Almost 20,000 people have left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia in fear of Azerbaijani reprisals. Meanwhile, officials said at least 68 people were killed in a fuel depot explosion in the breakaway region.
'Ethnic cleansing accusation an insult,' says Azerbaijan presidential advisor
Azerbaijan's presidential foreign policy adviser on Tuesday called Armenian accusations of ethnic cleansing, "an insult to the people of Azerbaijan."
In an exclusive interview with DW's Jack Parrock, President Ilham Aliyev's advisor, Hikmet Hajiyev, said that people leaving Nagorno-Karabakh "haven’t been forced" from their homes.
Hajiyev, in Brussels for EU-hosted talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, said, "Azerbaijan has nothing to hide" but insisted there is, "no need for any kind of international observer mission because the realities on the ground are obvious."
When pressed on whether his country was becoming a geopolitical pawn, Hajiyev concluded, "Azerbaijan was always against any kind of geopolitical competition in our region."
19,000 refugees enter Armenia — official
At least 19,000 people have crossed into Armenia from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian deputy prime minister Tigran Khachatryan was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying.
Khachatryan dated the figure to 1215 UTC on Tuesday. Hours earlier, a figure of 13,550 had been reported.
While Azerbaijani authorities insist they will ensure the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh's civilian population, ethnic Armenians have begun to flee due to fear of expulsion or reprisals after Baku retook the territory.
Source: DW
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