15 October 2023 will go down in the history of the countries of the South Caucasus. On that day, the bloody epic of "Artsakh" separatism and the so-called "miatsum", which lasted for many decades, came to an end. The Azerbaijani flag was hoisted over the Azerbaijani city that had recently been the separatists' "capital" - Khankendi (Stepanakert in separatist terminology).

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who arrived in Karabakh on 15 October, solemnly raised the Azerbaijani flag in the main square of Khankendi. No traces of separatist symbols remained in Khankendi, and the separatist emblem was replaced by the Azerbaijani emblem on the Khankendi administrative building. Most of the separatist leaders have been arrested and are detained in Baku.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also visited the towns of Adgere and Khojaly, the settlement of Askeran and the Sarsang reservoir in liberated Karabakh, where Azerbaijani flags were also raised. There is not a single corner in Azerbaijani Karabakh where any trace of separatism remains.

Most of the so-called "citizens" of the illegal Khay separatist entity and fighters of illegal armed formations laid down their arms and left the territory of Azerbaijan. However, not everyone was so lucky - several hundred separatist fighters were annihilated by the Azerbaijani army during a one-day war on 19-20 September. The separatist 'Artsakh' simply disappeared from the face of the earth - forever!

But the metastases of the separatist contagion that started in so-called "Artsakh" still remain in the South Caucasus. First of all, there are the separatist regimes in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, which were created on the model of the "Artsakh" separatist project and are supported by the same Hay lobby. So far, the collaborators of the "Artsakh" separatists who killed and expelled Georgians in Abkhazia - the fighters of the Baghramyan Battalion and other separatists - live in the illegally seized houses and apartments of the Georgians they killed and expelled. So far, so-called "festive events" are still being held in Sukhumi on the occasion of so-called "victories" of the separatists over the Georgian army - this was the case on 30 September 2023. But there is not much time left to wait. All separatist projects are clearly "doomed", and the ignominious end of the "Artsakh" separatists confirms it. The Azerbaijani flag over Khankendi shows that there is not much time left to wait for the Georgian flag to be raised over Sukhumi. Perhaps even less than most refugees from Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region hope for.

George Kvinitadze