Ethnic Armenians targeted by violence flee Istanbul

• As conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has proliferated in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, anti-Armenia sentiment and demonstrations have targeted the small community of citizens and immigrants of Armenian descent in Istanbul.
• Some in the community have begun relying on underground transportation networks to flee the country, with memories of the early-20th-century genocide of Armenian people in Turkey fueling fears of escalating conflict.
• A close ally of Azerbaijan, Turkey closed its border to Armenia in 1993 in response to Armenia’s administrative incursion into the disputed territory, currently recognized internationally as a part of Azerbaijan.

Read

• “‘They are scared’: Armenians flee Istanbul amid anger over Nagorno-Karabakh” (Middle East Eye | November 2020)
• “War in the Caucasus hits close to home for Turkey’s Armenians” (Eurasianet | October 2020)
• “Turkish ultranationalists storm Armenian neighbourhoods in Istanbul as fighting rages in Nagorno-Karabakh” (France 24 | October 2020)