Thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkery’s President Erdogan visits Azerbaijan
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The Armenian government said 6,500 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of Monday evening. Moscow said Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh were assisting the evacuation.
Several dozen people were injured on Monday night at a petrol station just outside the breakaway region’s capital, Stepanakert, where a fuel tank exploded. Dozens of people were lining up at the petrol station at the time to fuel their cars to move to Armenia.
It was not immediately clear if there were any deaths. Armenian Health Ministry spokeswoman Angelina Isakhanyan did not have exact figures but said there were “several dozens of wounded, with burns of different (degrees).”
First refugees arrive in Armenia after Azerbaijan’s military offensive
First refugees arrive in Armenia after Azerbaijan’s military offensive
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that two of its soldiers were killed a day earlier when a military truck hit a landmine. It did not name the area where the explosion occurred.
In an address to the nation on Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government was working with international partners to protect the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“If these efforts do not produce concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh in the Republic of Armenia with every care,” he said.
Protesters demanding Pashinyan’s resignation over what they call his failure to protect Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh continued blocking the Armenian capital’s main avenues on Monday, clashing occasionally with police.
Russian peacekeepers have been in the region since 2020, when a Russian-brokered armistice ended a six-week war between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
![Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh eat upon arrival in Armenia’s Kornidzor, Syunik region, Armenia on Monday. Photo: AP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2023/09/26/63edddd7-bba1-427c-bd59-61fb64a90ddd_0c42f09f.jpg)
Pashinyan and many others in Armenia accused the peacekeepers of failing to prevent the hostilities and protect the Armenian population. Moscow rejected the accusations, arguing that its forces had no legal grounds to intervene, particularly after Pashinyan’s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
“We are categorically against attempts to put the blame on the Russian side, especially the Russian peacekeepers, who have shown a true heroism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
He demurred when asked whether the Russian peacekeepers would remain in the region, saying that “no one can really say anything for now.”
Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During the war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.
In December, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, alleging that the Armenian government was using the road for mineral extraction and illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces.
What to know about the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
What to know about the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenia charged that the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh’s around 120,000 people. Azerbaijan rejected the accusation, arguing the region could receive supplies through the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam – a solution long resisted by Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, who called it a strategy for Azerbaijan to gain control of the region.
France, which has a big Armenian diaspora, has for decades played a mediating role in Nagorno-Karabakh. A few hundred people rallied outside the French Foreign Ministry over the weekend, demanding sanctions against Azerbaijan and accusing Paris of not doing enough to protect Armenian interests in the region.
![Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan, Armenia on Sunday. Photo: Armenian Government Press Service / EPA-EFE](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2023/09/26/e6ae5b22-51a1-4cc1-b1e7-9e6b3995a9a2_96a498ca.jpg)
Erdogan and Aliyev signed a deal for a gas pipeline and the Turkish leader said: “I’m very pleased to be with all of you as we connect Nakhchivan with the Turkish world.”
Asked about Erdogan’s visit, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, voiced hope that it will “contribute to the regional security and help normalise life in Karabakh.”
Aliyev, at a news conference with Erdogan, said “It is crystal clear that, independent of their ethnicity, the people living in the Karabakh region are Azerbaijani people so their safety and security is ensured by the Azerbaijani state.”
Azerbaijan seizes arms from Nagorno-Karabakh rebels
Azerbaijan seizes arms from Nagorno-Karabakh rebels
Meanwhile, the head of the US Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, visited Armenia on Monday to “affirm US support for Armenia’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and democracy and to help address humanitarian needs stemming from the recent violence in Nagorno-Karabakh,” her office said in a statement. She was joined by Yuri Kim, US State Department acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs.
“The United States is deeply concerned about reports on the humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls for unimpeded access for international humanitarian organisations and commercial traffic,” USAID said.
Asked whether the UN was willing to take any further action, he said its “focus right now is on possible humanitarian assistance.”
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