HUNDREDS of Azeri civilians, including children, probably drowned in the River Aras fleeing the latest Armenian advance in south west Azerbaijan, according to the head of the United Nations mission in Baku, Mamoud el-Said.

“Twenty thousand people escaped in Iran, but three times as many are still in danger,” he said last night.

In the last few days the Armenians have broken a ceasefire agreement and advanced south from the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, reaching Azerbaijan’s border with Iran. They have cut off a huge swath of south-west Azerbaijan and now control about a fifth of the country. A source close to the Azeri leadership claimed yesterday that the Armenians were advancing on the Zangilan region where, according to Dr el-Said, up to 60,000 Azeris from the Armenian Republic and Karabak are trapped. That is possible. In April, Armenian fighters advanced in a pincer movement from Armenia and Karabakh in to the Kelbajar region of Azerbaijan.

The Azeri president, Geidar Aliyev, has appealed to the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to condemn the Armenian attack. The Karabakh Armenians claim that it was the Azeris who broke the latest ceasefire. There is no evidence to support that.

“Those who make it across the Aras River are being shuttled about 150 kilometres [93 miles] through Iran to Imishli in southern Azerbaijan,” Dr el-Said said.

There is an Iranian refugee camp in Imishli, cast of the new front line at Horadiz. UN and other agencies have been sending blankets, food and other emergency aid to Imishli.

Publication date 10/28/1993

Courtesy of Karabagh Truths platform