Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, Tuesday, September 26, 2023. STEPAN POGHOSYAN / AP
According to a Health Ministry report, Azerbaijani authorities announced on Wednesday, September 27, that 192 of their soldiers and one civilian died in the military operation carried out in Nagorno-Karabakh last week.
In addition, more than 500 soldiers were injured in Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in the separatist Caucasus region, from which tens of thousands of refugees are now fleeing and streaming into Armenia.
For their part, Armenian authorities reported on Wednesday the arrival of 42,500 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, representing a third of the population of this separatist region where Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive last week.
Baku opened the only road linking the enclave with Armenia on Sunday, four days after the separatists’ surrender and a ceasefire agreement that puts Nagorno-Karabakh under Baku’s control.
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Explosion in the tank farm
American diplomacy chief Antony Blinken called on Azerbaijan on Monday to honor its commitments to protect civilians in the province and allow humanitarian access. For his part, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev reiterated the promise that the rights of Armenians in the enclave would be “guaranteed.”
France, for its part, called for “international diplomatic measures” in view of “Russia’s abandonment of Armenia.” Paris assumes that the “massive” exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh is taking place “with the complicity of Russia,” which deployed a peacekeeping force in this breakaway region in 2020.
On Monday evening, a fuel depot exploded in the predominantly Armenian enclave in Stepanakert amid an exodus. The number of victims remained uncertain on Tuesday evening: According to Armenian separatists, at least 68 people were killed, 290 were injured and 105 were missing.