Al Jazeera gains exclusive access to the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh after tens of thousands of its resident fled.
Khankendi, Azerbaijan – An eerie silence blankets the town square of largest city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region
Baby strollers, chairs, and empty boxes are all that remain in the square after more than 100,000 Armenians fled Khakendi in haste, the latest casualties of an old territorial conflict.
Azerbaijan defeated separatist forces in the breakaway region last month leading to Armenian leaders agreeing with Baku that the so-called state of Artsakh will cease to exist.
After the separatist forces were routed, the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, part of oil-and-gas-rich Azerbaijan that had been beyond Baku’s control since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, began fleeing into Armenia.
Khankendi’s residents too, fearful of persecution, left for neighbouring Armenia, leaving behind their homes and businesses.
They departed despite Azerbaijan’s assurances of their safety and equal treatment as citizens.
Red Cross workers are in Khankendi, known to Armenians as Stepanakert, offering to evacuate those who could not find space on the buses and cars heading to Armenia.
The city’s morgue staff have also left, so even the dead being repatriated to Armenia by the Red Cross.
“We continue to find other people stranded for the time being in the city and we have another concern considering the rural areas haven’t been reached yet,” Marco Succi from the Rapid Deployment Team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Al Jazeera.
“If you ask me about immediate needs, it’s electricity, water and gas for [the] coming winter. ICRC has worked with Azerbaijan authorities and look forward to working with them,” he added.
Puppies, left exposed to the elements, run to anyone they see in the square, hoping to be fed. Horses wander the roads, lost without their masters, their hooves on the tarmac breaking the silence.
An occasional ambulance travels down the windswept streets, searching for anyone left behind in need of medical assistance.
It’s a scene is repeated throughout the city.