Exasperated residents flee Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seizes control of breakaway region

GORIS, Armenia — Ruzan Israyelyan and her children spent days walking through forests in Nagorno-Karabakh and hiding from Azerbaijani drones as they fled for Armenia following Azerbaijan’s blitz offensive to reclaim control of the breakaway region.

A truck in the convoy of thousands of refugees carried the bodies of Israyelyan’s husband, brother and uncle for burial in Armenia. They died defending their village of Sarushen during the Azerbaijani attack last week.

“At the beginning of the attack, women and children hid in the upper part of the village,” the 35-year-old mother said. “The same night, we escaped by foot, running through the forests, while our men were left to defend the village.”

Israyelyan, her 8-year old son and her daughters aged 11 and 12, eventually found a car and drove to the regional capital of Stepanakert, where they spent two days outside with no food or spare clothes.

“After the blockade, my children were already malnourished,” she said, referring to the 9-month Azerbaijani blockade of the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. “I could not find a single piece of bread for my children in Stepanakert for two days․ It was impossible to stay any longer. We managed to find a friend’s car, and somehow we squeezed into it.”

Some 19,000 people — about 16% of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh — have fled to Armenia since Azerbaijan’s swift military operation to reclaim the region after three decades of separatist rule. The mass exodus caused huge traffic jams. The 100-kilometer (60-mile) drive took as long as 20 hours.

Azerbaijan on Friday lifted the blockade of the road to Armenia — the Lachin Corridor — after separatist authorities agreed to lay down weapons and negotiate how to reintegrate the region.