The United States asks Azerbaijan to protect Armenians as thousands leave Karabakh
BAKU: In the devastated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, hungry and fatigued Armenian residents clogged roadways to evacuate houses as the United States urged Azerbaijan to safeguard civilians and allow in aid.
This week, the Armenians of Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been out of Baku’s control since the fall of the Soviet Union, started to leave after their troops were routed by the Azerbaijani military in a quick military operation.
On the first day of the migration, at least 13,550 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home made it to Armenia, hundreds of automobiles and buses jam-packed with belongings winding down the mountain route out of Azerbaijan.
Others escaped on tractors, while some were jammed into the backs of open-topped trucks. Narine Shakaryan, a grandmother of four, arrived in her son-in-law’s ancient automobile with six passengers crammed inside. She claimed it took her 24 hours to travel the 77 miles. They were starving.
Shakaryan, who was at the border with her 3-year-old granddaughter, who she claimed had grown ill during the trek, told Reuters that the youngsters had been weeping all the while because they were hungry.
“We left not to live, but to stay alive.”
