20 Killed In Nagorno-Karabakh Depot Blast; Thousands Of Armenian Christians Flee (Worthy News In-Depth)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
STEPANAKERT/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in an explosion at a fuel depot in the volatile South Caucasus enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, authorities confirmed Tuesday.
The blast came as thousands of mainly Christian ethnic Armenians in the area fled the forces of predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion near the main city of Khankendi, known as Stepanakert by Armenians.
Besides those killed in the blast, almost 300 people were reportedly rushed to hospitals, with dozens in critical condition following Monday’s blast, officials said.
The tragedy further complicated a mass exodus of frightened civilians, with Armenia’s government saying at least 19,000 refugees crossed into the country from the enclave since local forces surrendered to Azerbaijan.
Authorities have not ruled out that virtually all 120,000 ethnic Armenians will leave Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan recaptured.
Neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought several wars over Nagorno-Karabakh.
CEASEFIRE AGREED
Last week, Armenia-backed forces agreed on a ceasefire after Azerbaijan attacked and recaptured the enclave in a 24-hour battle that reportedly killed hundreds of people. Despite the truce, sporadic explosions were noticed in the region.
Nagorno-Karabakh was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, historians say. During Soviet times, it was designated an autonomous region within Azerbaijan. But when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the mainly Christian Armenians there threw off Azeri control and captured neighboring territory in what is now known as the First Karabakh War. From 1988 to 1994, about 30,000 people were reportedly killed, and over 1 million — mostly Azeris — were displaced.
In 2020, after decades of skirmishes, Azerbaijan won a decisive 44-day so-called Second Karabakh War.
That armed conflict ended with a Russian-brokered peace deal Armenians accuse Moscow of failing to guarantee, leading eventually to last week’s battle.
While another ceasefire was signed, tensions remain high, and petrol stations have been overwhelmed by thousands trying to flee the region, witnesses say.
Many were already suffering from fuel, food, and medicines shortages following a months-long blockade, according to Christian aid workers speaking to Worthy News and other sources. The only road connecting Armenia to the enclave remains backed up with hundreds of cars and buses, filled with ethnic Armenians trying to reach the town of Goris across the border, reporters noticed.
Among those arriving, there was the owner of a car more or less held together by duck tape as its side was badly dotted with shrapnel holes and windows smashed.
MORTAR FIRE
The driver said the car was damaged by mortar fire when Azerbaijan launched the lightning assault to take control of the region last week. “But it still got us here,” he told reporters, smiling, surrounded by small children.
Many more tearful Armenians left their homes on Tuesday. “I built my home for 30 years, and the only thing I have with me is this bag,” said Gayane Shagants, who fled the town of Martakert with her brother and his family. “My home is in this bag. They should be very happy that we are leaving because we left our homes to them.”
Her brother, Genadi Hyusunts, told journalists he had just brought home his four-day-old baby from the hospital when the Azerbaijani shelling began last week. Within hours, he had to hustle his wife, the newborn child, and his six other children to the shelter in his native Martakert while heading to the frontline. They now hope to have a more peaceful future outside Nagorno-Karabakh.
Envoys from Baku and Yerevan were set to meet for European Union-backed talks in Brussels to talk about the refugee crisis and restoring a sense of normality in the wartorn enclave.
Tuesday’s meeting in Brussels was the first such encounter since the offensive, but the leaders of both countries are scheduled to meet next month, officials said. Yet with thousands fleeing, there was no evidence the talks would help and the Armenian exodus now underway.
Many of those crossing into Armenia through the Lachin corridor, which was blocked for 10 months by Azerbaijani forces, have already been forced from their homes before in past conflicts.
“I have already lived through my third war,” recalled Anna Hakobyan, a woman in her 70s, who evacuated with her 90-year-old mother. “I will never go back. It is enough for me.”
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