Armenians in the villages, which Baku is scheduled to regain control over on Sunday, set fire to their houses, on Saturday, before fleeing towards Armenia, according to AFP.
In the village of Charektar, which borders the neighboring Martakert district, belonging to the Armenians, at least six houses were set on fire on Saturday morning with thick plumes of gray smoke rising over the valley.
“This is my house, I can’t leave it to the Turks,” one resident said as, throwing burning wooden planks and rags soaked in gasoline into a completely empty house. “Everybody is going to burn down their houses today. We were given until midnight to leave.”
He also mentioned that they were waiting for pack up but when they started to dismantle the hydroelectric plant, they understood.
He also noted that they also have moved the graves of their people, as the Azerbaijanis would be happy to desecrate their graves, stating that “it is intolerable … they are all traitors.”
At least 10 houses were burned, on Friday, in and around Charektar.
The ceasefire agreement between Yerevan and Baku, under the auspices of Moscow, ended nearly seven weeks of heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Under this agreement, Azerbaijan regained vast territories that had been under the Armenians’ control since the early 1990s.
