Scores of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkish President set to visit Azerbaijan

Yerevan: Thousands of Armenians streamed out of Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of the breakaway region while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was set to visit Azerbaijan Monday in a show of support to its ally.

The Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule.

A second round of talks between Azerbaijani officials and separatist representatives began in Khojaly Tuesday following the opening meeting last week.

While Azerbaijan pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and restore supplies after a 10-month blockade, many local residents feared reprisals and said they were planning to leave for Armenia.

The Armenian government said that 4,850 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of midday Monday. “It was a nightmare. There are no words to describe.

The village was heavily shelled. Almost no one is left in the village,” said one of the evacuees who spoke to The Associated Press in the Armenian city of Kornidzor and refused to give her name for security reasons.

Moscow said that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh were assisting the evacuation.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said Monday that two of its soldiers

were killed a day earlier when a military truck hit a landmine. It didn’t name the area where the explosion occurred.

In an address to the nation Sunday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government was working with international partners to protect the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“If these efforts do not produce concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh in the Republic of Armenia with every care,” he said.

Demonstrators demanding Pashinyan’s resignation continued blocking

the Armenian capital’s main avenues Monday, engaging in occasional clashes with police that sought to disperse the protests.

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.