On 19–20 September 2023, Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region which ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and the disbandment of its armed forces.

[23] This policy – sometimes called a "White Genocide"[24][25][26][27][28][29] – aimed at "de-Armenizing" the territory culturally and physically and followed a similar pattern to Azerbaijan's treatment of Armenians in Nakhchivan.

The Karabakh movement for independence was met with a series of pogroms and forced deportations of Armenians across Azerbaijan, leading to the outbreak of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

[43][44] The war resulted in the displacement of approximately 500,000 Azerbaijanis from Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent occupied territories as well as 186,000 from Armenia, and between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan.

[55][56][57] By early September 2023 the blockade had caused supplies to all but run out; there was little medicine or fuel, while bread, a staple in the region, was rationed to one loaf per family per day.

[61] The spokesperson for Charles Michel, President of the European Council, stated their primary goal was the irreversible normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and called for "courageous compromise solutions".

Similarly, Ronald Grigor Suny stated, "Baku is determined to make the Armenians' lives impossible, starve them out, and pressure them to leave.

After the Republic of Artsakh's government agreed to surrender terms, negotiations ensued, leading Azerbaijan to eventually reopen the road to Armenia.

[citation needed] Prior to the Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, there were growing concerns that Azerbaijan, with a long history of Anti-Armenian sentiment, might perpetuate a genocide against the region's Armenians.

Moreover, threats and abusive messages targeting civilians, even instances of reported massacres of Armenians who chose to stay, were rampant on Azerbaijani social media channels.

[17][18][19] Noting this history, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention urged that Artsakhi women and children refuse being separated from men and older boys.

[70] On 24 September, as fears of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and persecution surged, the evacuation of Armenian refugees began through the Lachin corridor, arriving in Syunik, Armenia via the Kornidzor border post.

[85] In separate events on 27 September, Ruben Vardanyan, a former high-level Artsakh government official and a prominent businessman, was apprehended by Azerbaijani forces just as he was poised to enter Armenia,[86] and civilian accounts from the village of Vaghuhas reported that Azerbaijani soldiers had entered the village and, discharging their firearms into the air, demanded the residents flee.

[90] Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said some refugees died in transit due to exhaustion brought about by malnutrition, the lack of medicines and the travel time which took up to 40 hours.

[91] On 19 October, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that "a small number of people remain in their homes, either by choice or because they were unable to leave by themselves."

[11] This characterization is based on the created coercive environment, first through the blockade and subsequently the invasion, leading to the potential genocidal destruction of the Artsakh Armenians' distinct identity.

"[114] The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović visited Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Karabakh region, from 16 to 23 October 2023, and published on 12 January 2024 her observations.

Testimonies provided to the Commissioner by Karabakh Armenians reveal a deep-rooted fear for their lives and future amid armed conflicts, exacerbated by Azerbaijan's control resulting from unresolved past atrocities and ongoing intimidation.

Feeling abandoned by all parties and with no security guarantees, the heightened vulnerability experienced during the blockade, and the unexpected reopening of the Lachin corridor in late September 2023, prompted Karabakh Armenians to believe that leaving the region immediately was the only option available to ensure their survival and future well-being.

[115][116] Accusations of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan have been made by Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia,[117] the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[118] and the French Senate.

[119][120] Azerbaijani officials have denied war crimes accusations including ethnic cleansing and responded by urging Armenians to stay in the region.

[16][121] Sources reported that Azerbaijani authorities had reissued a map renaming a street in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, after one of the main instigators of the Armenian genocide Enver Pasha.

"[113] President of the European Council Charles Michel refrained from characterizing the forced exodus of the Nagorno-Karabakh population as an attempt at ethnic cleansing on 3 October 2023.

[128] However, on 5 October 2023, the European Parliament filed a joint motion for a resolution stating that the flight of Armenians from Karabakh "amounts to ethnic cleansing" and that Azerbaijan's military offensive "represents a gross violation of human rights and international law.

In January 2024, New Lines investigated these reports using Planet Labs satellite imagery and discovered a large and unfinished complex in a remote area of the Aghdam District that had been recently built.

New Lines also speculated the location of the site was chosen for its close proximity to Tigranakert of Artsakh, ruins of a 2,000-year-old Armenian city, as a form of psychological trauma.

[141][142][143] Armenia requested the International Court of Justice to reaffirm its February 2023 ruling ordering Azerbaijan to ensure free passage through the Lachin corridor, and to "refrain from all actions directly or indirectly aimed at displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians from the region".