Note: On January 1, 2024, the Republic of Artsakh was officially dissolved per the decree signed by Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan on September 28, 2023, following Azerbaijan’s full throttle military assault that resulted in the fall of Artsakh and the ethnic cleansing of its Armenian population. According to the decree, all Artsakh state institutions have been dissolved, and the republic has ceased to exist. Siranush Sargsyan’s report highlights the ongoing humanitarian crisis arising from the genocide carried out by Azerbaijan against Artsakh and the profound needs of the forcibly displaced Armenians of Artsakh.
One year ago, the depopulation of Artsakh began with a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan on December 13, 2022. It was completed on September 19, 2023, when Azerbaijan launched a military assault on Artsakh to seize the territory and forcibly displace its population. In the past year, the people of Artsakh have endured a nine-month siege, a two-day war, forced displacement and the loss of their homeland. Now 100,000 Armenians from Artsakh are living as refugees in Armenia.
The stories of displaced families are all unique, yet they share a common harsh reality. Families grapple with a spectrum of challenges—social, psychological, economic and cultural—and carry stories of survival and strength amid the uncertainties of their circumstances far away from their homes. Armenian municipalities, diaspora Armenians and international organizations have been working together to address the immediate needs of the displaced, including food, hygiene and household items. But the problems are diverse and difficult, especially the issues of finding affordable apartments for rent, providing necessary household appliances and furniture and securing employment.
Lilit Sargsyan, a single mother from Askeran, Artsakh, with her six-year-old daughter and parents now call Khachpar village in the Masis municipality of Armenia their home. Unable to afford rent, Sargsyan, with the help of friends, acquired a makeshift cabin, or a domik. Her father is working hard to renovate the cabin, hoping to shield the family from the winter cold. Her grandmother’s old carpet, the most precious thing she brought with her from Artsakh, makes the home a bit warmer.
Currently teaching at Khachpar Secondary School, Sargsyan regards her teaching years in Artsakh as the most meaningful and cherished period of her life.
Sargsyan has experienced four wars in her lifetime. She says the most challenging was the recent two-day war in September. Facing a military attack after nine months of blockade, the family had no access to hiding places, food or transportation. Organizing care for her disabled daughter during the siege was especially tough. She could not take her daughter to the rehabilitation center twice a week like she used to due to the lack of fuel. She did not know how to explain the daily struggle for food to her daughter.
“Everyday after 6 o’clock was the hardest moment for me. Although I missed my daughter during the day, I didn’t want to go home, because I had nothing to give her,” Sargsyan said. “When there was nothing, she ate spaghetti, which until the blockade I used to cook a lot for her with oil and salt. But I couldn’t buy it. Then a friend of mine gave me three kilograms of real white flour, which was a miracle for me at that time. I tried to make spaghetti with salt, water and flour, and it worked. She loved eating it. There was no oil, so I added lard, but she didn’t understand and ate it with pleasure.”
In Khachpar, Sargsyan’s family found a warm welcome. “Perhaps it’s because many here are refugees from Azerbaijan due to the 1990s Artsakh War and those who settled after the 2020 war. They understand us better,” she reflected. However, challenges persist. The Armenian government has issued a temporary protection status to forcibly displaced people from Artsakh. Like most families, Sargsyan is still waiting to receive documents confirming their status and cannot access child benefits, while her parents cannot receive their pension.
“We just don’t feel safe living with Azerbaijanis. Talking about security is absurd, especially if we aren’t going to have an army or any other way to defend ourselves.”
According to the decision adopted by the Armenian government, people forcibly displaced from Artsakh have been granted the status of temporary protection, rather than citizenship or refugee status. Only after receiving a document confirming this status along with temporary registration can forcibly displaced people receive their pensions or child benefits.
Tens of thousands of forcibly displaced people are still waiting to receive the document confirming their temporary protection status and have not received their pensions for three months. They are also unable to benefit from a number of state subsidy programs and benefits due to the lack of timely registration.
While residing in Artsakh, residents had used passports of the Republic of Armenia. It is insulting and incomprehensible to Sargsyan, and many other displaced people from Artsakh, why she should now choose between giving up her passport in exchange for another one or being considered a refugee in her own homeland.
