US calls on Azerbaijan to safeguard Armenians as thousands flee Karabakh. In the vanquished separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, hungry and tired Armenian residents clogged roadways to evacuate houses as the United States pleaded with Azerbaijan to safeguard civilians and allow relief.

This week, the Armenians of Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been out of Baku’s control since the fall of the Soviet Union, started to leave after the Azerbaijani military crushed their troops in a quick military operation.

On the first day of the migration, at least 13,550 of the 120,000 ethnic Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home made it to Armenia, hundreds of automobiles and buses jam-packed with possessions winding down the mountain route out of Azerbaijan.

Others escaped on tractors, while some were jammed into the backs of open-topped trucks. Narine Shakaryan, a grandmother of four, arrived in her son-in-law’s ancient automobile with six passengers crammed inside. She claimed it took her 24 hours to go the 77 miles. They had not eaten.

Shakaryan, who was at the border with her 3-year-old granddaughter, who she claimed had grown unwell during the trek, told Reuters that the youngsters had been weeping all the while because they were hungry.

“We left not to live, but to stay alive.”

Fuel stations were overrun by panic purchasing as Armenians hurried to evacuate the Karabakh city, known by Armenia as Stepanakert and Azerbaijan as Khankendi. The officials there said a petroleum storage facility explosion on Monday resulted in at least 20 fatalities and 290 injuries in a major fire.

In the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Samantha Power, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) director, urged Azerbaijan “to maintain the ceasefire and take concrete steps to protect the rights of civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Power, who had previously presented a letter of solidarity from U.S. President Joe Biden to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia, stated that Azerbaijan’s use of force was wrong and that the United States was considering the best course of action.

She urged President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to honor his pledge to defend the rights of ethnic Armenians, completely restore the Lachin corridor connecting the area to Armenia, and permit relief delivery as well as an international monitoring team.

Although Aliyev promised to ensure the protection of the Armenians in Karabakh, he claimed that his iron hand had relegated the concept of the region’s independence to antiquity.

NO PLACE TO GO

Armenians of ethnicity who made it there shared horrifying experiences of escaping starvation, conflict, and death.

Some claimed to have seen numerous dead citizens; one stated truckloads. Some of whom were carrying little children sobbed uncontrollably as they related their horrific odysseys of fleeing conflict, sleeping on the ground, and experiencing intense hunger.

“We packed up our belongings and fled. We have no idea where we are headed. In the border village of Goris on Sunday, 69-year-old motorist Petya Grigoryan told Reuters, “We have nowhere to go.

Independent confirmation of the military activity inside Karabakh by Reuters was not possible. According to Azerbaijan, only fighters in Karabakh were the targets.

According to USAID’s Power, the world will soon hear more about the harsh conditions in Karabakh and what the residents had to go through to decide to leave.

LEVEL OF POWER

The Azerbaijani triumph shifts the balance of power in the South Caucasus, a patchwork of nationalities where Russia, the United States, Turkey, and Iran are vying for influence. The area is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines.

Armenia has depended on a security alliance with Russia ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, while Azerbaijan developed close to Turkey due to shared language and cultural links.

Recently, Armenia has pushed for better links with the West and accuses Russia of failing to defend Karabakh since it had peacekeepers stationed there but is now busy with the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow denies responsibility and has warned Pashinyan that his flirtation with the U.S. is a grave mistake.

Aliyev suggested on Monday that an Armenia-to-Turkey land corridor may be built.

The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, urged Washington to refrain from inflaming anti-Russian feelings in Armenia.