Following the announced abandonment of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan, more than 100,000 refugees from the region have arrived in Armenia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “Many are hungry and exhausted and need immediate support,” said Refugee Commissioner Filippo Grandi.
“International assistance is very urgently needed,” he added. According to previous information, Armenia expects that all of its approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians will leave the self-proclaimed Armenian Republic in the middle of Azerbaijan. There have been fighting around the area for decades with thousands of deaths.
Last week, Azerbaijan launched an offensive, and shortly afterwards the rulers of the internationally unrecognized republic, which is now scheduled to be dissolved on January 1, 2024, capitulated.
Azerbaijan has said it will respect the rights of ethnic Armenians who wished to remain in Nagorno-Karabakh. The concept of an independent Armenian region there is over forever. Many Armenians have said they do not want to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh out of fear of oppression and violence.
So far no EU sanctions against Azerbaijan
On Friday, the UNHCR announced that around a third of the refugees were children and many were separated from their families. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it would help those left behind with basic food and hygiene items.
The federal government is making sanctions against Azerbaijan dependent on whether the country protects the Armenian population in the region and maintains its borders with Armenia. At the EU level, sanctions are part of the discussions, emphasized a spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin. He referred to an EU observation mission on the border between the two countries. In the EU, Hungary has so far prevented sanctions against Azerbaijan.