'Staying, for us, is impossible.' Thousands flee Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia
The exodus began late Sunday, a trickle of vehicles that soon turned into an unceasing stream flowing along the mountain highway above Nagorno-Karabakh toward the Armenian border.
By early Monday morning, almost a week after the Azerbaijani military took back Nagorno-Karabakh in a 24-hour blitz, more than 4,850 ethnic Armenians had left the enclave and crossed into Armenia, the Armenian government said. Many more are expected to follow, in a mass self-displacement that is almost certain to transform the character of a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but long inhabited mostly by people pledging allegiance to Armenia.
In the city of Stepanakert, the region's capital (Azerbaijan calls it Khankendi), there were tear-filled farewells as people took leave of their homes and engaged in the somber calculus of what to salvage and what to leave behind.
"Staying, for us, is impossible. Living under Azerbaijani and Turkish authority, we can't — with the backing of ally Turkey — of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh.
