More than 50,000 refugees have fled Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia says

Azerbaijani soldiers inspect a car as refugees wait to cross the border from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia at Lachin checkpoint on September 26, 2023. © Emmanuel Dunand, AFP

Armenia said on Wednesday it had received 50,243 Nagorno-Karabakh refugees since Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive, representing more than a third of the separatist ethnic Armenian enclave’s population.

The military victory by Azerbaijan over the enclave a week ago has triggered one of the biggest movements of people in the South Caucasus since the fall of the Soviet Union.