Nagorno-Karabakh: 50,000 people flee to Armenia along 100 miles of winding road after Azerbaijan military offensive
The Lachin corridor is clogged with vehicles as tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians flee their homes after the disputed region was recaptured by Azerbaijan in a lightning-fast military operation.
Wednesday 27 September 2023 13:06, UK
More than 50,000 people have left Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to reclaim control of the disputed territory.
The narrow mountain road snaking out of the enclave was clogged with traffic, as large numbers of ethnic Armenians fled towards Armenia.
Azerbaijan's capture of Nagorno-Karabakh a week ago has sparked one of the biggest movements of people in the region since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home say they do not want to live there anymore because they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing.
Azerbaijani officials have dismissed the fears and promised "re-integration" of ethnic Armenians into Azerbaijani society.
Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour lightning offensive and recaptured the disputed territory last week, after blockading the key Lachin corridor that links it to Armenia for months.
On Tuesday that same corridor was lined with vehicles amid as thousands of ethnic Armenians left their homes seeking safety.
"I left everything behind. I don't know what is in store for me. I have nothing. I don't want anything," Vera Petrosyan, a 70-year-old retired teacher, said.
Speaking at the large Soviet-era hotel on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan that is now her home, she added: "I would not want anybody to see what I have seen."
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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.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said the rights of Armenians will be respected but added his "iron fist" had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and the region would be turned into a "paradise".
The US and EU have expressed "deep concerns" for the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but had been under Armenian control.
On Wednesday reports emerged that Azerbaijan's security forces had detained Ruben Vardanyan, a former top official in Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian administration, as he tried to leave the region.
Mr Vardanyan, a billionaire investment banker, served as the head of Karabakh's separatist government between November 2022 and February 2023.