Nonna Poghosyan spent Monday morning walking around her family home in Nagorno-Karabakh “trying to understand what to take, what is the most important stuff I can fit into my suitcase.”
Her nine-year-old twin children had been upstairs, deciding which of their belongings they would have to leave behind. “They cry for every toy,” Poghosyan, the American University of Armenia’s program coordinator in the region’s capital Stepanakert, told CNN.
“A gasoline warehouse exploded,” Metakse Hakobyan, a member of the Karabakh parliament, told Armenian state news agency Armenpress, adding that “there will definitely be victims.” The Karabakh presidency told Reuters that the majority of Karabakh Armenians did not want to live in Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia. Azerbaijan has said it will guarantee the rights of those living in the region, but Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and international experts have repeatedly warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the enclave.
Azerbaijan has long been explicit about the choice that confronts Karabakh Armenians. Those who choose to remain must accept Azerbaijani citizenship. Those who do not must leave. Among the bodies were two children and an elderly couple, officials said. CNN could not independently verify the claims.
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