Mass Exodus: Thousands Of Ethnic Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh

Refugees walk along the road from Nagorno-Karabakh to Kornidzor in Armenia on September 26 amid a massive exodus that followed an Azerbaijani offensive, which gave Baku complete control of the mountainous region.

Refugees stay warm by a fire along the road to the Armenian border as they wait for traffic to resume on September 25.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the last three decades over the region, which became a majority ethnic Armenian enclave within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan after the Soviet collapse.

A satellite image shows a long traffic jam along the Lachin Corridor, the only route from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, on September 26.

The region initially came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a war in 2020, however, Azerbaijan took back large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as neighboring territory held by Armenian forces.



 

Armenian refugees repair a car on the road from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The war in 2020 ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers. Those peacekeepers did little, however, to prevent the advances by Azerbaijani forces as they launched what they called an "anti-terrorist operation" in Nagorno-Karabakh.




 

A truck carrying a minivan and refugees arrives in Armenia.

Prior to its offensive, Azerbaijan had maintained a monthslong blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, claiming it had concerns about illicit weapon shipments, which cut the 120,000 residents off from essential supplies.



 

A refugee looks out from a car on the road to Armenia. Many refugees have been stuck on the road, some without enough food and water.

Azerbaijan opened the road on September 24, four days after a cease-fire agreement that ended the lightning military operation. 

Armenian refugees sit in the back of a truck at the Lachin checkpoint, controlled by Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijani border guards, as they wait to cross into Armenia.

Baku has pledged equal treatment for ethnic Armenians, but Yerevan has warned of possible "ethnic cleansing."



 

Armenians embrace after arriving in Kornidzor, Armenia.



 

Refugees wait in a truck in Goris, in southern Armenia, before moving on to Yerevan.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on September 26 that he must protect civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

Armenian refugees gather at a Red Cross registration center in Goris.

Blinken also told Aliyev that there must be unhindered humanitarian access to Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

A man injured in an explosion at a fuel depot near Stepanakert, in Nagorno-Karabakh, is helped out of an ambulance upon arriving at a burn center in Yerevan.

The breakaway region's ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, told RFE/RL that 68 people were confirmed dead in the blast, which occurred as people seeking to flee to Armenia had lined up to fuel their cars. The cause of the explosion has not been determined.

An elderly woman with a head wound waits to be registered as a refugee in Goris on September 27. The family was involved in a car accident as they were fleeing from Nagorno-Karabakh.

A total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive last week the country’s Health Ministry announced on September 27.

Ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh officials said that at least 200 people on their side, including 10 civilians, were killed and over 400 were wounded in the fighting.