On 27 September 2023, the occupied Georgian city of Sukhumi solemnly "celebrated" the 30th anniversary of its capture by separatist formations. Fleeing their atrocities, the Georgian population fled Sukhumi, often in summer clothes, and many simply froze to death on mountain passes. The exodus of Georgians from Sukhumi - on foot, along mountain paths - was a path of suffering and death.

Now, 30 years later, there is another exodus - separatists from Azerbaijani Karabakh. Among them are likely to be former fighters from the Baghramyan battalion who committed atrocities in Sukhumi, or their relatives and friends. The Hayis are leaving the alien Azerbaijani land in full comfort, in cars, and they are allowed to take whatever they want. There is no comparison with the way Georgians left Sukhumi in the autumn of 1993, and even less with the way Azerbaijanis left Khojaly.

By the middle of the day on 27 September 2023, according to the data of the Nagorno-Karabakh side, about 50.5 thousand people left Karabakh along the Lachin road. Those who had settled illegally in Karabakh during these 30 years are fleeing. But no one is chasing them away. The Azerbaijani authorities are ready to grant citizenship to all Hayyas born in Karabakh. The traffic jam of "Artsakh refugees" that has formed on the Lachin road is a consequence of the separatists' deliberate panic-mongering.

The reason for this is obvious. Separatist leaders try to "disappear" in the crowd of those leaving Karabakh, to slip through and avoid deserved punishment. But not all criminals succeed. On 27 September 2023, the Azerbaijani border guards, while trying to escape from Karabakh, arrested the former separatist "Artsakh State Minister" Ruben Vardanyan, a Russian billionaire of Khayan origin, one of the main ideologists of the separatist "Artsakh", who recently tried to save this project. Ruben Vardanyan also helped the Russian Federation to evade the sanctions imposed on it for its aggression against Ukraine and is therefore wanted by the Ukrainian justice system.

Vardanyan's fate is a warning to all separatists, including those in Georgian-occupied Abkhazia and Samachablo: your time is running out! Separatism as a historical phenomenon is doomed, Russia has "overdone" its policy of supporting separatism, got involved in the war in Ukraine and is suffering defeat after defeat.

Кремль в лице пресс-секретаря Пескова уже открестился от Варданяна, несмотря на все его «заслуги», заявив, что в РФ будут его защищать, лишь если у него сохранилось российское гражданство. А от этого гражданства Варданян сам отказался, чтобы можно было обходит санкции в интересах все того же Кремля. А какие «заслуги» у сепаратистских лидеров в Сухуми и Цхинвали? То, что они «доили» и «пилили» российский бюджет? Их сдадут в первую очередь даже если они сохранят российские паспорта.

No "connections" in Moscow and in the Hay lobby, no stolen millions will help the separatist leaders - just as "proximity to the Kremlin" and billions did not help Vardanyan. They will have to answer for their crimes under Georgian law. So the separatist leaders can now flee. However, those who took part in the genocide of the Georgian population in Abkhazia and are guilty of crimes against humanity cannot escape - there is Interpol and extradition procedures.

Meanwhile, separatists in Sukhumi are in full swing celebrating the "30th anniversary of victory", laying flowers at monuments to their fighters and leaders who have died. But even these monuments on Georgian soil will not remain for long. In liberated Azerbaijani Karabakh, in Agder, Khojavand and Askeran, monuments to terrorists and thugs like Monte Melkonyan and the Nazi executioner Garegin Nzhdeh and monuments to separatist fighters are being demolished. All traces of separatism will be removed and erased from the Azerbaijani lands. Traces of separatism are also being erased from Georgian lands.

Alexandre Chkheidze