The Azerbaijani authorities announced on Wednesday September 27 that 192 of its soldiers and one civilian had died in the military operation carried out last week in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a report communicated by the Ministry of Health.
Furthermore, more than 500 soldiers were injured during this lightning offensive by Azerbaijan in this separatist region of the Caucasus, from which tens of thousands of refugees are now fleeing and flocking to Armenia.
For their part, the Armenian authorities reported on Wednesday the arrival of 42,500 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, or a third of the population of this separatist region where Azerbaijan led a lightning offensive last week. .
Baku opened the only road connecting the enclave to Armenia on Sunday, four days after the capitulation of the separatists and a ceasefire agreement which places Nagorno-Karabakh under the control of Baku.
Explosion of a fuel depot
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, called on Azerbaijan on Monday to respect its commitments to protect civilians in the province and to allow access for humanitarian aid. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev, for his part, reaffirmed the promise that the rights of Armenians in the enclave would be “guaranteed”.
France, for its part, called for “international diplomatic action” in the face of “Russia’s abandonment of Armenia.” Paris estimated that the “massive” exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh is taking place “under the complicit eye of Russia”, which had deployed a peacekeeping force in this secessionist region in 2020.
Monday evening, in the midst of an exodus, a fuel depot exploded in the enclave mainly populated by Armenians, in Stepanakert. The toll remained uncertain Tuesday evening: Armenian separatists say at least 68 people are dead, 290 are injured and 105 are missing.