Sargsyan yearns to return to Artsakh yet struggles to envision coexistence with Azerbaijanis. “We just don’t feel safe living with Azerbaijanis. Talking about security is absurd, especially if we aren’t going to have an army or any other way to defend ourselves,” she said. Asked what she would bring with her from Artsakh to Armenia if given the chance, she said, “Perhaps our pineapple and pomegranate crops have turned into bird feed or rotted.” She would bring saplings from those trees and open the window of their house to prevent mold.
“We just don’t feel safe living with Azerbaijanis”, says Lilit Sargsyan, a singe mother forcibly displaced from #NagornoKarabakh #Artsakh pic.twitter.com/YWf3qXQHO3
— Siranush Sargsyan (@SiranushSargsy1) December 7, 2023
According to the deputy mayor of Masis, Khoren Aroyan, in the first days of the mass displacement, about 12,000 people from Artsakh settled in the town of Masis and neighboring villages. Some of them have since moved to other regions of Armenia, and about 8,500 displaced people remain.
After the Baku and Sumgait pogroms against Armenians during the first Artsakh War, many people with roots in Artsakh fled to Masis. After the 2020 war, many people from Artsakh once again sought refuge in Masis among their relatives and friends.
Sarushen is one of many villages in Artsakh that was fired on by Azerbaijani forces throughout the blockade, restricting agricultural work and garden cultivation. When the war started on September 19, Ivan Harutyunyan from Sarushen could only save his family members, leaving behind everything else he cherished.
“We left our lands, our livestock and our ancestors’ graves,” Harutyunyan said with a heavy heart. “We had no choice but to abandon everything and escape through the forests.” His journey of forced displacement from the Artsakh capital Stepanakert, lasting almost three days, led him to the town of Goris in southern Armenia and then to Masis.
“I regret losing the four tractors I used not only for our gardens and arable lands but also for the entire village. We can rebuild houses, but how do we work without equipment?” Harutyunyan said.
Today, he shares a room in a former, dilapidated library building with several families, including those of his three brothers, totaling 31 people. Despite efforts by the municipal administration to provide beds and essentials, living conditions are challenging. Families share a single toilet-bathroom, and there is no kitchen. The struggle for normalcy persists, a common thread in the lives of the displaced.
Alina Harutyunyan, a mother of four children, was displaced from the village of Harutyunagomer in the Martakert region of Artsakh. Her family was involved in pig breeding, poultry farming and cultivating buckwheat. When Azerbaijan attacked, she had to leave behind the unfinished corn harvest and embark on a migration journey with her family.
Alina, a mother of 4, was forcibly displaced from #NagornoKarabakh
She currently resides with her family in a room within a half-demolished library in Masis.There is no kitchen and they cook in the hall and they share a single toilet with thirty other forcibly displaced people pic.twitter.com/rrrSk5c9B6— Siranush Sargsyan (@SiranushSargsy1) November 25, 2023
They found temporary refuge in a room of the same library where Ivan Harutyunyan and his family are staying. Since there is no kitchen, Harutyunyan and other displaced women cook dinner on a small gas stove in the hallway.
Harutyunyan was only able to bring essential documents with her. With the assistance of the community administration and diaspora Armenians, her family has received beds and a small refrigerator, which are still insufficient to meet the needs of the families sharing the tight space.
Harutyunyan hopes that, with continued support from benefactors, she can secure a refrigerator, dishes, household items, a television and computer for her two children, who are in school. “We all get together in the evenings and try to watch something on my daughter’s phone. It’s our only source of entertainment,” Harutyunyan said. Just like Ivan, Harutyunyan faces the challenges of making a home in the confines of a library, hoping for a brighter future with the kindness of those willing to help.
“Every time we start again from scratch,” began a conversation with 44-year-old Svetlana Mamunts, a mother of four children.
Mamunts’s family was forcibly displaced from the village of Aghabekalandj in the Martakert region of Artsakh. “When the explosions started, I was kneading dough. I left it unfinished, took my children and went into the basement,” Mamunts recalled.
