2023-09-25 22:11:43
In the contested conflict region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus, hundreds of victims have been killed following the explosion of a fuel depot. The office of the human rights commissioner of the internationally unrecognized republic spoke on Monday evening of at least 200 injuries and an unknown number of deaths not far from the regional capital Stepanakert. It was initially unclear what triggered the catastrophe in the region inhabited by a majority of Armenians.
The area was attacked and defeated by Azerbaijan last week. Large flames could be seen in photos on social networks. The politician Metakse Akopjan said that at the time of the accident, many people were queuing for gasoline at the camp because they wanted to flee the Azerbaijanis to Armenia in cars.
The region’s human rights office appealed to the international community: It is urgently necessary to fly out people, especially seriously injured people, for treatment. “Nagorno-Karabakh’s medical capacity is not sufficient to save people’s lives,” said the message on Twitter (X).
The humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has long been contested between the two feuding ex-Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, is already catastrophic. Azerbaijanis have been blocking the only Armenian access road for months, which is why food, medicine and gasoline are in short supply in the region.
Last Tuesday, authoritarian Azerbaijan launched a military operation to conquer Nagorno-Karabakh. Just a day later, the defeated Karabakh Armenians surrendered. According to Armenian sources, more than 200 people died during the brief fighting and more than 400 others were injured. The tens of thousands of Armenian civilians in the region now fear being displaced or oppressed by the new Azerbaijani rulers.
Armenia expert Herbert Maurer said on ORF’s ZiB 3 on Monday evening that the conflict had a “long history”. “In the shadow of the Ukraine disaster, it is easier to resolve smaller conflicts.” The writer, who himself lived in Armenia, said that this is also because the world’s attention is not that great. Armenia has always been a “quintessentially European region,” explained Maurer. The Armenians were “never aggressive or expansive”, they just wanted to live their culture and identity, which was always European, Maurer continued in the ORF broadcast.
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