More than half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population flees after Azerbaijan takeover of region

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Today, the government of Nagorno-Karabakh said it would dissolve, formally ending more than 30 years of separatist rule for the ethnically Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan.

  As Ali Rogin reports, this comes after Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive last week that has triggered a massive humanitarian crisis, with more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's population fleeing to neighboring Armenia.

• Ali Rogin:

  A massive exodus visible from space, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia now an escape corridor for a traumatized population, jammed with thousands of cars, as people try and flee. They arrive in Armenia hungry and scared.

• Narine Shakaryan, Nagorno-Karabakh Refugee (through interpreter):

  We ran away to survive. It was horrible. Children were hungry, and they were crying.

• Ali Rogin:

  That is a reference to Last week's artillery attack. Karabakh residents ran for cover after Azerbaijani airstrikes set buildings on fire.

  Azerbaijan called it an antiterrorist operation and released video of drone strikes on what they said were Armenian defense positions. The 24-hour offensive ended in a Russian-brokered cease-fire, forcing separatist Karabakh troops to dissolve their formations and disarm.

  Azerbaijani soldiers ripped out the Armenian flag and raised their own in villages they say they have liberated.

  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared victory.

  Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan (through interpreter): As a result, Azerbaijan has restored its sovereignty.

  Richard Kauzlarich, Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan: I think his objective is to erase Karabakh.

• Ali Rogin:

  Richard Kauzlarich is a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan.

• Richard Kauzlarich:

  It wasn't that long ago that he was talking about pushing Armenians, not only out of Karabakh, but out of Armenia itself.

• Ali Rogin:

  Last week's attack was short-lived, but the damage inside Nagorno-Karabakh ran deep. On a trip to the region this week, USAID Administrator Samantha Power pledged $11.5 million in aid, but food and medicine are still scarce, and the offensive exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis.

  For 10 months, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting the enclave with Armenia, cutting off the region from essential supplies.

• Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Former Prosecutor, International Criminal Court:

  Stopping the food and all the essentials to the people in Nagorno-Karabakh, that is classic genocide-inflicting conditions.

• Ali Rogin:

  Luis Moreno-Ocampo was chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. He says Azerbaijan uses starvation as a weapon, even after the International Court of Justice this year ruled the blockade — quote — "may have a serious detrimental impact on the health and lives of individuals, which Ocampo says proves Baku's genocidal intent.

• Luis Moreno-Ocampo:

  President Aliyev took the decision to blockade, fully blockade the Lachin corridor after the International Court of Justice said to him that blocking the Lachin corridor created the risk of death. So he knew, and he did it willingly.

• Ali Rogin:

  Today's crisis isn't new. Nagorno-Karabakh first declared its autonomy within Azerbaijan during the Soviet Union.

  But, for the past 30 years, intermittent violence plagued the region.

• Richard Kauzlarich:

  What did happen in the breakup of the Soviet Union was that you had a group of Armenian nationalists who wanted to make it an independent entity.

• Ali Rogin:

  When the Soviet Union collapsed, the enclave was seized by Armenian separatist forces backed by the Armenian military in a war that ended in 1994.

  Then, in 2020, Azerbaijan launched a brutal 44-day war and regained most of its previously lost territory. The fighting left tens of thousands of Armenians living in the region without a plan for peace, but under the protection of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.

  Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan said they failed to ensure security.

• Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian Prime Minister (through interpreter):

  The responsibility for these developments will be completely on Azerbaijan, who adopted an ethnic cleansing policy and Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh.

• Ali Rogin:

  But Moscow says its peacekeepers evacuated civilians and that Armenians' accusations are unfounded.

  In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said — quote — "The Armenian leadership is making a huge mistake by deliberately attempting to sever Armenia's multifaceted and centuries-old ties with Russia."

• Richard Kauzlarich:

  The idea in itself should be a cause of concern about what role a Russian peacekeeping operation can play, having basically attacked one party in the conflict.

  What Russia is trying to do is — part of what it's been trying to do is to make sure that these countries do not resolve their conflict without Russia being the key actor.

• Ali Rogin:

  After several rounds of talks, today, Nagorno-Karabakh's government said it will cease to exist, ending its three-decade bid for independence.

  This week saw another player with a historic relationship in the region, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wants to create a land corridor between Turkey and Azerbaijan through Armenia. But, despite monthslong talks brokered by the E.U., and U.S. and other efforts to forge a deal, a peace settlement between Yerevan and Baku now seems elusive, Kauzlarich says.

• Richard Kauzlarich:

  What will be difficult to happen is to recreate the environment before this fighting broke out where the U.S. and the E.U. in particular have been trying to mediate a peace agreement.

• Ali Rogin:

  From the U.S. so far, calls for calm. In the last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken twice with Azerbaijan's President Aliyev to prevent further violence and maintain the cease-fire.

• Matthew Miller, State Department Spokesman:

  We think it's important that the cease-fire be maintained, that the humanitarian needs be addressed.

• Ilham Aliyev (through interpreter):

  The people living in the Karabakh region are Azerbaijan citizens, regardless of their nationality. Their safety, security, well-being will be ensured by the state of Azerbaijan.

• Ali Rogin:

  But how Azerbaijan treats its own citizens is also questionable. President Aliyev has concentrated power and weakened any form of opposition or dissent.

  Independent organizations say there are as many as 200 political prisoners, including journalists and activists, among them, world-renowned academic Gubad Ibadoghlu, who faces up to 12 years in prison under counterfeiting charges, allegations he denies. His youngest son, Emin Bayramli, lives in the U.S.

  Emin Bayramli, Son of Gubad Ibadoghlu: He was a economist first and civil right defender second, and that made him very powerful.

• Ali Rogin:

  Over the years, Ibadoghlu investigated corruption inside the Azerbaijani government, including in Nagorno-Karabakh. He's now on pretrial detention, where he's been denied access to food and medicine to treat his diabetes.

• Emin Bayramli:

  As he's in prison, it creates a domino effect where civil society in the country has been completely abolished. And this seems to be the reality, where people are scared to talk.

• Ali Rogin:

  But his children talk, even as they're intimidated.

  Emin sent us these photos of his ransacked room in New Jersey by what he suspects are Azerbaijani officials.

• Emin Bayramli:

  They use social media against us. They put pictures of my sister. And we do feel threatened, but our love and our dedication for our father and our country is greater.

• Ali Rogin:

  A country torn apart by decades of war and trauma, with a rift that grows as tens of thousands continue to flee into an uncertain future.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ali Rogin.