Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Azerbaijani population of Armenia-occupied Nagorno Karabakh exceeds 75,000, according to preliminary estimates, the leader of the region’s Azerbaijani community has said.

Bayram Safarov said in an interview with the ruling Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party’s (YAP) website that there were problems with calculating the precise number of Azerbaijanis displaced from Nagorno Karabakh.

"Since the Aghdara region has been abolished, the precise number of its residents has not been determined," Safarov said.

"Overall, the process of calculating [Nagorno Karabakh’s] population is very complicated and time-consuming. Just imagine, members of the [Azerbaijani] community are currently settled in essentially all regions of our country. The former residents of Shusha [an historic Azerbaijani town in Nagorno Karabakh] alone reside in 220 residential areas in 59 regions."

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994.

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno Karabakh, backed by Armenia, declared so-called independence in 1991, which has not been recognized by the international community.

Safarov said that the Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh is unlikely to be larger than the Azerbaijani one.

"As you know, a group of intellectuals visited Nagorno Karabakh a while ago. They held various meetings there and also conducted observations. Overall, I think that Armenian sources’ information about the number of Armenians in Karabakh are a far cry from reality. After the conflict erupted, most Armenians left Karabakh. If we don’t take into account the people who were moved there afterwards, the number of Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh is not that large. [This is] because the standard of living there is very low."