A Russia-brokered peace deal signed last week has ended six weeks of fierce fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh — but this peace hasn’t come without a price.
As part of the deal, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh must return the Aghdam, Kalbajar and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan starting on Nov. 20, with a completion deadline of Dec. 1.
Armenians living in the Kalbajar district, which had been controlled by Armenian forces since the 1990s Nagorno-Karabakh war, are fleeing and setting fire to their homes rather than hand them over to Azerbaijan.
Though Kalbajar’s departing residents are bound for a difficult journey through the mountainous landscape that connects the region with Armenia, most chose to leave few of their belongings behind — and many set their homes on fire to make them unusable for future Azerbaijani residents.
Here are some of the images from Kalbajar:
