- 28,000 Armenians have left Karabakh
- Roads choked out of the enclave
- Death toll from fuel depot fire rises
- US urges Azerbaijan to allow in observers and aid
- Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years.
- Azerbaijan gained back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed to flee the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia after a lightning military operation by Azerbaijan that has recast the contours of the post-Soviet South Caucasus.
So far more than 28,000 of the 120,000 Armenians of Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, have crossed in the border into Armenia, a country of about 2.8 million.
A military victory by Azerbaijan over the enclave, which was previously beyond Baku’s control, a week ago has triggered one of the biggest movements of people in the South Caucasus since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The hairpin mountain road snaking out of Karabakh towards Armenia was choked with people. Many slept in cars or searched for firewood to warm themselves by the side of the road.
Azerbaijan’s 24-hour offensive in Karabakh came amid a blockade imposed on the enclave last December. It is not clear exactly what happened before the Karabakh leadership agreed to a ceasefire. Azerbaijan says civilians were not harmed.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years, with Azerbaijan gaining back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.
The Armenians of Karabakh told the news agency that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and feared ethnic cleansing at the hands of Azerbaijan, which has repeatedly dismissed such claims as nonsense.
As thousands rushed to leave, there was a major explosion at a fuel depot in the Askeran district of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, according to the local authorities. It was unclear what caused it. There were conflicting details about the toll of the blast but the ethnic Armenian authorities said at least 68 had been killed, 105 were missing and nearly 300 were injured. The badly injured were evacuated by helicopter to Armenia as the roads were so jammed with traffic that a journey of just 77 km (48 miles) to the border was taking at least 30 hours.
The United States, home to the second largest Armenian diaspora in the world after Russia, sent senior officials to Armenia to show their support.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Azerbaijan’s Aliyev on Tuesday “to emphasize the need for Azerbaijan to refrain from further hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh and provide unhindered humanitarian access,” State Spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Aliyev told Blinken “Those military facilities only had been targeted during the anti-terror measures, which lasted less than 24 hours, and civilians had not been harmed,” according to a statement by Azerbaijan’s presidential office.
(With inputs from agencies)
