JAKARTA - Residents of ethnic Armenian villages in Nagorno-Karabakh chose to burn their own houses before fleeing to Armenia, Saturday, November 14. That evening was just before the deadline before the territory was handed over to Azerbaijan as part of a ceasefire agreement.
The Kalbajar district in Azerbaijan has been controlled by ethnic Armenians for decades. They started a mass exodus this week following the announcement that Azerbaijan would regain control of the region.
"Children in Armenia are crying and want to go back home, it's really sad," a weeping Kalbajar resident told Al Jazeera, quoted Monday, November 16.
Fighting between the Azerbaijani army and ethnic Armenian troops erupted at the end of September and raged for six weeks. Former Soviet rivals agreed to end hostilities earlier this week after major advances by Azerbaijani troops.
Key parts of the Russian-brokered deal include Armenia's return to Kalbajar, as well as the Aghdam district on November 20 and the Lachin district on December 1, which have been in the hands of Armenians since the devastating war in the 1990s.
In the village of Chararakat - on the border with the neighboring district of Martakert, which will remain under Armenian control - at least six houses caught fire on Saturday morning with plumes of thick gray smoke rising over the valley.
"This is my house, I can't hand it over to the Turks," Azerbaijanis are often called by Armenians, said one resident as he threw a burning wooden board and a rag soaked with gasoline into the completely empty house.
"Everyone is going to burn their houses today ... We are given until midnight to leave," he said.
On Friday, at least 10 houses were burned in and around Charectare. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reporting from Vardenis, Armenia, said the power lines were also cut.
“There is a great sense of loss among the few remaining. They cut wood and take whatever is left and join their families across the border in Armenia, "he added.
"They are very scared about what could happen next."
Meanwhile in Azerbaijan, people expressed "disappointment" at the sight of burning houses on land that Azeri claimed to be their own, said Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from the capital, Baku.
"Azerbaijanis say according to the United Nations this land belongs to them ... there is feelings of disappointment and anger in Azerbaijan over the sight [of burning houses] they have seen," he added.
"They said the Armenians broke something that didn't belong to them in the first place," he added.
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