Armenians desperately search for family as more than 100,000 uprooted

Nagorno-Karabakh refugees tell Bel Trew in the border town of Goris about their frightening escape from persecution

- Bel Trew

The last time Erna heard from her brother was a week ago, in the frantic rush to escape Nagorno-Karabakh as it dissolved around them. In just a few days more than 100,000 people – nearly the entire local ethnic Armenian population – fled the separatist enclave, fearing persecution as Azerbaijani forces closed in. Mobile phone networks were down, the only road out was at a standstill and people found themselves separated by the shelling.

And so in that chaos, people went missing and families lost each other. The United Nations said children were arriving in neighbouring Armenia unaccompanied. There were reports of people being detained by the Azerbaijani authorities, and the Armenian health ministry said some people, particularly the elderly, died while on the 40-hour journey due to malnutrition and a lack of medicine.

“We still don’t know if my brother made it to Armenia, if he is alive,” the school administrator, Erna, tells The Independent in tears from Goris, a border town that has quickly morphed into a massive refugee camp. Behind her is a flurry of activity: shellshocked families pick through piles of donated clothes, food and supplies as they try to work out how to piece together their lives. “We last heard from him as he was going to get fuel,” Erna’s son, David, 18, continues as his mother appears too overwhelmed to continue the story.

The family fear he may be among the 170 killed in a massive explosion last week at one of the few petrol stations still operating in the enclave. On Monday desperate refugees had flocked there to secure fuel to get out when the blast occurred. No one knows exactly what happened but it added another layer to the tragedy.