YEREVAN, October 2. /TASS/. The UN mission that arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday was too late, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at a meeting with the heads of accredited diplomatic missions and representatives from international organizations.

"As for the UN mission arriving in Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday, Minister Mirzoyan stressed that it was too late. At this point, unfortunately, the only thing the mission will be able to do is register the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh," the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on the parties to the conflict to stop the bloodshed, end hostilities, prevent civilian casualties, and go back to trying to settle the Karabakh issue diplomatically. On September 20, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that an agreement was reached with the participation of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to suspend anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh. On September 21, in the Azerbaijani town of Yevlakh, a first meeting was held between the representatives of Azerbaijan and Karabakh’s Armenian residents in order "to discuss the issues of reintegration."

On September 28, President of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree dissolving the republic effective January 1, 2024. The local ethnic Armenian population has been advised to consider the reintegration proposals being put forward by Baku and decide for themselves whether to remain or to relocate.

According to the Armenian government, 100,520 displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh have entered Armenia. Before the recent conflict, Nagorno-Karabakh had a population of some 120,000 people.