World

Turkey’s Erdogan to meet Azeri’s Aliyev as thousands flee Karabakh

2023.09.24 23:42

5/5

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO-Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

2/5

(Updates to indicate video and pictures available for story)

(Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is to meet his ally Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Monday, as thousands of ethnic Armenians began an exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan defeated the breakaway region’s fighters last week.

Erdogan will pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave – a strip of Azeri territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Turkey – to discuss with Aliyev the situation in the Karabakh region, the Turkish president’s office said.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much-larger Azerbaijani military.

On Sunday, the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership told Reuters the region’s 120,000 Armenians did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan for fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing and started fleeing the area.

Russia’s RIA news agency cited early on Monday an Armenian government statement saying that more than 1,500 people had crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabkah as of midnight (2000 GMT).

Those with fuel had started to drive down the Lachin corridor toward the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter in the Karabakh capital known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital toward the corridor’s mountainous curves.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years — with Azerbaijan gaining back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.

Erdogan, who backed the Azeris with weaponry in the 2020 conflict, said last week he supported the aims of the Azerbaijan’s latest military operation but played no part in it.

Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in last week’s Azeri operation, a hostility condemned by the United States and other Western allies of Armenia.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it had confiscated more military equipment from Armenian separatists, including rockets, artillery shells, mines and ammunition.

The Karabakh Armenians are not accepting Azerbaijan’s promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated. Armenia called for an immediate deployment of a U.N. mission to monitor human rights and security in the region.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 91,605.54 4.17%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,193.07 0.49%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.16%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 215.89 3.74%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 632.07 3.30%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.397563 1.89%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.714166 5.85%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.22%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,191.63 0.56%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.566962 5.13%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.180473 2.46%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000025 3.97%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,779.11 0.49%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.33 0.77%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 91,068.40 3.80%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 32.49 0.50%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 3.30 3.15%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,191.51 0.47%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000021 60.93%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 438.15 5.77%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 13.29 1.66%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 7.74 6.16%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 5.00 1.61%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 5.23 0.52%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 11.72 4.28%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 80.60 9.36%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,356.08 0.31%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.01 0.21%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 8.47 0.21%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.156441 4.65%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 4.04 32.91%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 8.31 0.53%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 519.52 5.11%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.126314 0.66%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.29 3.19%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 22.39 2.14%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.32%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 22.45 2.82%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.126336 3.35%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.01 0.24%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.93 0.73%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.370098 1.20%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 6.94 0.11%
bonk
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000039 12.80%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 146.25 2.13%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 44.12 1.85%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 171.36 1.83%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.743431 7.43%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.609892 2.68%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 4.03 1.52%