Artsakh residents crammed onto and inside a truck leaving for Armenia (Reuters photo)
As of late Sunday night local time, 100,514 displaced Artsakh residents had entered Armenia, with the Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan reporting that the last bus carrying 15 passengers left Stepanakert for Goris.
In a Facebook post he said that a “small team of dedicated people” will stay in Artsakh to look for “helpless” civilians who may be stuck in their homes and unable to leave.
“If you still have clear information about lonely or helpless people left behind in Artsakh, you should contact the International Committee of the Red Cross or provide us with relevant information to be forwarded to the ICRC,” Stepanian said.
Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan said he and a group of other officials will stay in Stepanakert until the search for people who died or went missing as a result of last week’s powerful fuel depot explosion and victims of the Azerbaijani attack on Artsakh on September 19 is over.
Shahramanyan signaled on Friday that he was going to negotiate with the Azerbaijanis to allow former Artsakh leaders and other prominent figures to leave for Armenia safely.
Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said on Saturday that it has compiled a “most wanted” list of 300 Artsakh officials and issued what it called “international warrants” for their arrest. Included on the list are the three former presidents of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakian and Arkady Ghukasian.
Citing an unnamed source in Artsakh, the Russian TASS news agency reported on Monday that Harutyunyan, Sahakian and Ghukasian remained in Stepanakert as of noon local time on Monday amid continuing negotiations with the Azerbaijani side.
Artsakh’s former foreign minister David Babayan reportedly was arrested after he said he was going to turn himself in to Azerbaijani authorities. Another three officials, former state minister Ruben Vardanyan, former Artsakh Army commander Levon Mnatsakanyan and his ex-deputy Davit Manukyan, have also been arrested and under currently in Azerbaijani prisons.
Azerbaijani officials escorted a team of United Nations observers to Stepanakert on Sunday for what was the first official visit of a UN delegation in 30 years.
Reports are circulating that Azerbaijani television and radio broadcasts have already begun airing in areas previously under the control of the Stepanakert authorities.
Azerbaijan has signaled that it will begin circulating it currency, the manat, in those areas and Stepanakert.