Nazili Bagdazarjan, spokeswoman for the Armenian Prime Minister, said that the number of people fleeing from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia on Wednesday exceeded 47,000 people. He added: “As of Wednesday afternoon, 47,115 forcibly displaced citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed the Hakkari Bridge.” MTI wrote that the bridge connects the two banks of the Hakkari River, which forms the internationally recognized border between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The spokesman added that it is planned to send more than 80 people injured in the gas station explosion in Stepanakert to Armenian medical centers from Nagorno-Karabakh, in addition to those who were injured during the fighting. At eight o’clock on Monday evening, a fuel tank exploded on the Askeran-Stepanakert road, for an unknown reason yet. According to the latest count issued by the Office of the Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, Gegam Sztepanjan, 68 people have died, while 105 people are listed as missing, and the number of injured has reached nearly 300.
According to Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, more than 50,000 of the estimated 120,000 local Armenian population have already left. On the other hand, Azerbaijan rejected Armenian accusations of ethnic cleansing in the region, the newspaper wrote Reuters.
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh on board a truck after arriving in the village of Kornidzor, Armenia on September 27, 2023 – Photograph: Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters
On Wednesday, former Prime Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Ruben Vardanyan, was arrested at the Azerbaijan border when he tried to leave for the city of Goris in the Syunik region of Armenia. The Azerbaijani border service said he was transferred to the capital, Baku, and handed over to state authorities. It is not yet clear on what basis Vardanjan was detained, but Azerbaijan has previously indicated that it wants to bring some separatist leaders in Nagorno-Karabakh to court.
Ruben Vardanjan was appointed Head of Government of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2022, and was replaced in February 2023. Vardanjan is a Russian businessman, founder of the asset management company Troika Dialogue and the first president of the Skolkovo School of Management. He announced last September that he would renounce his Russian citizenship and move to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani army defeated Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh last week during a 24-hour siege, forcing local authorities to agree to lay down their weapons and begin talks to reintegrate Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule.
We wrote more about the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in this article.
