YEREVAN, Sep 25 (Aljazeera) - Hundreds of ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia days after Azerbaijan seized control of the breakaway territory in a military offensive.

The Armenian government said late on Sunday that a total of 1,050 people had crossed into the country from Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

Armenia said it is prepared to take them in after Azerbaijan’s military victory last week in a conflict dating to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday that he expected about 120,000 civilians in the region in the South Caucasus to leave for Armenia because they do not want to live in part of Azerbaijan and fear “the danger of ethnic cleansing”.

“The likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out,” he said.

Armenia “will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh”, Pashinyan added, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

The Armenian leader also alluded to a schism with Moscow, saying the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was “insufficient” to protect the country.

The CSTO members pledge to defend one another from outside attack. But, bogged down in its own war in Ukraine, Russia has refused to come to Armenia’s assistance.

The fate of the ethnic Armenian population, which makes up the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population, has raised concerns in Moscow, Washington and Brussels.

Separatist fighters from Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously governed by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh – were forced to declare a ceasefire on Wednesday after a decisive 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared victory over the enclave on Thursday, saying it was fully under Baku’s control and the idea of an independent Nagorno-Karabakh was finally confined to history.

He promised to guarantee the rights and security of Armenians living in the region, but years of hate speech and violence between the rivals have left deep scars. Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want.

Photo from AFP