To the tragedy of having to leave their homes, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh added on Monday night the explosion of a fuel tank that cost the lives of at least 68 people and left almost 300 injured. In these facilities, gasoline was distributed to people leaving Karabakh to go to Armenia, a country that has already welcomed at least 28,000 of the 120,000 inhabitants of the separatist region - almost a quarter of its population - after Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive with which he recovered this territory.
The explosion occurred near the enclave's capital, Stepanakert. Dozens of people with their vehicles were at the scene, local deputy Metakse Akopian told the News.am portal, leaving the republic unrecognized after the military defeat.
Among the 290 wounded who have been hospitalized, “dozens of patients are in critical condition,” said the Ministry of Health of the separatist region.
On September 19 and 20, Azerbaijan carried out an offensive to finally recover the territory it lost in the 1990s war against Armenia. The operation, which Baku called “anti-terrorist,” ended when the Karabakh authorities surrendered and agreed to disarm their army. According to the Armenian side, the Azerbaijani military operation caused 200 deaths and more than 400 injuries. Among the dead were at least 10 civilians.
This Wednesday, Azerbaijan admitted for the first time the death of 192 soldiers in the operation. The country's Ministry of Health indicated that another 511 soldiers and one civilian were injured in the lightning bombing.
After the surrender, a process of negotiations began between Stepanakert and the Baku Government for the reintegration of the region into the country. Azerbaijan has promised to ensure the safety of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, and on Monday President Ilham Aliyev assured that their rights would be “guaranteed.” Even so, many have preferred to leave everything and become refugees because they fear “ethnic cleansing,” as denounced by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinián.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Khachatryan, said yesterday Tuesday that since Sunday "19,000 forcibly displaced people have arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh." Last week, Pashinián announced that his country, of 2.9 million inhabitants, is prepared to host 40,000 refugees. The population of the region is 120,000 people.
In Stepanakert, 80 kilometers from the border, crowds of people yesterday loaded their belongings onto buses and trucks to leave for the sister country. The vehicles were loaded with all kinds of belongings, full of plastic bags, sometimes covered with tarps.
Local television images showed hundreds of cars, many of them old Soviet Ladas, on the road leading to the humanitarian center located behind the Armenian border crossing at Kornidzor.
“I left my house to stay alive,” a woman in a green jacket told the AFP agency. “Let the world know that we are now stray dogs!”
In the border town of Goris, Valentina lamented her fate. “Who could have believed that the Turks (the name given in the region to Azerbaijanis) would enter this historic Armenian town?” she said as she held her grandson wrapped up against her body. Her brother-in-law died last week during Azerbaijani shelling.
The exodus of the Karabakhs began on Sunday, when Armenia announced the start of evacuation operations. A first group of refugees was escorted by the Russian peacekeeping forces present in the territory through the Lachin corridor. The corridor, which connects the enclave with Armenia, has been blocked by Azerbaijan for ten months. After the triumph of their offensive and the Karabakh surrender, they allowed it to open for the exit of whoever wants to leave.
The departure of thousands of people coincides with the second round of negotiations between Azerbaijani officials and representatives of Karabakh separatists in the city of Khojali, north of Stepanakert, in Karabakh territory. The first round was held last week in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlax.
A good part of the Karabakhs already assume that the territory will return to Baku's hands three decades later. “No one is coming back, that's all. I think that the issue of an (independent) Karabakh is over,” Anna Agopian, also in Goris, told the Reuters agency.
Historically, the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus has been predominantly populated by Armenians. In 1921 the Soviet power decided to include it within the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic. After the dissolution of the USSR, the latter emerged victorious in the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh and measuring about 4,400 square kilometers, declared itself independent. But it was not officially recognized by any country, including Armenia. So officially it has always been part of Azerbaijan.
In the second war, in 2020, the Baku army recovered two-thirds of the territories lost three decades earlier. With Russian mediation, a ceasefire was achieved and Moscow left a military peacekeeping contingent in the region.
After reaching their destination, some Armenian refugees told international agencies about their experience during the Azerbaijani offensive and bombings. According to Reuters, some saw many dead civilians and one claimed there were trucks full. Others, some with small children, burst into tears as they described a tragic odyssey: fleeing war, sleeping on the floor and hungry.
