More than 47,000 people have left Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to reclaim control of the disputed territory.

The narrow mountain road snaking out of the enclave was clogged with traffic, as large numbers of ethnic Armenians fled towards Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s capture of Nagorno-Karabakh a week ago has sparked one of the biggest movements of people in the region since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Nagorno-Karabakh home say they do not want to live there anymore because they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Azerbaijani officials have dismissed the fears and promised “re-integration” of ethnic Armenians into Azerbaijani society.

Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour lightning offensive and recaptured the disputed territory last week, after blockading the key Lachin corridor that links it to Armenia for months.

On Tuesday that same corridor was lined with vehicles amid as thousands of ethnic Armenians left their homes seeking safety.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians flee disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory after Azerbaijan regains control

Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 Armenians will leave for Armenia, leadership says

Azerbaijan claims full control of Nagorno-Karabakh after local Armenian forces agree to lay down weapons

“I left everything behind. I don’t know what is in store for me. I have nothing. I don’t want anything,” Vera Petrosyan, a 70-year-old retired teacher, said.

Speaking at the large Soviet-era hotel on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan that is now her home, she added: “I would not want anybody to see what I have seen.”

Read more from Sky News:
More than 100 dead at Iraq wedding
North Korea plans to deport US soldier

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the enclave in 30 years – with Azerbaijan gaining back swathes of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week conflict in 2020.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said the rights of Armenians will be respected but added his “iron fist” had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and the region would be turned into a “paradise”.

The US and EU have expressed “deep concerns” for the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but had been under Armenian control.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

On Wednesday reports emerged that Azerbaijan’s security forces had detained Ruben Vardanyan, a former top official in Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian administration, as he tried to leave the region.

Mr Vardanyan, a billionaire investment banker, served as the head of Karabakh’s separatist government between November 2022 and February 2023.

Related posts:

‘A real concentration camp’: Alexei Navalny reveals his new prison in Instagram post Sumatran tigers recovering after testing positive for COVID in zoo At least six killed as Storm Ida dumps a month’s worth of rain on New York City China accuses head of MI6 of ‘peddling fake news and false intelligence’ People in France head to the polls for first round of presidential election How do you catch monkeypox and how easily does it spread? Putin warns Russia will respond if NATO boosts Finland and Sweden’s military strength Hiker missing after being swept off her feet by flash flood Leaks to Nord Stream pipelines were ‘likely premeditated attack using remote explosives’ Suicide bomb attack kills 20 outside Afghan foreign ministry in Kabul American football player Damar Hamlin who suffered cardiac arrest mid-game is released from hospital Why was the destruction to buildings in Turkey so catastrophic?