Mamunts and her family managed to escape and reach Stepanakert with a neighbor’s car. The Azerbaijani checkpoint that every car passed through while exiting Artsakh was particularly terrifying for Mamunts. “All those who had a man in their house went through that fear and mentally said goodbye to their relatives,” she said. They spent several days sleeping in cars, and after a three-day journey, they arrived in Armenia. The rented house they now occupy has almost nothing.
The family left behind two cars, and if they had fuel, they would have brought at least their household items with them. “But the most difficult thing is that we left our land, our house, our cattle,” Mamunts lamented. She regrets not bringing her sewing machine, which she used not only for herself but also to fulfill orders from villagers.
“Everyone wants to go back, but at what cost? If we have to live with Azerbaijanis, I will not dare to take my children there under any circumstances,” Mamunts shared.
“It is the third time we have become refugees and lost our home, and we seem to have adapted to it, but for those who lost their home for the first time, it is very difficult. I try to calm them down,” said Ellada Harutyunyan.
When the Artsakh independence movement started in the 1980s, Harutyunyan lived with her family in Baku, Azerbaijan. During the Sumgait and Baku pogroms directed against Armenians, Azerbaijanis stabbed and killed Harutyunyan’s father. Her family arrived in Yerevan on December 7, 1988, the day of the devastating Armenian earthquake, then left for Artsakh.
Watch this interview with 60-year-old Elada, thrice displaced Baku Armenian. She had to flee anti-Armenian pogroms after her father was stabbed to death. The 2nd time was during the First Karabakh war & most recent she was ethnically cleansed along w/ 150K Artsakh Armenians. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/ja0zKUBXDe
— Siranush Sargsyan (@SiranushSargsy1) November 27, 2023
After the end of the first Artsakh War, her family settled in Aknaghbyur village in Artsakh. “As bees return to their nest, so we returned. The call of the motherland is inexplicable,” Harutyunyan said. With that call, after the 2020 Artsakh War, even though Aknaghbyur was occupied by Azerbaijanis, Harutyunyan’s family returned to Artsakh and lived in Stepanakert with rent. “If there is an opportunity, we will all return. It is our centuries-old homeland. We left our history and our sanctities there,” Harutyunyan said.
After Azerbaijan’s military assault on Artsakh in September 2023, it was difficult for the Harutyunyan family to make the decision to leave the homeland. Throughout the blockade, Harutyunyan’s husband guarded the border with other soldiers. Yet seeing that everyone was leaving, the family also took the path of migration.
Harutyunyan finds it difficult to describe the two-day journey from Artsakh to Armenia. “People died on the road, and new ones were born. People were getting sick all the time,” she recalled.
“Even now, we seem to be waiting for something to happen. And you wonder, where are we going next? Is this ever going to end?”
Now Harutyunyan lives with her husband in the non-functioning Kindergarten No. 4 in Masis, Armenia. Another 67 displaced people from different villages of Artsakh live in the kindergarten building. There are no supplies or proper living conditions, but the families cannot afford to rent a house. “Even now, we seem to be waiting for something to happen. And you wonder, where are we going next? Is this ever going to end?” Harutyunyan posed.
Anahit Tamrazyan, a 37-year-old mother of six children, was displaced from Haterk village in the Martakert region of Artsakh. Her family worked in gardening and animal husbandry. Following Azerbaijan’s attack, they fled in a truck and drove to Armenia. “When we left the village, I managed to let the cattle go so that at least they wouldn’t die of hunger,” said Tamrazyan.
When the fighting started, Tamrazyan’s eight-year-old son Davit initially thought he was hearing the sounds of construction, but he quickly composed himself and ran to the basement. He misses his friends, who he last saw during the deportation, but he could not approach them to say goodbye. Davit dreams of becoming an artist, but in his letter to Santa Claus, he asked for a toy weapon. “To return to our village and protect the village,” he explained.
“Although we were close to the border and it was dangerous, we were home. All my children find it very difficult to adapt here,” Tamrazyan said. Despite the difficulties of the blockade, Davit believes life is better in their village in Artsakh. He hopes to return to see his friends, Hansel and David.
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