Material damage from the loss of Karabakh is not less than 80-100 billion dollars - Kocharyan

YEREVAN, February 17. /ARKA/. Former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan today blamed the current authorities for the loss of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Speaking at a press conference, Kocharyan said that one of the reasons for this was the decision of the Armenian authorities to disregard Russia's interests and change their geopolitical orientation against the background of some Russian failures in Ukraine. 

According to him, Armenia chose the path of joining the European Union, which, he said, is a “weakening vector of foreign policy.” 

Kocharyan also pointed out the damage caused by Azerbaijan's seizure of Artsakh. “In Karabakh alone, material losses amounted, according to the most modest estimates, to between 80 and 100 billion US dollars,” he said. 

On Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing in Artsakh 

On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale aggression against Artsakh using artillery, UAVs and warplanes. On September 28, after negotiations with the Azerbaijani side, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan issued a decree on the dissolution of all institutions from January 1, 2024, and the Republic of Artsakh ceased to exist. 

More than 100,000 residents of Artsakh were forced to leave their homeland and move to Armenia. -0-