Worthy Christian News > World News > Armenia Asks Aid As Nearly 120,000 Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh (Worthy News Radio)

Armenia Asks Aid As Nearly 120,000 Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh (Worthy News Radio)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

YEREVAN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Armenia has asked the European Union for assistance to help it deal with a massive refugee influx from Nagorno-Karabakh as nearly all 120,000 mainly Christian Armenians living there have fled after Azerbaijan recaptured the region last week in a battle that killed more than 200 people.

They were already starved of enough food and medical supplies by an Azerbaijani blockade. But after local forces were overrun within 24 hours by Azerbaijan’s more powerful military, backed by Turkey, these panicked-stricken people decided to leave forever.

Nearly all Christian Armenians left their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh saying they do not want to become citizens of Azerbaijan, a primarily Muslim nation.

Fleeing isn’t easy. After last week’s battle killed hundreds, this week’s explosion at a crowded gas station outside the region’s capital left scores of people dead and injured.

Further complicating their rush to safety is a grueling and slow journey over the single mountain road into impoverished Armenia, which struggles to accommodate them.

In the enclave, Armenian freelance journalist Siranush Sargsyan is visibly shocked by the thousands of desperate people still stuck in a traffic jam on the highway leading to Armenia. “This exodus is unbearable not only because psychologically. Because we already spent 60 hours on this road…We have cases when people faint, or are losing consciousness. They have several diseases, but there are no doctors,” she witnessed.

“And in some cases, parents or relatives have to go back to reach Russian peacekeepers at their base to bring doctors here as they want to do something for their relatives,” the journalist added.

MANY FLEE

The United Nations says more than 100,000 refugees have arrived in Armenia since Azerbaijan launched the military operation to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Many have arrived in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, where aid volunteer Anais Sardaryan, a famous actress in Armenia, organized an aid operation.
Sardaryan is close to tears when asked how she and her co-workers deal with the refugees arriving in Yerevan. “[I am sad] because maybe you saw the people and babies come here and say: “We are hungry and without shelters.” But we can’t help them all. Because now we say: ‘Okay, wait. We have a list,'” she said.

“You know we have 100 volunteers, but we have 120,000 people coming. We can’t help them all in one day, yes?” She didn’t await an answer from a reporter. “But they want, and they look into your eyes and say: ‘Can you help my baby?’ But you cannot say: ‘Yes, your baby is good, but that baby is not good. I help you, but that baby, I don’t help.'”

Swarms of protesters are filling the streets of Yerevan.

They demand the prime minister’s ouster, who they claim didn’t do enough to protect Nagorno-Karabakh, also known to Armenians as the Republic of Artsakh. “In similar cases, there are sanctions, there are real politics, there is real pressure. In the case of Armenia, in the case of Artsakh, we don’t see that from anybody,” one of the protesters said.

Impoverished Armenia now faces the most significant social and political challenges in its decades of independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.