At least 13,000 people from Nagorno-Karabakh have fled to Armenia, Yerevan said on Tuesday, almost a week after Azerbaijan’s lightning-fast and victorious offensive in this secessionist region of the Caucasus populated mainly by Armenians.
A fuel depot in the enclave exploded on Monday evening amid an exodus, killing at least 20 people and wounding 280, separatist authorities said on Tuesday, calling for urgent external help to deal with the disaster.
“Dozens of patients are still in critical condition,” it said in a statement, noting that the injured had been hospitalized in Nagorno-Karabakh with varying degrees of burns.
Twenty people died, thirteen of whom remained unknown. According to the same source, the bodies of the unidentified victims are undergoing forensic analysis.
Arriving by car or bus, thousands of Nagorno-Karabakh residents have already found refuge in Armenia. On Tuesday, the Armenian government said it had taken in more than 13,000 people, while hundreds of vehicles were still on their way to that country, an AFP team noted.
These civilians are fleeing despite renewed promises from Azerbaijan on Monday by its President Ilham Aliev that the rights of Armenians would be “guaranteed” in this enclave captured by its army.
He spoke alongside his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a key player in the region, just days after Azerbaijani soldiers’ victory against troops from the self-proclaimed “republic” of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region populated mostly by Armenians. Annexed to Azerbaijan by Soviet power in 1921.
The European Union will receive in Brussels on Tuesday high-ranking representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics that clashed militarily in Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1994 (30,000 dead) and in autumn 2020 (6,500 dead). According to the Armenian side, the death toll from last week’s lightning invasion stands at 200 dead.
Simon Mordue, principal diplomatic adviser to European Council President Charles Michel, will chair this meeting in Brussels. Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as France and Germany are represented by their national security advisors. The EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Estonian diplomat Toivo Klaar, will also take part.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President will meet on October 5 in Granada, Spain, with the participation of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel. A long-planned meeting that hasn’t been canceled.
The influx of refugees continues
Meanwhile, the influx of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh onto Armenian soil continues, and there are huge traffic jams on the only road connecting the “capital” Stepanakert with Armenia.
Azerbaijan has pledged to allow rebels who give up their weapons to travel to Armenia.
Many fear that Armenians will flee Nagorno-Karabakh en masse as Azerbaijani forces increase their influence.
In addition to the fear that prevails among the region’s approximately 120,000 inhabitants, the humanitarian situation also remains very tense.
White minibuses constantly arrive in front of the Goris Theater in the Syunik region of Armenia. Others travel with loaded luggage towards Yerevan and the country’s major cities.
The influx into the city of around twenty thousand inhabitants, the first step for refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, began on Sunday evening. Behind the Kornidzor post, immediately after the border, those who “have nowhere to go,” like Valentina Asrian, are taken there.
“Who would have thought that the Turks (as Azerbaijanis are commonly called in the region) would invade this historic Armenian village,” laments Valentina, whose brother-in-law was killed in the bombings last week and who is holding her young son in his arms Body wrapped.
Last week, Mr. Pashinian announced that his country of 2.9 million people was preparing to welcome 40,000 refugees.
Russia, which views the Caucasus as its backyard and deployed a peacekeeping force in the area three years ago after a brief Azerbaijani offensive, on Monday firmly rejected criticism from Ms. Pachinian, who accused her of abandoning her ally.