A UN mission arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, for the first time in three decades, Azerbaijan announced as the majority of the local Armenian population left the enclave after its recapture by Baku.
A spokesperson for the Azerbaijani presidency told AFP that the UN mission had arrived “Sunday morning” with the main task of assessing the humanitarian needs on the spot.
Earlier, the UN announced that it had received the green light to send a mission to the territory this weekend. On Saturday, France deplored that Azerbaijan only agreed to this mission after the exodus of Armenians.
Armenian separatists, who controlled Nagorno-Karabakh for three decades after the breakup of the USSR, capitulated last week, facing a lightning offensive from Azerbaijan which left nearly 600 dead in its wake.
Since then, the enclave has been deserted by its inhabitants, with more than 100,000 refugees – of the 120,000 inhabitants officially living there – having fled to Armenia for fear of reprisals from Azerbaijan, raising fears of a major humanitarian crisis.
“People have to live”
On Sunday, the border post between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, located on the Lachin corridor, the only road which connects the two territories, was deserted, noted an AFP journalist.
Sergei Astsarian, 40, is among the last to leave. “The population that has lived here for centuries should be able to live here, regardless of whether they are Armenians or other ethnic groups. It’s not okay to expel, by force or not,” he told AFP.
According to him, the Azerbaijani government must show concretely that the Armenian populations can remain safe in the enclave and not just give “verbal guarantees”.
The Azerbaijani presidency announced on Sunday that a migration service had started operating in the main city of Nagorno-Karabakh, Khankendi (Stepanakert in Armenian) to register the remaining residents and ensure “their sustainable reintegration” into Azerbaijani society.
The day before, the former rights ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, Artak Beglarian, claimed that only “a few hundred civil servants, emergency workers and people with special needs” remained there.
In their flight, at least 170 people died in Monday’s explosion at a fuel depot, which also left 349 injured, most of them suffering from serious burns.
More than 47,300 refugees are currently in Armenia in state-provided accommodation, according to Yerevan.
Day of prayer
Armenia, with a Christian majority, for its part celebrated a day of prayer for Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday. In Yerevan, Saint Sarkis Cathedral was, according to the faithful, unusually full on Sunday morning.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh “is just politics, not a matter of religion: Azerbaijan is a dictatorship, has oil and gas and Europe does not need us”, he told the AFP Ararat Havseian, an Iranian-Armenian.
On Sunday, Pope Francis called for “dialogue” between Azerbaijan and Armenia to put an end to “the humanitarian crisis” with the support of the international community.
The chaotic flow of refugees has revived accusations of “ethnic cleansing” and Yerevan has launched a new appeal to the International Court of Justice, demanding urgent measures to protect the enclave’s residents.
Azerbaijan refutes these accusations and assures residents of the enclave that they are free to leave or stay, Hikmet Hajiyev, an advisor to the Azerbaijani president, told AFP on Saturday.
“We deliberately refrain from putting up Azerbaijani flags, we know that civilians remain and we know their fears,” Hikmet Hajiyev said.
Negotiations next week
Talks between Azerbaijani officials and Armenian officials from the enclave are planned for Monday in Stepanakert.
Negotiations between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian are also expected next Thursday in Granada, Spain, under Western mediation, to resolve their historic differences.
The refugees’ fears are fueled, according to Yerevan, by a series of “illegal arrests”, although the Azerbaijani authorities have committed to allowing rebels to leave if they surrender their weapons.
Several officials from the enclave have been detained, accused of “terrorism” and other crimes.
On Sunday, Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Kamran Aliev announced that he was investigating possible war crimes committed by 300 separatist leaders, whom he called to surrender to the authorities.