More than 100,000 people have fled the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenian government reported.
That means almost the entire population of the ethnic Armenian enclave has left since Azerbaijan captured the region last week.
Azerbaijan has said it wants to reintegrate the area and treat its residents equally, which an Armenian spokesman called a “lie.”
Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, had been ruled by ethnic Armenians for three decades.
This mountainous region of the South Caucasus has had the support of Armenia and also its ally Russia.
At least 200 ethnic Armenians and dozens of Azerbaijani soldiers were killed when the Azerbaijani army swept into the territory last week.
As part of a ceasefire agreement, the separatists agreed to hand over their weapons.
“Hungry”
The leader of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Samvel Shahramanian, said Thursday that it will cease to exist next year.
Shahramanian signed an order dissolving all state institutions effective January 1.
Nazeli Baghdasaryan, spokesperson for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, indicated that the number of refugees who entered the country last week had reached 100,417, out of a population – in Nagorno-Karabakh – that is estimated to reach 120,000 people.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) also stated that 100,000 people had fled and that many of them “are hungry, exhausted and in need of immediate assistance.”
Artak Beglaryan, a former Armenian separatist official, said “the last groups” of Nagorno-Karabakh residents were heading toward Armenia on Saturday.
“There are at most a few hundred people left, most of whom are civil servants, emergency services employees, volunteers and some people with special needs,” he wrote on social media.
Amid the displacement of hundreds of Armenians leaving Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said an Armenian army sniper killed one of its soldiers in Kalbajar, and that its forces were taking “retaliatory measures.”
Armenia immediately denied the accusation.
Kalbayar is located in the northwest of the region, on the border with Armenia.
Azerbaijani forces recovered this area in November 2020.
“Let them become witnesses”
In addition to those killed during last week’s Azerbaijani military operation, at least 170 people were killed on Monday in a massive explosion at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is still unclear what caused the explosion near the main town of Khankendi, known to Armenians as Stepanakert.
The UN says it will send a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend to assess the humanitarian situation, after Azerbaijan said it would allow such a visit.
Armenia’s special missions ambassador, Edmon Marukyan, criticized the timing of the visit, but stressed that it was important for UN officials to see for themselves what ethnic Armenians had been subjected to.
“It is good that they are there and become witnesses that these people were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral land, from the homes where their parents lived, where their ancestors lived, they were totally removed from this territory,” the official told the BBC.
But he called the guarantees offered by Azerbaijan “a lie.”
“It’s total propaganda, another false Azerbaijani propaganda. Nobody will stay in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c727xn4vxn3o, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-09-30 19:50:06
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