Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive last week to retake the whole region, prompting a mass Armenian exodus.
More than 50,000 people had crossed the border into Armenia by early Wednesday afternoon, nearly half of Karabakh's estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians.
Prior to last week's offensive, the Karabakh Armenians had lived under an effective 10-month Azerbaijani blockade which had led to chronic shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
ANCIENT CHRISTIAN LANDConflict in the region between Armenians and Azeris goes back more than a century.
There are churches in Azerbaijan which the authorities say are Caucasian Albanian rather than Armenians, something Armenians strongly dispute.
Persons:
David, Irakli, Priest, Father David, Gareth Jones, William Maclean
Organizations:
REUTERS, Reuters, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Christianity, Thomson
Locations:
Goris, Nagorno, Karabakh, Kornidzor, Armenia, KORNIDZOR, Azerbaijan, Republic of Artsakh, Soviet Union, Baku, Shusha, Moscow, Russian, Armenia's, Albania, Albanian, Turkey, Iran, Ottoman Turks