Karabakh 'completely abandoned': Ethnic Armenians have fled decades-old 'armed conflict, violence'

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00:00 So what then is the situation like in Nagorno-Karabakh today after that mass exodus of its population?

00:07 Joining me live on the line now is Marco Succi. He's the team leader for the International

00:12 Committee of the Red Cross and he's currently in the region's self-declared capital of Stepanakert.

00:19 Thank you very much indeed, sir, for finding the time to talk to us today.

00:22 Good afternoon. Thanks for having me.

00:26 It's been really hard for us journalists to get information out of Stepanakert in recent

00:32 weeks, but you are there, you're on the ground, so just give us a sense of what you've witnessed.

00:40 After the large scale movement population that took place after the 19th and 20th September

00:47 military escalation, the city has been completely abandoned. The main city has been completely

00:53 abandoned. So what we see every day is empty streets, empty shops, empty buildings, empty

01:01 infrastructure. Some essential services like water, water supplies and electricity have

01:08 remained pretty functional while others are being restored, like for instance telecommunication,

01:16 which also created a generated absurdness for those remaining because they couldn't

01:22 connect anymore with their family members who crossed into Armenia. That's one of our

01:27 priorities right now, to reconnect family members.

01:32 Right this morning we got a couple of good news because we managed to find or to reconnect

01:37 residents here in the city that Armenians called Stepanakert and the Azerbaijani Khankendi,

01:45 a couple of residents, reconnecting them with the families in Armenia. In both cases there

01:49 were men deciding to stay while their families, wives, children and parents left almost a

01:57 week ago. This was really the first sign of life for, since days. So I imagine the joy,

02:06 the relief for the families and also for our teams.

02:10 That is extraordinary. Forgive me for cutting across you there, but that is extraordinary

02:14 that you've been there for several days and you've only found several ethnic Armenians

02:19 who've chosen to remain. Explain to us about why those people have chosen to stay. Do you

02:26 have any sense of the number of ethnic Armenians that are still in Stepanakert?

02:31 It's difficult to say. As I said, the city is completely deserted and probably a few

02:41 dozens, hundreds at best have remained in the cities. For the reasons why it's difficult

02:49 to ascertain, people felt the need to leave. Now what was behind everybody's decision is

02:55 difficult to know. We should also take into consideration how the situation was over the

03:02 last month since the disruption in the movement of people and goods along the Lachin Corridor.

03:11 Which of course generated a lack of supplies, medical supplies, basic commodities, etc.

03:25 So the situation was already difficult and we shouldn't also forget the history of armed

03:32 conflict and violence in this region for at least the past 30 years.

03:36 Indeed. And explain to us then what the Red Cross is trying to do now. You're saying very

03:42 few ethnic Armenians remain in Stepanakert. Are you trying to get those few that remain

03:48 out? What's your big job right now?

03:52 No, not really. During the first, in the wake of the military escalation, the priority was

04:01 of course to contribute and support the evacuation of the urgent medical cases. Wounded in particular,

04:10 then you certainly know or would remember the deadly explosion of the fuel depot causing

04:18 almost 200 deaths. Even there we contributed to treat some of these injured. We evacuated

04:26 more than 70 wounded into Armenia, but this was the first phase. At this point, our priority

04:36 is to find the vulnerable with social conditions in need of either being evacuated or medical

04:42 treatment. That's our first priority. And then of course provide supplies for those

04:47 who chose to remain. And indeed offering forensic support. Let's not forget the importance

04:55 of making sure people do not disappear. I mean, people don't disappear in the sense

05:07 that the bodies and the human remains do not get mishandled and misidentified. The importance

05:13 of identifying bodies.

05:16 Absolutely. Can I just ask you a final question? You're painting a picture for us of effectively

05:23 a ghost town in Stepanakert, the vast majority of ethnic Armenians have left. Are there any

05:29 signs of Azerbaijanis there? Are there Azerbaijani soldiers in the streets? Are there any signs

05:35 that Azerbaijani civilians are planning to move to Stepanakert?

05:43 What I can tell you is that we see a few police patrolling the city. For the rest, I cannot

05:52 really confirm any of those. What for sure is that there are still humanitarian needs

05:59 in the city and probably outside the city. This would be the next priority for us once

06:06 we have managed to reach out to the vulnerable here in the city, including the elderly, the

06:12 wounded, the sick and the disabled.

06:16 Marco Succi from the International Committee of the Red Cross talking to us live there

06:20 from Stepanakert, the self-declared capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. Thank you very much.

06:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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