More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh were forced to flee their homes last September, following the rapid escalation of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of this enclave in the Caucasus. After three decades of hostilities that have left some 40,000 dead, the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic agreed to dissolve its Government and its armed forces. It happened 24 hours after the Azerbaijani bombing of Nagorno Karabakh began when it was confirmed that they had no international support.
The majority of the population of Nagorno Karabakh moved to the Armenian border province of Syunik. The trip was long and exhausting, especially because the military offensive was preceded by a nine-month blockade of the Lachín corridor, during which practically no supplies or humanitarian aid entered, leaving many families practically without resources. There was only one escape route out of Nagorno Karabakh: a winding mountain road. The mass flight aggravated illnesses and caused cases of malnutrition, after three days of traveling by car, with very little food or water, and even on foot in some cases.
“These refugees arrived with nothing,” explains Marcella Maxfield, Regional Director of Action Against Hunger for the South Caucasus. “Faced with an uncertain future, they now desperately need emergency help, both for urgent needs such as food and water, as well as needs such as bedding, medication, mental health care and psychosocial support.”
These are two stories behind the exodus from Nagorno Karabakh.
Nora
Nora, who does not want to reveal her identity, fled the conflict on September 25 with her entire family: her grandmother, her aunt, her niece, her newborn cousin, her mother, her father, her husband, her sisters and her brother. They arrived three days later in Goris, in Armenia. During the last two days of the trip they had nothing to eat. They were forced to drink water from the lakes and rivers in the surrounding mountains. “We couldn't sleep even an hour,” says Nora.
During the lockdown, Nora was pregnant, but miscarried due to acute stress and malnutrition. Access to health services was limited and it took her more than an hour and a half to walk to work. They depended mainly on the potatoes they grew themselves.
He now lives with part of his family in a city called Parakar, in Armenia. Her apartment does not have electricity, gas or water. They have a small reserve of savings to buy food, but it is already running out. Nora is especially worried about her seven-year-old brother: “he needs psychological support,” she says. “He can't sleep because he still hears the bombings.”
Nora has only one wish: to return home. “I want to return to Nagorno Karabakh,” she says.
In the image on the left, Nora's little sister poses from her current apartment in Parakar, Armenia, to show a photograph she took before fleeing. In it you can see the bread that the family baked to take with them on the way to Syunik, the Armenian province closest to the border crossing. The journey lasted three days, but the bread was only enough to feed them on the first day. They also brought medicine for their grandmother. In the image on the right, the mobile photo shows the last meal, a few boiled potatoes that the family prepared before leaving Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the image on the left, Nora's little sister shows a photograph she took after the bombings in September 2023. She explains that one of her family members, before fleeing to Armenia, knocked over a cupboard with cans of food. the rage caused by the conflict and by being forced to flee. In the image on the right, the photo on the mobile device shows the moment when the family had just locked the door of their apartment in Nagorno Karabakh just before fleeing to Armenia.
In the image on the left, Nora's little sister shows the garden the family had in their apartment in Nagorno Karabakh. In the image on the right, a photograph that she took with her cell phone during the nine months that the Lachín blockade lasted. In the photo you can see two neighbors riding the horse that Nora's family also used to travel to health centers that were between 20 and 40 kilometers away. Many families needed to travel on foot or on horseback due to the lack of fuel as a result of the corridor being blocked.
In the image on the left, Nora poses in her bedroom in Parakar. In the image on the right, the stove with which Nora's family cooks her food, since they do not have electricity.
Armine and Sasun
Armine and Sasun, 44, who prefer to keep their true identities anonymous, have supported each other for more than two decades. They met in childhood. They grew up as neighbors and even went to the same daycare. They have been together for 23 years and have a son and a daughter.
In 2009, they met a woman who lives in the Armenian town of Goris, with whom they forged a deep friendship over the years. She was the one who offered them a house when the family was forced to flee Nagorno Karabakh on September 26. The apartment they lived in was destroyed.
During the months before the conflict, Armine and Sasun had already been living on meager food rations as a result of the blockade of the Lachín corridor. The authorities gave them vouchers to buy food, but the quantities were barely enough: three kilos of vegetables, two kilos of fruit, two kilos of potatoes and a small amount of bread. Armine and Sasun had to distribute this ration among the whole family. If they didn't use the vouchers to buy food within two weeks, they lost the opportunity, and there was no telling when the next batch of vouchers would arrive. Buying food was very expensive: a single cabbage could cost about 15 euros.
Armine explains that in Nagorno Karabakh they took care of “each other.” He says that once his son went shopping at the nearest bakery, several kilometers away, and that he had to wait in line until five in the morning. On the way home, she gave the bread to a disabled man whom she found in very bad condition, according to her story.
In the image on the left, Sasun holds the pink ration card they were given in Nagorno Karabakh with which they were allowed to buy two kilos of fruit between February 23 and March 7. Armine and Sasun explain that a cabbage cost about 6,500 drams (about 15 euros) and an egg 1,000 drams (about three euros). The four members of the family (Armine, Sasun, son and daughter) were working, but Sasun explains that they saw many others who were dying of hunger: “People helped each other as much as possible, but we saw many cases of women pregnant women who lost their babies due to malnutrition,” adds Armine. In the image on the right, Sasun holds the green ration card they were given in Nagorno Karabakh with which they were allowed to buy three kilos of vegetables between March 8 and 22.
In the image on the left, Sasun holds the white ration card they were given in Nagorno Karabakh with which they were allowed to buy two kilos of potatoes. In the image on the right, Armine is holding her mobile phone showing a photograph of the apartment where they lived in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh.
You can follow Future Planet in x, Facebook, instagram and TikTok and subscribe here to our newsletter.
#Conflict #exodus #Armenia #Azerbaijan #stories #escape #Nagorno #Karabakh