Thousands fled from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. It is uncertain whether anyone will stay.
At least 6,650 people entered Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday afternoon after Azerbaijan took control of the region, Reuters reported.
The number of people arriving from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia is constantly increasing, and there are more on the way. While there were 2,900 people who had arrived in Armenia by 05:00 local time on Monday, the number rose to 6,650 twelve hours later.
There are several thousand more on their way to Armenia. Aftenposten saw video images showing a mile-long line of cars on their way out of the area.
Aftenposten freelance photographer Hayk Harutyunyan stands in the middle of the queue. He says it remained stationary for four hours in Shusha. This city is located 14 kilometers from Stepanakert, where the tour started. They have 80 kilometers to go before they reach Goris in Armenia.
According to Harutyunyan, there is now a 95-kilometre-long queue of refugees on the road to Armenia.
In a square in Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, stunned people sat Monday morning waiting for someone to take them away.
Among them were Aghajanian Adelina (51 years old) and her mother, Greta. They only had a few packs of luggage with them. They had to leave the rest in the village from which they fled.
Aghajanyan Adelina is unable to speak without bursting into tears. On Monday, she sat with her 75-year-old mother, Greta, in a square in the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Stepanakert.
He places most of the blame on Putin
Adelina believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin bears the greatest responsibility for the disaster that befell her. Traditionally, Russia has kept its hand on the Armenians, but this time Putin was unable to prevent arch-enemy Azerbaijan from achieving victory.
– I ask Putin to help me so that we can return to our village and collect the rest of what we have, and she keeps crying.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia’s responsibility for what is now happening to the Armenians.
This is the second time in her life that Adelina has had to flee. She says she had to leave her home in the Shahumyan region after Azerbaijan occupied it in 1991.
Sevyan Tsaghkohi (93 years old) spent his entire life in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now she and other Armenians are fleeing their homes.
Sevian Tsaghkohi (93 years old) spent his whole life in the village of Vank in Nagorno-Karabakh. Now she is on the run. All I brought was three packs of luggage. The rest remains.
When they arrive in Armenia, they will have nowhere to go.
“We will go first to the border town of Goris, and then we will see what happens,” she says.
To reach Armenia, they had to pass through the Lachin Pass. The immediate concern was whether they would be able to cross the Azerbaijani checkpoint safely.
Thousands of Armenian refugees are trapped in a mile-long line between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia on Monday.
Do not trust the promises of war victors
After a lightning attack last week, Azerbaijan regained control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but has been ruled by Armenian separatists for more than 30 years.
Ethnic Armenians have received assurances from Azerbaijani authorities that they will be able to continue to live safely under Azerbaijani rule. But the people of Nagorno-Karabakh do not trust the promises made, experts told Aftenposten.
Azerbaijani authorities said those who wish to leave Nagorno-Karabakh may be allowed to do so.
The area may be empty of people
Ethnic Armenian leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh said over the weekend that the entire Armenian population wanted to leave the region. The leadership said on Monday that those who wish to travel will be allowed to do so. They also said that those who need fuel to escape will receive it for free from local authorities.
Almost all of the 100,000 people who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh were ethnic Armenians. All of these may now be on their way out.
The authorities in Armenia said they are ready to receive 40,000 families.
– I think this is just the beginning, says Associate Professor Helgi Blaksrud at the University of Oslo. He believes that the escape from Nagorno-Karabakh could happen very quickly. As happened in 2020, when Armenians lost the war against Azerbaijan and lost control over large areas of territory.
“They took what they could carry with them and burned the rest,” says Blakesrud.
Trust gone
Although many believe that all Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh will leave, some believe that the majority will remain.
– Many Armenians want to stay and die in Karabakh, writes Vahram Ter Matvosyan in an email to Aftenposten. He is a scientific assistant to the director of the American University of Armenia in Yerevan and holds a doctorate in history from the University of Bergen.
The Helsinki Committee believes that basic human rights must be guaranteed for the remaining Armenians, including linguistic and cultural rights.
– They received promises in this regard, but trust is completely non-existent after several decades of hostility. It is not surprising that many are now fleeing, says Lyn Wetland, point of contact for Armenia at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.
– The hostility is based on years of hostilities that have never been dealt with before. When Armenia took control of Azerbaijani lands in the 1990s, this led to the displacement of 600,000 Azerbaijanis.
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