Baku Disputes ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Claims as Nagorno-Karabakh Residents Continue Fleeing to Armenia

According to Armenian officials more than half the region’s total population has crossed the border.

Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh are evacuated on Sept. 26, 2023 in Kornidzor, Armenia. Some 30,000 Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh in the past week after the defeat of Armenian separatist forces against Azerbaijan. Astrig Agopian/Getty Images

Azerbaijan has disputed claims that its forces are “ethnically cleansing” the Nagorno-Karabakh region amid an ongoing exodus by ethnic Armenians to neighboring Armenia. 

“Azerbaijan has nothing to do with the decision by local Armenians ... to depart for Armenia or any other country,” the foreign ministry in Baku stated on Sept. 28.