Armenian separatist officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said Monday they will stay in the breakaway region following Azerbaijan's offensive to oversee rescue operations of victims from fighting and a deadly fuel depot blast.
Armenia separatists say over 200 people were killed in fighting with Azerbaijan late last month and that a further 170 died when a fuel depot exploded as scores of civilians fled Karabakh over ethnic cleansing fears.
After three decades of Armenian control, the separatist authorities have agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Azerbaijan in the wake of Baku's one-day military operation in late September.
The separatist government said president Samvel Shahramanyan "will stay in (Karabakh's main city of) Stepanakert with a group of officials until the search and rescue operations for the remainder of those killed and those missing ... are completed."
"The government continues to focus on the issue of those citizens who want to move to the Republic of Armenia," it added.
Separatist official Artak Beglaryan said "a few hundred" Armenian representatives remain in Karabkah.
He said this included "officials, emergency service, volunteers, some persons with special needs."
Nearly all of Karabakh's estimated 120,000 residents have fled the territory, which has been under Armenian control for three decades.
Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of conducting a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" to clear Karabakh of its Armenian population.
But Baku has denied the claim and has publicly called on Armenian residents of the territory to stay and "reintegrate" into Azerbaijan where their rights would be guaranteed.
Azerbaijan is now holding "re-integration" talks with separatist leaders while, at the same time detaining some senior figures from its former government and military command.
Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said criminal investigations had been initiated into war crimes committed by 300 separatist officials.
"I urge on those persons to surrender voluntarily," he told journalists on Sunday.
