Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 Armenians will leave for Armenia because they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and fear ethnic cleansing, the breakaway region’s leadership told Reuters today.

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area recognized internationally as part of Azeri territory but inhabited mainly by Armenians, were forced to declare a ceasefire on September 20 following a 24-hour blitzkrieg operation by the Azeri army.

Azerbaijan says it will guarantee their rights and integrate the region, but the Armenian leadership in Nagorno-Karabakh told Reuters they would leave. Azerbaijan has repeatedly denied any intention to harm them.

“99.9% prefer to leave our historic lands”

“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. 99.9% prefer to leave our historical lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanian, president of the “Republic of Artsakh,” as Armenians call it, told Reuters. Nagorno Karabakh.

According to him, it is unclear when the enclave’s Armenians will follow the Lachin Corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, where Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is facing demands to resign from those who accuse him of failing to save Nagorno Karabakh.

“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a shame and disgrace for the Armenian people and the entire civilized world,” Babayan noted. “Those responsible for our fate will one day answer before God for their sins,” he added.

The process of handing over the arms of the enclave’s Armenian fighters is ongoing, he continued.

The exodus of so many people from Nagorno-Karabakh is another twist in the turbulent history of the mountainous region, which has been ruled over the centuries by the Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets.

It also could change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnic groups where oil and gas pipelines criss-cross and where Russia, the US, Turkey and Iran vie for influence.

Azerbaijan has pledged to protect the rights of Armenians but says they are free to leave if they want, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said they should stay unless it is unsafe for them to do so.

Removals of citizens for medical reasons are expected to take place today in Nagorno-Karabakh.

As thousands of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians are left without food, Armenian authorities in the enclave said late yesterday, Saturday night, that convoys with about 150 tons of humanitarian aid from Russia and another 65 tons of flour launched by the International Committee of the Red Stavrou arrived in the area.