Thousands of Karabakh Armenians have fled the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh since the weekend after its fighters capitulated in a lightning military operation by the Azerbaijan army, which has occupied the region. The exodus is reflected in the kilometer-long queues of vehicles trying to obtain fuel and the traffic jams on the mountain road that leads to Armenia. At least 13,550 of them (around 12% of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh) have arrived in the neighboring country as of Tuesday morning, the Government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinián reported on Tuesday.
Authorities in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which Armenians call Artsakh and is home to 120,000 of them, say they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and will leave for Armenia because they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing. The Armenian Government announced on Sunday 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 – which connects the enclave with Armenia – after its reopening by Azerbaijan after more than ten months of blockade.
In the capital of Karabakh, known as Stepanakert to Armenia and Jankendi to Azerbaijan, crowds of people loaded their belongings onto buses and trucks as they left for Armenia. Mass departures marked by confusion, which was aggravated by a gasoline tank explosion that occurred on Monday near the highway that connects the regional capital with the city of Askeran. At least 20 people were killed and another 290 injured.
The refugees who arrived in Armenia have lost hope of seeing a continuity to the separatist project: "No one is going to return, that's all. I think the Karabakh issue is over forever," Anna Agopyan, who arrived in Goris, a border town in Armenia.
Some displaced Armenians reported seeing many dead civilians and one said there were trucks full of them. Others, some with small children, burst into tears as they described a tragic odyssey: fleeing war, sleeping on the floor and with hunger turning their stomachs.
Azerbaijan has claimed it has only attacked Karabakh fighters. "We are going to know much more quickly about the seriousness of these conditions and what these people have suffered to leave Nagorno Karabakh," said the head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power.
Of the more than 13,000 Armenians who were displaced by the recent Azerbaijani military operation, which consisted of a 24-hour bombardment, 11,000 have already been registered as such. The Executive declared that it will provide accommodation to the displaced, many of whom have received shelter in a humanitarian center created in the town of Kornidzor, on the border with Azerbaijan and about 150 kilometers from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Likewise, the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabakh announced that those citizens who were evacuated by the Azerbaijani military operation last week, left homeless and who were sheltered near the facilities of Russian peacekeepers deployed in the territory since autumn 2020 they could be transferred to Armenia if they wished. On Monday night, about 700 people remained there.
The rest of the citizens who wish to leave Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan announces that it will reintegrate the area into its administrative scheme will be able to do so after the transfer of the displaced is completed, said the Information Center of the self-proclaimed republic.
US President Joe Biden offered help addressing humanitarian needs to the Armenian Prime Minister in a letter delivered by Power. "You are aware that, unfortunately, the process of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh continues, it is happening right now and it is a very tragic fact," Pashinián told Power, according to an Armenian government transcript.
Azerbaijan has claimed it has only attacked Karabakh fighters. "We're going to learn much more quickly about the severity of those conditions and what those people have endured to leave Nagorno Karabakh," USAID's Power said.
Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly denied any claims of ethnic cleansing, assured that the rights of Armenians in Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, would be guaranteed. But the exodus continues.
Karabakh Armenian leaders say their administration will remain in place until all those who want to leave what they call Artsakh can do so. They also urged residents to avoid crowding the roads and promised free fuel to anyone who left.
The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, held talks yesterday with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he hinted at the possibility of creating a land corridor between the two countries through Armenia, which opposes the idea.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region is a territory of about 4,400 square kilometers in the South Caucasus internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, although the majority of this area of the country has been governed by the self-proclaimed republic of Artsakh -backed by Armenia-, since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, between 1988 and 1994.
In the lightning attack on September 19, Azerbaijani forces achieved a ceasefire in just one day that includes the disarmament and withdrawal of pro-Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani victory changes the balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a mosaic of ethnicities crossed by oil and gas pipelines in which Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran vie for influence. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia has relied on a security partnership with Russia, while Azerbaijan has moved closer to Turkey, with which it shares linguistic and cultural ties.
Armenia has sought closer ties with the West and blames Russia, which had peacekeepers in the area but is now concerned about the war in Ukraine, for failing to protect Karabakh. Moscow denies blame and has told Pashinyan that he is making a serious mistake by flirting with the United States.
