Since September 27, half of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have had to leave their homes on the actual border of Nagorno-Karabakh with the forces of Azerbaijan, officials of the separatist region announced on Wednesday.
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There have been hostile relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia since the 1990s, when there was a war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian population. About 30,000 people lost their lives in the conflict.
The two sides are now accusing each other of war and ignoring calls for a ceasefire.
“According to our initial estimates, about 50% of the Karabakh population and 90% of women and children, or 70,000 to 75,000 people, have been displaced,” Artak Beglarjan, an internationally unrecognized ombudsman for Nagorno-Karabakh, told AFP.
He said that people who had been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting had sought refuge elsewhere in Nagorno-Karabakh or fled to Armenia and other countries.
Azerbaijani forces fired on Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, while accusing Armenian forces of firing on civilian objects in Azerbaijani cities, including Ganges, which has a population of 330,000.
How many Azerbaijanis have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict has not yet been estimated, the Baku Foreign Ministry said.
It is confirmed that almost 290 people have been killed in the conflict, including more than 47 civilians.
There are fears that this conflict could escalate into a wider war, which will also involve the regional powers Turkey and Russia.
Both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have declared a state of war and a general mobilization. The state of war has also been declared by Azerbaijan, where a curfew has been set in large cities.
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