South Caucasus
Hundreds of victims in explosion at fuel depot in Karabakh
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Goris. photo
© Vasily Krestyaninov/AP/dpa
While Armenia’s government in Yerevan has to accommodate thousands of people who have fled Nagorno-Karabakh, a catastrophe is occurring in the conflict region. There are many injured and probably also dead.
In the contested conflict region of Nagorno-Karabakh Hundreds of victims have been killed following a fuel depot explosion in the South Caucasus. The office of the human rights commissioner of the internationally unrecognized republic spoke in the evening of at least 200 injuries and an unknown number of deaths not far from the regional capital Stepanakert.
It was initially unclear what triggered the catastrophe in the Armenian-majority region, which was attacked and defeated by Azerbaijan last week.
Large flames could be seen in photos on social networks. Politician Metakse Akopjan said that at the time of the accident, many people were queuing for gasoline at the camp because they wanted to flee the Azerbaijanis to Armenia in cars.
The region’s human rights office appealed to the international community: It is urgently necessary to fly out people, especially seriously injured people, for treatment. “Nagorno-Karabakh’s medical capacity is not sufficient to save people’s lives,” said the statement on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has long been contested between the two feuding ex-Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, is already catastrophic. Azerbaijanis have been blocking the only Armenian access road for months, which is why food, medicine and gasoline are in short supply in the region.
Armenia is experiencing a wave of refugees from Karabakh
After the region was conquered, the number of people fleeing to Armenia grew rapidly. The Armenian government announced on Facebook that 6,650 refugees had already been registered by midday. The evening before there were around 1000 people.
The government promised everyone in need that it would provide them with appropriate housing. The needs of almost 4,000 refugees have already been determined, the data for the others are still being checked, it said. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had previously predicted a growing flow of refugees. According to him, this is provoked by Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.
After brief, violent attacks by the Azerbaijani military, the defenders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic had to lay down their arms last week. Azerbaijan now wants to take power in the region, which is within its territory but is predominantly inhabited by Armenians. The Karabakh Armenians fear expulsion or revenge from authoritarian Azerbaijan after decades of conflict.
After the attacks, refugees from other parts of the area are crowding into Stepanakert. This meant that food and medicine were even more scarce in Stepanakert than they already are after months of blockade. “Families who are homeless after the recent military operation and who want to leave the republic will be brought to Armenia,” the leadership in Stepanakert promised on Sunday. This will happen in the region accompanied by Russian troops.
First attempt at mediation without result
Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan met for the second time today in Xocali (German: Khojali) under the mediation of the Russians. The first meeting ended a few days ago in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlax without any tangible result. Nothing is yet known about the results of the new meeting.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev assured that there would be no ethnic persecution of Armenians. At a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Recep Erdogan, he stated that all residents of Karabakh would be considered Azerbaijanis regardless of their nationality.
Aliyev and Pashinyan are scheduled to meet for talks on October 5 at the European Political Community (EPG) meeting in Granada, Spain. In preparation for this, representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, France and the EU will meet in Brussels next Tuesday, as the Armenian news agency Armenpress reported on Sunday, citing the government.
Mass protests in Armenia
Tensions are growing between Armenia and its long-standing protecting power, Russia. Moscow rejected Pashinyan’s recent accusation that the Russian soldiers stationed on site had not protected the Karabakh Armenians as agreed after the last Karabakh war in 2020. This is “an attempt to shift responsibility for disasters in domestic and foreign policy and to shift the blame onto Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In fact, Pashinyan is also confronted with mass protests in his own country because of the defeat in the Karabakh conflict. Today many people took to the streets in Yerevan again. They also set up roadblocks. According to authorities, about 170 people had been taken into police custody by lunchtime. Further demonstrations were announced for the evening.