The Diplomat
Acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares yesterday expressed “alarm at the growing number of Armenians” who have fled their homes in Nagorno Karabakh since the offensive launched by Azerbaijan against this territory and demanded that “the rights and security of the population” be guaranteed.
“Alarmed by the growing number of Armenians fleeing their homes in Nagorno Karabakh and the explosion that has caused hundreds dead,” Albares stated through his official X account, the former Twitter, referring to the explosion of a fuel depot, which last Monday caused at least 70 deaths.
“The rights and security of the population must be guaranteed,” as well as the “delivery of humanitarian aid,” warned the acting minister. “The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) will be present,” he concluded. Spain’s ambassador to Russia (with accreditation in Armenia), Marcos Gómez, has held several meetings throughout this week with NGOs operating in Armenia and on the borders with Nagorno Karabakh and even accompanied the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) on one of its patrols through the province of Syunik, in the south of the country.
Azerbaijan launched a lightning military operation last September 19, which concluded with a cease-fire providing for the disarmament of the pro-Armenian forces in the enclave and which will allow the effective de facto recovery of Nagorno Karabakh, a largely Armenian territory whose sovereignty belongs to Azerbaijan but which maintained a high degree of autonomy. It is estimated that more than 47,000 people, out of a total of 120,000 inhabitants, have left the territory for Armenia since the beginning of the offensive.
