REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Sept 24 (Reuters) - 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.
As the Soviet Union crumbled, what is known as the First Karabakh War erupted (1988-1994) between Armenians and their Azerbaijan.
If 120,000 people go down the Lachin corridor to Armenia, the small South Caucasian country could face a humanitarian crisis.
It was not immediately clear where 120,000 people could be housed in Armenia, whose population is just 2.8 million, ahead of winter.
Many Armenians blame Pashinyan, who lost a 2020 war to Azerbaijan over Karabakh, for losing Karabakh.
Persons:
Irakli, David Babayan, Samvel Shahramanyan, Babayan, Nikol Pashinyan, Pashinyan, Ilham Aliyev, Armenia's Pashinyan, Guy Faulconbridge, Bernadette Baum
Organizations:
REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Russian, Armenian, International Committee, Karabakh, stoke, NATO, Thomson
Locations:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno, Karabakh, Kornidzor, Republic of Artsakh, Soviet Union, AZERBAIJAN, South Caucasus, Russia, United States, Turkey, Iran, Moscow, Yerevan, Russian