Over 65,000 Armenians flee Nagorno Karabakh after Azerbaijan's victory

The Armenian government on Thursday (Sep 28) announced more than 65,000 Armenians had fled the conflict-ridden zone ofNagorno-Karabakh for Yerevan after Azerbaijan recaptured the territory last week.

Armenian government spokeswoman, Nazeli Baghdasaryan in a statement said,"65,036 forcefully displaced persons crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh".

"The state is providing suitable housing to all those who do not have a predetermined place of residence," she added.

According to estimates, some 120,000 ethnic Armenians are believed to be living in the territory before Azerbaijan mounted the offensive.

Despite Azerbaijan's commitment to respecting the rights of Armenians, many residents remain apprehensive about potential repercussions. A mass displacement is already underway asmore than a third of the region's population has already left.

Previously, the Armenian health ministry said237 people had been wounded in the offensive by Azeri forces as well as the gas station explosion that took place on Monday (Sep 25).

The explosion occurred as people queued to refuel their vehicles at a gas station outside Stepanakert, the regional capital.While the exact cause remains unclear, Nagorno-Karabakh presidential aide David Babayan suggested that initial information pointed to negligence as the likely cause, with sabotage being unlikely.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday (Sep 27) Azerbaijan's health ministry announced that a total of 192Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 wounded during the offensive inNagorno-Karabakh.

What happened between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

For decades, themountainous Nagorno-Karabakh province has been the centre of a bitter conflict between the former soviet states of Armenia andAzerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict.

The use of modern, deadly drones by the Azeri forces was dubbed as the game changer at the time which completely trashed the Armenian forces.

Building on the advantage,Azerbaijan last week launched a full-scale attack on the region to reclaim complete control of the breakaway region, occupied by Armenian separatists for about 30 years.

The separatist troops could not handle the intensity of the Azeri troops and soon agreed to lay down arms to bring the conflict to an end.

(With inputs from agencies)

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