Civilian residents of six towns in Nagorno-Karabakh were evacuated after the start of a large-scale military operation by Azerbaijan in the region, the Armenian separatist authorities in the enclave announced, AFP reports.

“The civilian population of six settlements in Artsakh (that’s the name Karabakh was given by the Armenians) was evacuated,” Geham Stepanyan, a human rights activist in the separatist region, announced on X (formerly Twitter).

Protests in Yerevan

Clashes broke out in Yerevan on Tuesday evening between police officers guarding the Armenian government headquarters and demonstrators following a military operation launched by Azerbaijan against Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to Armenian media images.

The police cordon, which was hurled bottles, resisted a crowd of demonstrators in the evening who pressed it to enter the building. Earlier, protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, criticizing him for not protecting Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan launched a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday, three years after a previous war there, demanding the “complete and unconditional” withdrawal of its Armenian enemy from the decades-long disputed region with Armenia, Reuters reported.

Armenian diplomats said it was a “large-scale aggression” aimed at “ethnic cleansing”. They also said that Russia, which has been the guarantor of the ceasefire since 2020 and has peacekeeping forces in place, should “stop Azerbaijan’s aggression.”

the news is updated