Already 100,417 refugees have taken refuge in Armenia Nagorno Karabakh Nazili Bagdasaryan, spokeswoman for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, said in a press conference on Saturday. The population of the Armenian enclave is estimated at about 120 thousand people.
Earlier, the Armenian authorities reported alleged ethnic cleansing operations committed by Azerbaijani forces.
On Thursday, the Azerbaijani authorities appealed to Armenians not to leave the enclave but to become “part of the multi-ethnic Azerbaijani society.” The Foreign Ministry in Baku said leaving the enclave was a personal decision of residents and had nothing to do with forced migration.
A video clip appeared on social media showing an abandoned square in the center of the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Kayamran Aliyev announced on Sunday that Baku had issued international arrest warrants for more than 300 Armenian separatists. Haqin website reported that among those wanted were the leaders of the separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The prosecutor said that Azerbaijan had collected evidence of crimes committed by separatists, starting from the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “A total of 300 criminal cases have been opened. There are more than 300 criminals wanted under international arrest warrants,” Aliyev said.
The prosecutor added that among those wanted, for example, are former separatist president Arik Harutyunyan and the commander of the armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh Jalal Harutyunyan.
The wanted Armenian representatives were asked to voluntarily surrender themselves to the Azerbaijani authorities.
Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour offensive on September 19, after which Nagorno-Karabakh separatist forces laid down their weapons. The authorities of the internationally unrecognized republic, which declared its independence 30 years ago, announced the dissolution of the quasi-state structures as of January 1, 2024.
(Sources: Bab, Twitter)
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