More than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia after Azerbaijan won a military blitzkrieg against the separatist region on September 19, Reuters reported.

More than 65,036 people from Nagorno-Karabakh crossed the territory of Armenia, said the spokeswoman of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikola Pashinyan.

“The state provides adequate housing for all those who do not have a fixed place of residence,” the Armenian government said in a statement.

The “Republic” of Nagorno-Karabakh dissolves itself

The President of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic of Armenia, Samvel Shakhramanyan, has signed a decree to dissolve all state institutions from January 1, 2024, the Armenian Karabakh authorities announced on Thursday.

From this day on, the self-proclaimed republic ceases to exist, the decree says.

Baku opened the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting the enclave to Armenia, on Sunday, four days after separatists surrendered and a ceasefire was declared, prompting an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians.

Officially, Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave in Azerbaijan that broke away from Baku with the support of Yerevan during the collapse of the USSR, had a population of about 120,000.

A former separatist leader who was arrested while trying to flee the region

The former head of the ethnic Armenian separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh was arrested by Azerbaijan on Wednesday as he tried to flee to Armenia. Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker and philanthropist, headed the separatist government of Karabakh from November 2022 to February 2023.

His wife Veronika Zonabend wrote on Telegram that Vardanyan was detained while trying to escape along with tens of thousands of Armenians fleeing the region.

The border service of Azerbaijan reported that he was taken to the capital Baku and handed over to other state authorities.

Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country, says it wants to reintegrate Armenians peacefully and will guarantee their civil rights, including the right to practice their Christian religion. In Baku, they claim that no one is forcing them to leave.

Ethnic Armenians flee from fear of Azerbaijanis

But given the bloody history between the two sides, ethnic Armenians are fleeing in fear, abandoning their homes and climbing into the cars and trucks that fill the winding mountain road leading to Armenia.

Azerbaijan denies Armenia’s accusations of ethnic cleansing, but images of tens of thousands of people fleeing in desperation have sparked international concern.

The European Union said it was sending more humanitarian aid “in solidarity with those who had no choice but to flee” – a significant change from an earlier statement about people who “decided to flee”.

UN Special Rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz said Azerbaijan should “promptly and independently investigate the alleged or alleged violations of the right to life reported in the context of its latest military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.”