Karabakh humanitarian fears grow with thousands sleeping on Stepanakert streets

BBC News:

Azerbaijan’s military has paraded heavy weapons captured in Nagorno-Karabakh, amid warnings thousands of civilians are without shelter after the surrender of Armenian separatists.

Tanks, guns and RPGs were among the haul shown to the BBC, in the first access given to journalists since separatists agreed to disarm this week.

Ethnic Armenian leaders say thousands are without food or shelter.

Only one aid delivery of 70 tonnes of food has been allowed through.

The convoy from the International Red Cross was the first to reach the disputed territory since Azerbaijan captured it in a lightning operation five days ago. Russia says it has also delivered aid, but it is not known how much.

Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous region in the South Caucasus – is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but large areas of it have been controlled by ethnic Armenians for three decades.

On Saturday, Armenia urged the UN to send a mission to monitor the rights of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing that their very existence was now under threat.

Azerbaijan denies the accusation, saying it wants to reintegrate the region’s ethnic Armenian residents as equal citizens of the country.

At least 200 ethnic Armenians died, including 10 civilians, as Azerbaijan’s army swept into the enclave earlier this week.

Now, displaced from villages and separated from relatives, several thousand people were sleeping in tents or the open air near the airport in the main city Stepanakert, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan, Karabakh officials said.

The airport is also near a base for Russian peacekeepers, five of whom were killed during the fighting.

On Saturday Azerbaijan said it was working with Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh to disarm ethnic Armenian forces – one of its key demands in return for a ceasefire.

In the courtyard of a military HQ in Susa, near the regional capital, Azeri military officials proudly laid out weapons given up by separatists.

The haul included what appeared to be a T-72 tank, several BMP-2 armoured personnel carriers, machine guns, assault rifles, body armour and mines. The BBC estimates that the area filled was equivalent to half a football field.