More than 50,000 people have arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, the Yerevan government announced on September 27, amid an ethnic-Armenian exodus sparked by an Azerbaijani offensive that gave Baku full control of the breakaway region.
As tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the region, Azerbaijani authorities announced they had detained the separatist region's former prime minister, Ruben Vardanianat a border crossing.
As of 3:00 p.m. local time, 50,243 people forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed the border into Armenia, said Nazeli Baghdasarian, spokesperson for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. he told the media on September 27.
Azerbaijan opened the only road from the breakaway region to Armenia on September 24, four days after a ceasefire agreement that ended a lightning military operation that gave Baku full control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
On September 27, Azerbaijan's State Border Service (DSX) said that Vardanian, a former Russian citizen of Armenian descent who served as prime minister in the breakaway region's de facto government for less than four months before being removed from his position in February, he was detained at the border and transferred to Baku.
His wife, Veronika Zonabend, has confirmed her husband's arrest.
Hours earlier, Nagorno-Karabakh ombudsman Gegham Stepanian said the number of confirmed deaths following an explosion at a fuel depot in the breakaway region is 68, after earlier reports had raised the figure to 125. Stepanian told RFE/RL that only 21 victims have been identified so far.
The explosion occurred as people trying to flee to Armenia were lining up to fill their cars with fuel to leave the region. The cause of the explosion has not been determined.
Baku said on September 27 that 192 Azerbaijani servicemen and one civilian had been killed during the lightning offensive on September 19-20. Another 511 soldiers were wounded during the operation, Azerbaijan's Health Ministry said in a statement. statement.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on September 27 asked Azerbaijan to allow international observers into Nagorno-Karabakh and announced that Berlin was stepping up its humanitarian aid for refugees.
"I have decided to significantly increase our humanitarian aid once again and increase our additional funding for the International Committee of the Red Cross from 2 million to 5 million euros ($5.28 million)," Baerbock said.
Baku has promised equal treatment for mainly ethnic Armenian residents who are fleeing, but the Armenian government has warned of possible โethnic cleansing.โ
On September 26, Samantha Power, top official at the US Agency for International Development, told reporters in Yerevan that it was "absolutely critical" that independent observers and aid organizations have access to the people of Karabakh, and later on Announced an $11.5 million humanitarian aid package for Armenia.
The European Union also said that increase humanitarian aid by 5 million euros ($5.2 million) in response to the growing needs caused by the crisis.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on September 26 that he must protect civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Blinken spoke by phone with Aliyev to underscore โthe urgency that there be no further hostilitiesโ and to affirm that there will be โunconditional protection and freedom of movement for civilians,โ State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Blinken also told Aliyev that there must be unimpeded humanitarian access to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The EU highlighted in a statement the need for transparency and access for international human rights and humanitarian groups and for more details on Baku's vision for the future of Karabakh Armenians in Azerbaijan.
During the meeting, Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev's foreign policy advisor, outlined Azerbaijan's plans to provide humanitarian assistance and security to the local population.
The meeting also discussed a possible meeting of Nagorno-Karabakh stakeholders on October 5 in Grenada.
"The participants took note of the shared interest of Armenia and Azerbaijan to take advantage of the possible meeting in Grenada to continue their normalization efforts," the statement said.
Armenian representative Armen Grigorian and Hajiyev "engaged in talks on possible concrete steps to advance the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the next possible meeting, such as those related to border delimitation, security, connectivity, humanitarian issues and the broader peace treaty. "said the statement.
He statement He added that the EU believes that the meeting should be used by both Yerevan and Baku to publicly reiterate their mutual commitment to each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, in accordance with previous agreements.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the past three decades over the region, which had been an ethnic Armenian-majority enclave within Azerbaijan's internationally recognized border since the Soviet collapse.
The region initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. However, during a war in 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the previous conflict.
Those fighting ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers. However, those peacekeepers did little to prevent the advances of Azerbaijani forces.
With information from RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service, AP, AFP, The New York Times and Reuters
