The self-declared republic of Nagorno-Karabakh announced Thursday that it will "cease to exist" at the end of the year after it suffered a military defeat from Azerbaijan that forced more than half of its population to flee, thus ending the dream of independence.

The region's separatist leader, Samvel Shahramanyan, issued a decree that he hopes will dissolve all state institutions by the end of the year, saying that Nagorno-Karabakh "will cease to exist" as of January 1, 2024.

The decree was issued minutes after Yerevan announced that more than 65,000 people had fled from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The curtain appears to have come down on one of the world's longest-running "frozen conflicts", which seemed so intractable that successive US administrations, like European officials, failed to resolve it in continuous rounds of talks.

However, the announcement exacerbated anger in Yerevan.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of carrying out a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Nagorno-Karabakh, stressing that no Armenians would remain in the region "in the coming days."

He said, "This constitutes ethnic cleansing that the international community has warned us about for a long time."

The Azerbaijani lightning attack ended with a truce on September 20 in which the Armenian separatists pledged to surrender their weapons and enter into talks with the aim of “reintegrating” Nagorno-Karabakh.

Two rounds of talks were held as Azerbaijani forces worked methodically with Russian peacekeepers to collect separatist weapons and enter towns that had remained outside Baku's control since the first fighting between the two sides in the region in the 1990s.

Azerbaijani forces began approaching the outskirts of Stepanakert, which the Armenian separatists considered the "capital" of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The decree issued by Shahramanyan of Stepanakert said residents should “familiarize themselves with the reintegration conditions” put forward by Azerbaijan and make an “individual and independent decision” on whether to stay.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Thursday that he "took note" of the dissolution of the separatist authorities themselves in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan reopened the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, the Lachin Corridor, which is guarded by Russian peacekeeping forces, four days after Armenian separatist forces agreed to lay down their arms and dismantle their army.

Since then, tens of thousands have flocked to Armenia with their belongings and cars.

On Thursday, Pashinyan told members of his government that “the displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh continues.”

He added, "Our analysis shows that there will be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh. This constitutes ethnic cleansing that the international community has warned us about for a long time."

Armenian government spokeswoman Nazli Bagdasaryan said in a statement that by Thursday morning, “65,036 forcibly displaced people had crossed the border into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh.”

It is estimated that about 120,000 Armenians lived in the region before the Baku attack.

The Kremlin indicated Thursday that it "sees no reason" for Armenians to flee the region.

On the Armenian side of the border, a refugee group discusses the basic problem faced by people who would accept to live under Azerbaijani control in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“If you have a son, he will have to serve in the Azerbaijani army against Armenia,” says one of them, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

"Only a crazy man would accept that," he added.

This Armenian-majority enclave, which the Soviet authorities annexed to Azerbaijan in 1921, declared its independence unilaterally in 1991.

The region witnessed two wars between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the first from 1988 to 1994 (30,000 dead) and the other in the fall of 2020 (6,500 dead).

Azerbaijan had agreed to allow the separatists who lay down their weapons to leave for Armenia under a ceasefire agreement reached last Wednesday.

However, an Azerbaijani government source told AFP that border guards are also searching for people accused of “war crimes” who must stand trial.

On Thursday, an Azerbaijani court ordered former separatist leader Ruben Vardanyan to be placed in pretrial detention after he was accused of financing terrorism and committing other crimes.

A court in Baku ruled to arrest Vardanyan, the businessman who led the separatist government in the region from November 2022 until February this year, and place him in pretrial detention for four months, according to the State Security Service in Azerbaijan.

The charges carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years against Vardanyan, who was born in 1986.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Thursday for Vardanyan's rights to be respected after Azerbaijan placed him in pretrial detention.

On Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijani border guards of “carrying out illegal arrests” against Armenians trying to flee Nagorno-Karabakh.