Karabakh Armenian woman asks for Azerbaijani passport

A representative of the Armenian population of Karabakh asked for help from an Azerbaijani military expert, a reserve colonel Uzeyir Jafarov. It happened during a live broadcast on YouTube.

According to the woman, who introduced herself as L.I., she was born and raised in Shusha, in October 2020 she and her relatives fled to Khankendi.

"My family and I want to get Azerbaijani passports. Where can we do it in Khankendi?", the woman asked during Jafarov's broadcast on online TV.

The military expert advised her to contact the existing hotline, and emphasized that the anonymity of the callers was guaranteed.

Farhad Mammadov, an expert of the Valdai Discussion Club and director of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan, noted in an interview with a Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent that the Azerbaijani state is fully prepared for the issuing of passports to the Armenian population. "This is a natural and inevitable part of the process of reintegration of the Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijani society. It has been announced at the level of President Ilham Aliyev, and the relevant structures should be ready for this process", he said.

According to the expert, this year, an increase in the number of applications of Karabakh Armenians for Azerbaijani citizenship should be expected. "Especially after the current crisis on the Lachin road, I think it has become clear to everyone, and especially to the Armenian population of Karabakh, that Azerbaijan is not going to wait for a peace treaty with Armenia. It is taking actions to demonstrate to the whole world, and especially to the Armenians of Karabakh, that the territory where they live is the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan", Farhad Mammadov said.

"Azerbaijan shows that it will work actively on the fact that the laws and state structures of the Republic of Azerbaijan will start working in this territory in the shortest possible time. Those illusions and hopes that somehow smoldered in Armenia and the Diaspora, poisoning the minds of the Armenians of Karabakh, are completely baseless. Therefore, from a pragmatic point of view, if people want to continue living on this land, they need to regulate their residence, and first of all, it means to get the citizenship of the Republic of Azerbaijan", the director of the Center for Strategic Studies concluded.