Yerevan, Sept. 29, (dpa/GNA) – Some 85,000 people have sought refuge in Armenia following Azerbaijan’s seizure of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus.
Government spokeswoman Nazeli Baghdasaryan said in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Friday that these are people who had been forced to leave their homes.
According to official but unverifiable information, 120,000 Karabakh Armenians previously lived in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan, which is ruled by an authoritarian regime, took complete control of the region, which has been contested for decades, in a military offensive last week.
The unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, which governed Nagorno-Karabakh, subsequently capitulated and this week also announced that it would cease to exist from January 1, 2024.
The Azerbaijani government and Russia – which is considered Armenia’s protecting power – had both declared that there was no reason for people to flee. However, the Karabakh Armenians fear persecution and violence from the Azerbaijani side.
There is an added religious dimension as the Armenians are Orthodox Christians, while Azerbaijan is Muslim.
At a government meeting on Thursday evening in Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused the neighbouring country of “ethnic cleansing.”
“The analysis of the situation shows that in the coming days there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
According to Armenian government sources, a humanitarian centre for the refugees has been set up near Nagorno-Karabakh, and people were being given shelter there.
The human rights commissioner of Nagorno-Karabakh, Gegham Stepanyan, had said that at least 200 people had been killed and about 400 injured in the fighting. The Azerbaijani side has also reported casualties in its own ranks.
The region has been disputed for decades between the hostile former Soviet republics. In the 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies on Azerbaijani territory but is mostly inhabited by Armenians, was able to break away from Baku in a bloody civil war with the help of Yerevan.
In 2020, Azerbaijan, with a much-expanded military from oil and gas revenues, managed to recapture large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. A ceasefire brokered by Russia proved fragile.
GNA