Key Points
- Over 70,000 ethnic Armenians have already fled Nagorno-Karabakh, reports say.
- The self-declared breakaway state will cease to exist from 1 January 2024.
- Azerbaijan says it does not want the exodus of ethnic Armenians from the region.
Some 70,500 people had crossed into Armenia by early Thursday afternoon, Russia’s RIA news agency reported, out of an estimated population of 120,000.
“Analysis of the situation shows that in the coming days there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Interfax news agency quoted Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying. “This is an act of ethnic cleansing.”
Azerbaijan says it does not want the mass exodus of Armenians
Ethnic Armenians say they do not trust that promise, mindful of a long history of bloodshed between the two sides including two wars since the break-up of the Soviet Union. For days they have fled en masse down the snaking mountain road through Azerbaijan that connects Karabakh to Armenia.
He said Azerbaijan had not yet had a chance to prove what he said was its sincere commitment to provide secure and better living conditions for those ethnic Armenians who choose to stay.
Russia and the West monitoring the situation in Karabakh
The Kremlin said on Thursday it was closely monitoring the humanitarian situation in Karabakh and said Russian peacekeepers in the region were providing assistance to residents. It said Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to visit Armenia.
Ethnic Armenians fleeing the Nagorno-Karabakh region rest on a roadside after crossing the border with Azerbaijan, near the village of Kornidzor. Source: EPA / Anatoly Maltsev
Western governments have also expressed alarm over the humanitarian crisis and demanded access for international observers to monitor Azerbaijan’s treatment of the local population.
Azerbaijan said Aliyev had told her at a meeting on Wednesday that the rights of ethnic Armenians would be protected by law, like those of other minorities.