First evacuees from Nagorno-Karabakh cross into Armenia

The first few evacuees from the war-torn breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh have crossed into Armenia, reuniting families after a 10-month blockade and an intensive Azerbaijani military offensive.

Rima and her two daughters crossed the border in the early afternoon and were met by her brother, waiting with chocolates and sweets.

It was the first they had seen each other in nearly a year, and the family embraced and cried as they prepared to travel to a relative’s home near the city of Goris, close to the border.

“I’m just so happy right now,” Rima said. Her brother said: “I always knew they would come, I knew they would be OK.”

Officials in the breakaway Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh have said they plan to evacuate thousands of displaced people from the region into Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s blockade of the territory has led to desperate shortages of food, fuel and water in the local capital, Stepanakert, and surrounding regions.

The local ethnic Armenian government has called for Azerbaijan to open up the road along the Lachin corridor into Armenia to allow humanitarian aid into and the local population out of Nagorno-Karabakh. Many fear a campaign of ethnic cleansing when Azerbaijani authorities take control.

The local government said evacuees would be accompanied across the border from the disputed region into Armenia by Russian peacekeepers.

“Dear compatriots, we would like to inform you that, accompanied by Russian peacekeepers, the families who were left homeless as a result of the recent military operations and expressed their desire to leave will be transferred to Armenia,” a statement read. “The government will issue information about the relocation of other population groups in the near future.”

Local officials of the breakaway state, also known as Artsakh, earlier said they planned to evacuate an estimated population of more than 120,000 people to Armenia after Azerbaijan issued plans to “reintegrate” the territory.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region that many Armenians see as their ancestral homeland but is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory. It has been governed by a local Armenian government since the early 1990s. The government is now close to collapse after a ceasefire with Azerbaijan.

Local authorities have made preparations for the evacuation. A Guardian reporter was stopped by police at a new checkpoint near the border of Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh and was told that access to the road was now blocked because of plans for the evacuation.

The Armenian government said it was ready to welcome 120,000 ethnic Armenian compatriots and that it was likely they would leave soon.

“Our government will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh,” said the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, in a live address on Sunday.

“The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh still face the danger of ethnic cleansing,” he said. “Humanitarian supplies have arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh in recent days but this does not change the situation.

“If real living conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in their homes, and effective mechanisms of protection against ethnic cleansing, then the likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out.”

He criticised a Russian-dominated security bloc of which Armenia is a member, saying the Collective Security Treaty Organization had been “ineffective” in preventing further violence.

It is not yet clear how many people may be evacuated from Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming days.

Russian peacekeepers have said nearly 800 displaced people, many of whom fled small villages and towns attacked by Azerbaijan in its offensive this week, have been living at an airport used by the mission as its base.

Tens of thousands of more are reported to be trapped in Stepanakert, which has seen an influx of thousands of displaced people who fled to the city after the new round of violence.