After the reconquest of Azerbaijan: almost 89,000 people fled Nagorno-Karabakh

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Nearly 89,000 people had already arrived in Armenia by Friday morning, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

People are worried and concerned about the future, Kavita Belani, the UNHCR representative in Armenia, told journalists in Geneva via video link from the capital Yerevan. They expected 90,000 refugees, but expectations would have to be adjusted. The UNHCR is also prepared to help 120,000 people.

The manager of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Armenia, Hicham Diab, said many arrivals were too exhausted to report their experiences. They need psychosocial help to cope with the escape. Both organizations appealed to the international community to provide financial support to Armenia in taking in the refugees.

People were forced to leave their homes, government spokesman Naseli Bagdassarjan said in Yerevan. According to official, unverifiable information, 120,000 Karabakh Armenians lived in the region. Authoritarian Azerbaijan retook the region, which has been fought over for decades, in a military offensive last week.

The leadership of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) subsequently capitulated and this week also sealed its self-dissolution on January 1, 2024. The Azerbaijani government and Russia, considered Armenia’s protecting power, had emphasized that there would be no was a reason to flee. However, the Karabakh Armenians fear persecution and violence from Azerbaijan.

In Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused the neighboring country of “ethnic cleansing” during a government meeting on Thursday evening. “The analysis of the situation shows that there will be no Armenian in Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days.” In the past, there were conflicts between Christian Karabakh Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis.

According to the Armenian government, a humanitarian center for the refugees has been set up near Nagorno-Karabakh. The government spokeswoman said the people were being given shelter. Nagorno-Karabakh human rights commissioner Gegam Stepanyan said at least 200 people were killed and around 400 injured in the fighting. The Azerbaijani team also reported losses within its own ranks.

The region has been disputed for decades between the warring ex-Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In the 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies on Azerbaijani territory but is predominantly inhabited by Armenians, was able to break away from Baku in a bloody civil war with the help of Yerevan. Azerbaijan, which is militarily armed thanks to oil and gas revenues, managed to retake large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. A Russian-brokered ceasefire proved fragile.

(SDA)

Source: Blick