1 of 2 | Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh cross the border with Azerbaijan by car, carrying their belongings with them, near the village of Kornidzor, Armenia, on Friday. Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/EPA-EFE
Sept. 30 (UPI) — A former top official of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Eastern Europe has revealed that the ethnic Armenian population has drastically decreased due to a wave of migration involving over 100,000 people.
Artak Beglaryan, the region’s former state minister, shared in a social media post that the enclave is now nearly vacant, with only a few hundred individuals remaining who are also preparing to leave.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of Azerbaijan’s military operation to reclaim the area, as confirmed by officials. In less than a week, over 88,000 individuals crossed the border into Armenia, representing more than 80% of the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh, which shares a border with Azerbaijan, according to the United Nations.
Approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians once called this region home. While many of those arriving in Armenia have family there, around 32,000 individuals require government assistance, according to the Armenian Prime Minister’s Office.
The United Nations is dispatching a team of observers to the region.
President Ilham Aliyev’s government launched the military operation to retake the 1,700-square-mile territory, formally dissolving the breakaway republic created in 1994 after a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Several military conflicts have occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh throughout the years.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed concerns about the possibility of ethnic cleansing in a speech, but Aliyev has denied such allegations and assured the safety of Armenians who choose to remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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