Special for the Armenian Weekly
“After March 2011, it was clear that Syria was no longer an option,” said Dr. Karnig Jozigian, as we sat down for coffee in Stepanakert.
The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 50 percent of hospitals in Syria have been destroyed or severely damaged, while more than 15,000 physicians have fled the conflict and found refuge elsewhere.
Karnig Jozigian inspecting the medicine donated by the ARF’s Help Your Brother Initiative.
While Jozigian is not practicing medicine in the ghost city of Aleppo, he is adhering to the Hippocratic Oath by serving the people of another conflict zone: Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh Republic).
In 2001, he went to Armenia to study medicine at the Yerevan State Medical University. After completing six years of education and two years of medical residency in the field of internal medicine, he briefly returned to Aleppo and completed a three-month medical training program there.
At that time, the medical sector in Syria had far more to offer than the one in Armenia. Nonetheless, guided by an inherent sense of obligation to serve the Armenian nation, and his profound love for Datevig, he returned to Armenia. Jozigian had met Datevig, a pianist from Dilijan, while they were both university students in Yerevan. By 2011, the couple was married and living in Dilijan, where Jozigian worked at the newly-established Dilijan Medical Center.
“In the summer of 2012, when Syrian Armenians started migrating to Armenia, the Republic of Armenia government announced that doctors were needed in the Independent State of Artsakh,” he said. “After receiving positive feedback from the [Armenian] Ministry of Diaspora, I visited Artsakh for the first time in my life.” During this scouting mission, he met with officials from the Ministry of Health in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, as well as with the local Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) leaders. He was informed that doctors were needed in three primary locations: Lachin, Kalbajar, and Vank.
“It was love at first sight. The second I saw the mountains of Artsakh, I knew I wanted to live here,” Jozigian said.
He and his wife have been living in Vank (near the Kantsasar Monastery) for the past nine months. For the time being, they are living in one of the rooms in the hospital, while they wait to receive funds from the state to renovate their government-designated home. With assistance from the government, Datevig found a job as a piano instructor at the local school of art.
“The medical sector in Artsakh is dreadful. The vast majority of the doctors who return from Yerevan with a medical degree choose to practice in Stepanakert rather than in their own villages,” he said. “I am the only doctor in Vank and the surrounding six villages. The hospital has a staff of 20 consisting of 14 nurses, ambulance drivers, accountants, and janitors.”
The fixed income for doctors in Artsakh is 156,000 AMD (roughly $375US; however, visiting doctors receive an extra percentage (determined by their location of residency). For example, a visiting doctor receives an additional 40 percent in Stepanakert, 60 percent in Vank, and 80 percent in Lachin and Kalbajar. In the past year, around 7,200 people have visited the hospital in Vank. Around 10 percent of the patients were transferred to Stepanakert to receive the proper medical care.
“Our hospital lacks the proper infrastructure to provide full-scale medical care to our patients,” he explained. “The hospital has a laboratory for blood tests, but we do not have an X-ray device or an ultrasound machine. Even our ambulance is in abysmal condition.” Several months ago, the ARF’s Help Your Brother initiative sent $15,000 worth of medicine and medical supplies to the hospital in Vank. That supply of medicine is still being used to treat patients at Jozigian’s hospital. Over the past nine months, Jozigian has found himself in numerous emergency situations where he’s had to conduct operations and provide services that are not usually available due to the lack of infrastructure and equipment in Vank.
“Traditionally we do not deliver babies at the Vank Hospital. We refer those cases to Stepanakert,” he said. “But in the past nine months, I have had to deliver three healthy babies at our hospital, because they were emergency cases.” Despite the challenges, Dr. Karnig Jozigian affirms his commitment to serving his nation in Artsakh. “I probably would make a lot more money if I worked in Yerevan,” he said. “But I prefer the lifestyle here in Artsakh. I will do everything I can to remain here. I might even invest in farming.” Two other Syrian-Armenian doctors and one dentist have moved to Artsakh in the past year. “Aleppo is my birthplace. I have a lot of memories there. I love Syria,” he said. “But Armenia and Artsakh is my homeland. I am still adhering to the Hippocratic Oath by serving the people in Artsakh.”
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