© Reuters. FILE PHOTO-Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. Basic Meeting in New York Metropolis, U.S., September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Picture
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STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday as ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh after a lightening army operation that has modified the contours of the South Caucasus.
The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as a part of Azerbaijan, have been pressured right into a ceasefire final week after a 24-hour army operation by the much-larger Azerbaijani army.
The management of the 120,000 Armenians who name Karabakh residence advised Reuters on Sunday that they didn’t wish to dwell as a part of Azerbaijan and that they would go away for Armenia as a result of they feared persecution and ethnic cleaning.
As of 5 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, greater than 2,900 folks from Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed into Armenia, the federal government of Armenia stated because it rushed to arrange for 1000’s of refugees.
Erdogan pays a one-day go to to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave – a strip of Azeri territory nestled amongst Armenia, Iran and Turkey – to debate with Aliyev the state of affairs within the Karabakh area, the Turkish president’s workplace stated.
“Bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan shall be mentioned, and views on present world and regional issues, significantly the most recent developments in Karabakh, shall be exchanged,” the presidency stated.
They are going to attend a ceremony for a gasoline pipeline that may carry gasoline to Nakhchivan and inaugurate a newly modernised army set up within the exclave, the Turkish presidency stated.
Within the Karabakh capital, referred to as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, these with gas began on Sunday evening to drive down the Lachin hall towards the border with Armenia, in accordance with a Reuters reporter.
Reuters footage confirmed dozens of automobiles driving out of the capital towards the hall’s mountainous curves.
The Azerbaijani victory modifications the fragile steadiness of energy within the South Caucasus area, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gasoline pipelines the place Russia, the USA, Turkey and Iran are jostling for affect.
KARABAKH
Nagorno-Karabakh, referred to as Artsakh by Armenians, lies in an space that over centuries has come below the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets.
It was claimed by each Azerbaijan and Armenia after the autumn of the Russian Empire in 1917. In Soviet instances it was designated an autonomous area inside Azerbaijan.
Because the Soviet Union crumbled, the Armenians there threw off nominal Azerbaijani management and captured neighbouring territory in what’s now referred to as the First Karabakh Warfare. From 1988-1994 about 30,000 folks have been killed and greater than one million folks, largely Azerbaijanis, displaced.
Azerbaijan gained again swathes of territory in and round Nagorno-Karabakh in a warfare in 2020.
Erdogan, who backed Azerbaijan with weaponry within the 2020 battle, stated final week he supported the goals of the Azerbaijan’s newest army operation however performed no half in it.
Armenia says greater than 200 folks have been killed and 400 wounded in final week’s Azeri operation. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who’s going through calls to resign from protesters in Yerevan, has blamed Russia for failing Armenia.
Pashinyan has warned that some unidentified forces have been searching for to stoke a coup in opposition to him and has accused Russian media of participating in an info warfare in opposition to him.
The USA has stated it was deeply involved by Azerbaijan’s army operation, which Baku launched on Sept. 19 after what it stated have been terrorist assaults on its civilians by Karabakh fighters.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry stated it had confiscated extra army gear from Armenian separatists, together with rockets, artillery shells, mines and ammunition.
Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh stated the fighters had given up 1,200 weapons and 130,000 models of ammunition, and that 125 tonnes of meals and 65 tonnes of gas had been delivered.
Armenia referred to as for an instantaneous deployment of a U.N. mission to watch human rights and safety within the area.
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