More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh were forced to flee their homeland last September after the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over control of this Caucasus enclave rapidly escalated. After three decades of hostilities that left about 40,000 people dead, the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic agreed to dissolve its government and armed forces. It came 24 hours after Azerbaijani bombing raids on Nagorno-Karabakh began, when it was confirmed that they had no international support.
Most of Nagorno-Karabakh's population moved to the Armenian border province of Syunik. The journey was long and arduous, particularly because the military offensive was preceded by a nine-month blockade of the Lachín Corridor, during which virtually no supplies or humanitarian aid arrived, leaving many families virtually penniless. There was only one escape route from Nagorno-Karabakh: a winding mountain road. The mass exodus exacerbated illnesses and caused cases of malnutrition after traveling for three days by car, with very little food and water, and in some cases even on foot.
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“These refugees arrived with nothing,” said Marcella Maxfield, Action Against Hunger’s regional director for the South Caucasus. “Faced with an uncertain future, they urgently need emergency assistance now, both for urgent needs such as food and water, and for 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. Three days later they arrived in Goris, Armenia. On the last two days of the trip they had nothing to eat. They were forced to drink water from the lakes and rivers of the surrounding mountains. “We couldn’t even sleep for an hour,” says Nora.
During the lockdown, Nora was pregnant but suffered a miscarriage due to acute stress and malnutrition. Access to health services was limited and the commute to work took more than an hour and a half. They depended mainly on the potatoes they grew themselves.
Today he lives with part of his family in a town called Parakar in Armenia. Your apartment does not have electricity, gas or water. You still have a small savings to buy groceries, but it is already running out. Nora is particularly worried about her seven-year-old brother: “He needs psychological support,” she says. “He can’t sleep because he can still hear the bombings.”
Nora has only one wish: to return home. “I want to return to Nagorno-Karabakh,” he says.
In the picture on the left, Nora's little sister poses from her current apartment in Parakar, Armenia to show a photo she took before her escape. It shows the bread the family baked to take with them on the way to Syunik, the Armenian province closest to the border crossing. The journey took three days, but the bread was only enough to feed them the first day. They also brought medicine for their grandmother. In the picture on the right, the cell phone photo shows the last meal, a few boiled potatoes, that the family prepared before leaving Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the picture on the left, Nora's little sister shows a photo she took after the bombings in September 2023. She explains that one of her family members overturned a cupboard full of food cans before fleeing to Armenia, reflecting conflict and the need to escape. 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 shortly before fleeing to Armenia.
In the picture on the left, Nora's little sister shows the garden the family had in their apartment in Nagorno-Karabakh. The picture on the right shows a photo he took on his mobile phone during the nine-month Lachín blockade. In the photo you can see two neighbors on the horse that Nora's family also used to travel to health centers that were between 20 and 40 kilometers away. Many families had to travel on foot or horseback due to a lack of fuel due to the blockage of the corridor.
In the picture on the left, Nora is posing in her bedroom in Parakar. In the picture on the right is the stove on which Nora's family cooks their food because they have no 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 attended the same daycare center. 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 city of Goris and with whom they developed a deep friendship over the years. He was the one who offered them a house when the family had to flee Nagorno-Karabakh on September 26. The apartment they lived in was destroyed.
In the months before the conflict, Armine and Sasun had to live on meager food rations due to the blockade of the Lachín corridor. The authorities gave them vouchers to buy food, but the amount was 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 to the entire family. If they didn't use the vouchers to buy groceries within two weeks, they missed the opportunity and there was no telling when the next vouchers would arrive. Buying food was very expensive: a single cabbage could cost around 15 euros.
Armine explains that people in Nagorno-Karabakh took care of “each other.” He says that his son once went shopping at the nearest bakery several kilometers away and had to wait in line until five in the morning. On the way home he gave the bread to a disabled man, who he said he found in very poor condition.
In the picture on the left, Sasun is holding the pink ration card that they received in Nagorno-Karabakh and which allowed them to buy two kilos of fruit between February 23rd and March 7th. Armine and Sasun explain that a cabbage cost around 6,500 drams (around 15 euros) and an egg 1,000 drams (around three euros). The four family members (Armine, Sasun, son and daughter) were working, but Sasun explains that they saw many others dying of hunger: “People helped each other as best they could, but we have many cases of pregnant women “We have seen women who have lost their babies due to malnutrition,” adds Armine. In the picture on the right, Sasun is holding the green ration card that they received in Nagorno-Karabakh and which allowed them to buy three kilos of vegetables between March 8 and 22.
In the picture on the left, Sasun is holding the white ration card that they received in Nagorno-Karabakh and with which they were allowed to buy two kilos of potatoes. In the picture on the right, Armine is holding his cell phone and showing a photo of the apartment where they lived in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.
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