Thousands Flee Nagorno-Karabakh As Armenia Says Ethnic Cleansing Under Way

A growing stream of ethnic Armenian refugees are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan's seizure of the disputed region last week.

More than 13,000 people have so far crossed into Armenia from the enclave, which is home to a majority of some 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

They left after the government in Yerevan announced plans to move those made homeless by the fighting.

Armenia's PM has warned that ethnic cleansing is "under way" in the region.

"That's happening just now, and that is a very unfortunate fact because we were trying to urge the international community on that," Nikol Pashinyan told reporters.

Azerbaijan has said it wants to re-integrate the ethnic Armenians as "equal citizens".

Envoys from Armenia and Azerbaijan are due to meet for EU-backed talks in Brussels later on Tuesday - the first such talks since the seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urged the two sides to reach a lasting peace agreement.

In Karabakh's main city, Stepanakert, an explosion at a petrol station is said to have badly injured more than 200 people, local human rights ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It is not yet clear what caused the blast.

As people flee, there are large traffic tailbacks on the Armenian border._BBC