“Analysis shows that there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days. This is a direct act of ethnic cleansing and depatriation, and something we have been warning the international community about for a long time,” charged Pashinian.
He complained that international criticism of Azerbaijan, which went on a large-scale military offensive in Karabakh on September 19, has not been backed up by “concrete actions.”
“If declarations of condemnation are not followed by commensurate political and legal decisions, condemnations become acts of acquiescence,” he added during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
He spoke as a steady stream of Karabakh Armenian refugees crossed into Armenia through the Lachin corridor for the fifth consecutive day. According to the Armenian government, their total number reached 76,400 by 8 p.m. local time. The figure is equivalent to nearly two-thirds of Karabakh’s estimated population.
The government pledged to help evacuate people remaining in Stepanakert and other Karabakh towns and villages. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian said many of them own no cars, trucks or other vehicles that would transport them to Armenia.
The government is planning to send a convoy of 35 buses to Stepanakert for that purpose, Khachatrian said, adding that Russian peacekeepers have agreed to escort it. He said the buses cannot head to Karabakh now because the 50-kilometer road connecting it to Armenia remains clogged by hundreds of vehicles. It now takes at least 30 hours to drive from the Karabakh capital to the Armenian border, Khachatrian told Pashinian and fellow cabinet members.
In the Armenian border town of Goris, government officials and private volunteers kept scrambling to provide the arriving refugees with food, housing and other vital assistance. A spokeswoman for Pashinian said only 17,150 refugees have accepted accommodation provided by the government in hotels, resorts and public buildings across the country. The prime minister announced later in the day that each refugee will receive a one-off cash payment of 100,000 drams ($260).
Meanwhile, Baku has denied the accusations of ethnic cleansing and insisted that it wants to "reintegrate" the enclave's ethnic Armenian population into Azerbaijan. In a statement, the Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry urged ethnic Armenian residents to stay in Karabakh.
Russia, which has been criticized by Yerevan for its peacekeepers' failure to prevent the fall of Karabakh, suggested that the fleeing Karabakh Armenians have nothing to fear.
"It's difficult to say who is to blame [for the exodus.] There is no direct reason for such actions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The exodus followed a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the lighting Azerbaijani offensive. Under the terms of that agreement, Karabakh disarmed its army, paving the way for the restoration of full Azerbaijani control over the territory.
In line with the deal, Samvel Shahramanian, the Karabakh president, also signed a decree on Thursday disbanding all government bodies and saying that the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh, set up in September 1991, will cease to exist on January 1.
The ceasefire also commits Baku to permitting the “free, voluntary, and unrestrained passage” of Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian residents, including ''servicemen who have laid down arms.” Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition parliamentarian who used to work in Karabakh, said that despite this provision, the Azerbaijani authorities have threatened to arrest some Karabakh Armenians.
“I know names but it’s very dangerous to publicize them now,” Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“The people remaining in Artsakh now, from ordinary citizens to the president, have the status of hostages,” he said.
Ruben Vardanyan, a former Karabakh premier, was arrested by Azerbaijani security forces in the Lachin corridor on Wednesday.