2023-09-24 13:33:07
Update
September 24, 2023
15:33
The first refugees from Nagorno Karabakh arrived in Armenia this Sunday, after Azerbaijan scored a lightning victory in the region.
A first group of refugees fleeing Nagorno Karabakh entered Armenia on Sunday, an AFP team noted at the border withc this region mainly populated by Armenians, where Azerbaijan won a lightning military victory this week.
“T he 120,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh will leave for Armenia because they do not want to live within Azerbaijan and fear being victims of ethnic cleansing“, the leadership of the separatist enclave told Archyde.com on Sunday.
The Armenian Prime Minister declared for his part that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh would probably leave the territory and that his country was ready to welcome them, after the defeat suffered by the Azerbaijan enclave in this conflict which dates back to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev planned to meet in Spain on October 5 in Granada with the participation of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel, the Armenian Security Council said in a statement.
A few dozen inhabitants of this territory, mainly women, children and the elderly, arrived at the reception center set up by the Armenian government in Kornidzor. Some refugees told AFP they came from the border village of Eghtsahogh, while others said they had traveled longer distances in this mountainous area of the Caucasus.
Azerbaijani forces continued their operations on Sunday aimed at reestablishing full control over Nagorno Karabakh.
Military operation
Azerbaijani forces continued their operations on Sunday aimed at reestablish their total control over Nagorno Karabakh, after their offensive which raises concerns about the fate of the 120,000 people living in this region.
Armenian authorities in Nagorno Karabakh announced on Sunday that civilians left without housing because of the latest violence would be transferred to Armenia with the help of Russian peacekeeperspresent on site since the previous war, in 2020.
A man interviewed by AFP said he part of the separatist resistance until the assault by Azerbaijan forced the rebels on Wednesday to capitulate. “Our families were in the shelters. We were in the army but yesterday we had to put down our rifles. So we left,” said this villager in his thirties who was waiting with others to be registered. in the humanitarian center located in Kornidzor.
Azerbaijan is committed to allow rebel fighters who surrender their weapons to leave the area towards Armenia. Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that it would organize bus convoys for veterans, adding that some could also leave by car.
Separatists and Baku officials held a first round of talks on Thursday with a view to the “reintegration” of Nagorno Karabakh.
This enclave, which had been attached in 1921 by the Soviet power to Azerbaijani territory, had in the past been the scene of two wars between the former republics of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia: one from 1988 to 1994 (30,000 dead) and the other in the fall of 2020 (6,500 dead).
The Azerbaijani military operation, which ended within 24 hours on Wednesday, at least 200 dead and 400 injured, according to Armenian separatists.
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