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STORY: The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home told Reuters on Sunday (September 24) that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia because they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing.

The Armenian government, making preparations for thousands of refugees, said that as of 5 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday, more than 2,900 people from Nagorno-Karabakh had crossed into Armenia.

The ethnic Armenian leadership said it would remain in place until all those who wanted to leave were able to go. Meanwhile, they urged residents to hold back from crowding the roads out, to allow the evacuation of the injured.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.