LACHIN CORRIDOR
\nAzerbaijani borders guards on Tuesday sought out \u201cwar crime\u201d suspects in a sea of Armenian refugees flooding out of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku claimed control of the separatist statelet in a lightning offensive last week.
\nThe number of people who entered Armenia along the so-called Lachin Corridor following the operation has now surpassed 19,000, and was growing one day after a massive fuel blast on the edge of the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert rose to 20.
\nThe toll threatened to rise because dozens were being treated in critical condition and many remained unaccounted for.
\nMost of the victims were stocking up on fuel for the trip down the only road connecting the impoverished and historically disputed region with Armenia.
\nYerevan has warned of possible \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d by Azerbaijan \u2014 a close ally of Armenia\u2019s arch-nemesis Turkiye \u2014 after Baku launched a 24-hour blitz that forced the rebels to agree to disarm last Wednesday.
\nArmenians, mostly Christian, and Azerbaijanis, mostly Muslim, have fought two deadly wars over the mountainous territory since the Soviet Union\u2019s 1991 collapse.
\nThe area is now populated by up to 120,000 ethnic Armenians but is internationally recognized as part Azerbaijan.
\nThe bad blood between the sides runs deep, with the first war in particular witnessing alleged massacres of civilians and gross human rights abuses by both sides.
\nAn AFP team allowed to access the Lachin Corridor on an Azerbaijani government-organized tour saw that most of the people crossing the border were women, children and the elderly.
\nThe few Armenian men in their 20s and 30s coming out Tuesday were forced to stare into a camera for identification at the last Azerbaijani border post.
\n\u201cAzerbaijan intends to apply an amnesty to Armenian fighters who laid down their arms in Karabakh,\u201d an Azerbaijani government source told AFP.
\n\u201cBut those who committed war crimes during the Karabakh wars must be handed over to us,\u201d the source said.
\nArmenia said early Tuesday that more than 19,000 refugees had fled since the first group arrived in the country on Sunday.
\nAFP reporters on both sides of the border saw hundreds of cars piled high with belongings moving slowly along the jam-packed road.
\nSome of the vehicles crept along on flat tires and many simply walked past the last Azerbaijani checkpoint.
\n\u201cThey expelled us,\u201d one man said as he walked past the Azerbaijani soldiers.
\nYanik Zakaryan, 37, took part in last week\u2019s fighting.
\nNow he was resting on the Armenian side of the border, grateful to Russian peacekeepers who have been patrolling the region since Azerbaijan clawed back swathes of the disputed territory in a six-week war in 2020.
\n\u201cWe fought well, but at one point we found ourselves surrounded,\u201d Zakaryan told AFP. \u201cThe Russians came to get us out.\u201d
\nAdding to the humanitarian drama, the separatist government on Tuesday said 13 bodies were found at the scene of a fuel depot blast on Monday and seven more people had died of their injuries.
\nIt said 290 people had been hospitalized and \u201cdozens of patients remain in critical condition.\u201d
\nArmenia\u2019s health ministry said it had sent a team of doctors to the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert by helicopter.
\nThe Azerbaijani presidency said Baku had also sent medicine to help the wounded, and opened a special humanitarian corridor for Red Cross teams.
\nThe European Union pledged to provide five million euros in humanitarian assistance.
\nThe victims\u2019 treatment was being complicated by shortages of medication that emerged during a nine-month blockade Azerbaijan had imposed to bring the region to heel.
\nAzerbaijan turned on the electricity of the rebel stronghold Stepanakert on Sunday, switching it to its own power grid as part of a \u201creintegration\u201d drive.
\nEnvoys from Baku and Yerevan were in Brussels on Tuesday to pave the way for the first meeting between their leaders since last week\u2019s offensive on October 5.
\nThe separatists said Tuesday that said 208 people had died in last week\u2019s fighting.
\nThe sides have since held two rounds of closed-door talks mediated by Russia focused on putting the region under Baku\u2019s control.
\nBut Azerbaijan\u2019s forces have still not entered Stepanakert, occupying the strategic hights overlooking the rebel stronghold.
\nMany there are tormented by debates on whether to stay or go, which have also spilled out onto social media.
\nSome say that they cannot live under the authority of Azerbaijanis, while others argue that leaving now means that Armenians might never be able to return, losing the region for good.
\nSveta Moussaylyan, 50, said this was the fourth time she has been forced to move due to decades of strife and changes in control over tiny hamlets.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not that old, but I\u2019ve already seen so much!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LACHIN CORRIDOR Azerbaijani borders guards on Tuesday sought out \u201cwar crime\u201d suspects in a sea of Armenian refugees flooding out of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku claimed control of the separatist statelet in a lightning offensive last week. The number of people who entered Armenia along the so-called Lachin Corridor following the operation has now surpassed 19,000, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-358541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n