both republics from multiple sources. Former soldiers train village self-defense units that increasingly resemble militias. The ingredients for full-scale war accumulate daily.
No End in Sight
As winter approaches, the humanitarian situation grows desperate. International aid organizations struggle to access affected areas. Both republics prioritize their own refugees while minorities suffer.
The Soviet Union’s carefully constructed system of ethnic management has collapsed entirely in the South Caucasus. What emerges from its ruins may be even more dangerous - two militarized ethnic states prepared for prolonged conflict, with Nagorno-Karabakh as the flashpoint that could ignite wider war.