THE leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians announced today that annuls the dissolution of the self-proclaimed entity, a dissolution that he himself had previously announced and would start from January 1, 2024.

Azerbaijan and Armenians fought after the collapse of the Soviet Union for control of the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and was inhabited mainly by Armenians. The first war broke out in the early 1990s and the second in 2020, which Baku won.

Last September the Armenians of this enclave suffered a military defeat by Azerbaijan, and were forced to capitulate and the vast majority of the population fled to Armenia.

At the end of September, Samvel Sahramanyan, the leader of the Armenians, by his decree announced the self-dissolution of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the dissolution of all its institutions from January 1, 2024. The decree announced the dissolution of “all government institutions and organizations (. ..) on January 1, 2024” and that, consequently, “the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) ceases to exist”.

However, in a spectacular twist and ten days before this announced self-dissolution, Sakhramanyan, during a meeting with other leaders in Yerevan, stated today that “in the legal field of the Republic of Artsakh (as the Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh), there is no document that provides for the dissolution of governmental institutions».

Regarding the decree signed in late September, Sakhramanian’s office told AFP that it it is a worthless document.

“No document can lead to the dissolution of the Republic established by the will of the people,” the enclave’s Armenian leader’s office said.

In reality, however, Sahramanian no longer has any authority over the enclave’s fate after Azerbaijan’s military victory in September, in which Baku recaptured the entire mountainous region.

In the wake of this September 24-hour military operation, Baku authorities arrested numerous Armenian representatives and 100,000 of the region’s 120,000 residents fled to Armenia.

Since then, Azerbaijan’s authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev visited Khankendi, the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh (Stepanakert in its Armenian name), in mid-October and raised the Azerbaijani flag.