Day: September 24, 2023

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

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but beyond Baku’s control since the breakup of the Soviet Union, were forced to declare a ceasefire on Sept. 20 after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

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

“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, the president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

He said it was unclear when the Karabakh Armenians would move down the Lachin corridor which links the territory to Armenia, where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced calls to resign for failing to save Karabakh.

“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world,” Babayan said. “Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.”

The process of giving up the weapons of the ethnic Armenian fighters is underway, Babayan said.

The exodus of so many people from Karabakh ushers in yet another twist to the tumultuous history of mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, which over the centuries has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets.

It could also change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran are jostling for influence.

Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want. Pashinyan has said they should stay unless it is unsafe for them to remain.

Medical evacuations from the breakaway region are expected on Sunday.

With thousands of the Karabakh Armenians left without food, ethnic Armenian authorities in the region said late on Saturday that about 150 tons of humanitarian cargo from Russia and another 65 tons of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross had arrived in the region.

Related Galleries:

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a fighter from the Islamist group Hamas, during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, emergency workers and Hamas said.

Israeli forces raided the Nur Shams camp near the city of Tulkarm and a gun battle ensued with Palestinian fighters, medic Najeeb Adeeb said.

The Israeli military said it conducted “counterterrorism activity” in the camp, dismantled an operational command centre and uncovered dozens of explosive devices and bomb-making components.

“During the activity, suspects opened fire and hurled explosive devices at the forces, who responded with live fire. Hits were identified,” the military said in a statement.

Hamas said one of those killed belonged to its armed wing. There was no immediate word on the identity of the other man reported to have been killed.

The military said an Israeli soldier was moderately wounded.

Violence in the West Bank has raged for more than a year, with stepped-up Israeli military raids, increased settler assaults on Palestinian villages and a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

As day dawned on the Nur Shams camp, residents took stock of the roads, infrastructure and buildings damaged during an operation that witnesses said lasted around six hours.

The military said special engineering vehicles dug up roads in the camp, uncovering a large number of concealed bombs and setting off at least one roadside bomb.

Some 13,519 people are registered in Nur Shams camp with the U.N. agency for refugees, descendants of Palestinians who were forced out or fled their homes during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Related Galleries:

The Philippines on Sunday accused China’s coast guard of installing a “floating barrier” in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying it prevented Filipinos from entering and fishing in the area.

Manila’s coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources “strongly condemn” China’s installation of the barrier in part of the Scarborough Shoal, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesperson, posted on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter.

The barrier blocking fishermen from the shoal was depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities”, he said.

“The (Philippine Coast Guard) will continue to work closely with all concerned government agencies to address these challenges, uphold our maritime rights and protect our maritime domains,” Tarriela said.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

China claims 90% of the South China Sea, overlapping with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Beijing seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and forced fishermen from the Philippines to travel further for smaller catches.

Beijing allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the uninhabited shoal when bilateral relations were improving markedly under then-President Rodrigo Duterte. But tension has mounted again since his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, took office last year.

Philippine coast guard and fisheries bureau personnel discovered the floating barrier, estimated at 300 m (1,000 feet) long, on a routine patrol on Friday near the shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, Tarriela said.

Three Chinese coast guard rigid-hull inflatable boats and a Chinese maritime militia service boat installed the barrier when the Philippine vessel arrived, he said.

Filipino fishermen say China typically installs such barriers when they monitor a large number of fishermen in the area, Tarriela said.

The Chinese boats issued 15 radio challenges and accused the Philippine ship and fishermen of violating international and China’s laws, before moving away “upon realizing the presence of media personnel onboard the (Filipino) vessel”, he said.

Related Galleries: