The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed yesterday to negotiate a new ceasefire. But the countries agreed not to deliberately attack the civilian population.
At the same time, the flow of refugees from the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region continues. Ekot’s correspondent has met refugees who are now in the Armenian capital Yerevan.
– People die there, says Vera Sarkisian. Many have fled, such as she and her daughters and grandchildren. But many have chosen to stay. They do not want to leave their husbands, children and grandchildren who are left to fight. Some have a basement to hide in, others have no basement.
Every morning calls they home to Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh where Vera’s son remains. All healthy men up to the age of 55 are called up to fight. Think of the morning when the son no longer answers, says Vera.
Everyone knows someone who is no longer alive since the war started just over a month ago.
The son of the geography teacher at the school where Vera’s daughter Kristina works has died. The husband of another teacher is injured and lacks a leg.
Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to formally Azerbaijan but inhabited mostly by Armenians. During the war in the 90’s, the surrounding territories were also taken over by Armenia and now Azerbaijan is fighting to take back what is considered its own. Several villages claim to have already been conquered. Armenia has responded with attacks on cities inside Azerbaijan.
Amnesty International says that cluster munitions banned under international law have been used by both sides. In an attack on the Azerbaijani city of Barda on Wednesday, more than 20 civilians were killed.
Three negotiated ceasefires, two with Russian help and one with American have been broken. The fighting is the worst since the war in the 1990s, when about 30,000 people were killed. At the same time, this war is different and more frightening, say the refugees I talk to.
– Then there was a war with automatic rifles. Now it is war from the air, says Vera Sarkisian.
Source: ICELAND NEWS