In its annual report Nations in Transit-2023, the Freedom House human rights organization noted that “a Ukrainian scenario is unfolding in the Caucasus, which receives little attention.”
As “Voice of America” informs, the report refers to the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, “In 2020, the Azerbaijani military recaptured parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of the country controlled by local Armenian forces since they defeated Azerbaijani forces in 1994. After the victory of 2020, the regime of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, continued to implement his territorial ambitions through military means. In 2022, he carried out a large-scale invasion of Armenia. At the beginning of 2023, he further isolated the remaining Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, blocking an important road under the pretext of “environmental protests.”
According to the report, there are many indications that the expansion of Baku’s control over Nagorno-Karabakh and parts of Armenia will similarly erode the freedom and security of the local population.
In its report, Freedom House urges democracies not to ignore this threat: “They must take every possible step to strengthen Armenia’s democracy and ensure the protection of all those living under the rule of Azerbaijan or fleeing its occupation.”
In the report, Armenia, with its index of 3.11, is in the “Transitional Government or Hybrid Regime” group, which includes Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia from the post-Soviet countries, and Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, from Eastern Europe. Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania. In the Eurasian group consisting of all post-Soviet countries (except for the Baltic republics of the EU), Armenia’s points are behind only Ukraine (3.36) and Moldova (3.14). Still, it is ahead of Georgia (3.04).
