The Armenian flag hangs from a lamp post as Azeri police patrol a road leading into the city of Stepanakert, retaken last week, during an Azeri government organized media trip, in Azerbaijan’s controlled region of Nagorno-Karabakh, on October 2, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Armenia reported on October 2 an unspecified number of “casualties” after saying Azerbaijani forces opened fire in a border region, a claim Baku denied.
“There are casualties on the Armenian side in the wake of the fire by the Azerbaijani armed forces,” Armenia’s defence ministry said.
Silence falls on Karabakh after refugee exodus
Silence has returned to the mountain road down which most of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh fled after the self-proclaimed republic surrendered to Azerbaijani troops.
After nine days of fear and panic, the exodus of Armenians is over with the Lachin Corridor that links Karabakh to Armenia all but deserted except for a rare car, said AFP reporters there on a visit organised by Azerbaijani authorities.
On a hill, the Armenian flag flew next to a group of civilian volunteers waiting for the last refugees to arrive.
In the middle of a bridge between them and an Azerbaijani checkpoint, sat an armoured car belonging to Russian peacekeepers deployed there as part of a peace deal after the 2020 war that Armenia lost.
A clapped-out old Russian 4X4 puffed up to the Azerbaijani customs, with a mattress, furniture and a bike strapped to its roof.
Its driver, Sergei Astsarian, showed his ID to the Azerbaijanis, who are equipped with the latest digital technology.
The 40-year-old shopkeeper said he finally decided to leave his home in the rebel capital of Stepanakert, which gave up its 30-year separatist struggle after a lightning offensive by Azerbaijani troops.
In the past few days, Astsarian said he had been living in the city “alone, like the last of the Mohicans” and was concerned that he might get stuck there forever.
