New York, 22 September 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities" against the Armenian population in the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabkh region in the Southern Caucasus.

"The intensity and cruelty of the [Azerbaijan] offensive makes it clear that the intention is to finalize ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabkh," Armenia Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Mirzoyan said that more than 200 people were dead and 400 wounded so far, including civilians, women and children.

More than 10,000 people have been forcibly displaced, he said, including women, children and the elderly, who have been forced to live in the open without food or other sustenance.

Thousands of families had been separated, Mirzoyan said. The situation had been alarming for some time, but the international community had refused to take the alarming signs "seriously enough," he said.

The UN Security Council has not responded adequately in the past, the Armenian minister lamented, saying that now that there is "clear and irrefutable evidence... of policy of ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities, the Security Council of the United Nations must act."

Azerbaijan started to attack the majority Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh with rockets and artillery on Tuesday morning in an attempt to conquer it. On Wednesday, the militarily outnumbered Armenians surrendered.

The two former Soviet republics have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades.

Photo: EPA archive