YEREVAN, Armenia, Sep 18 (IPS) – It’s been 12 months since Hayk Harutyunyan, a 22-year-old photographer from Nagorno-Karabakh, cleaned out his house for the last time and closed the door behind him forever.
“Every morning, before I open my eyes, I think how nice it would be to wake up at home. But then again, I’m not there…” Harutyunyan tells IPS in a park near the apartment his family currently rents. Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Hayk Harutyunyan is one of the more than 100,000 Armenians who were forced to flee Nagorno-Karabakh following the final and final aggression of Azerbaijan on 19 September 2023.
Also called Arsakh after its Armenian population, Nagorno-Karabakh was a self-proclaimed republic within Azerbaijan that sought international recognition and independence since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Today, the majority of Karabakh Armenians are struggling to survive scattered throughout the Republic of Armenia. Some have chosen to move to other countries.
“I still keep my house key in my bag. I don’t want to think that I won’t come back, although I don’t know how or when,” said the photographer. He also writes about the situation of the evicted with his photos. being a reporter and a victim, he admits, can be very challenging.
A Legacy of Conflict
Younger generations have also inherited decades of war in this part of the world
After a 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan gained control of two-thirds of the territory that was under the control of Armenia. Nagorno Karabakh also lost its direct connection with Armenia.
The war ended with a peace treaty that was interrupted by Moscow. Russian peacekeepers were deployed to ensure the safety of Armenians still in the area. But it was not to be.
Last year’s offensive was launched after a brutal nine-month blockade by Azerbaijan, which closed the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and other countries.
Hayk remembers those months when he and other Armenians who remained in the area faced severe shortages of food, medicine, electricity, fuel and other basic items.
“We could spend hours starving for bread and return home with nothing, but at least we were there, we were at home…”, said the homeless youth. Crossing into Armenia, he recalls, “was like crossing a wall, leaving my soul behind and taking only my body.”
Many displaced people came to Armenia, but they found housing prices very high due to the influx of immigrants from countries like Russia, who moved to Armenia after the war in Ukraine. The people of Arsakh face these rising costs and struggle to find affordable housing in an increasingly challenging market.
At 58, Ruzanna Baziyan, a Russian language teacher and mother of four children lives today with memories of the country where she spent her whole life. She has a granddaughter who is in kindergarten. He says that the little girl is rebelling against the truth in her own quiet way.
“When we go shopping, he always chooses things that remind him of home, toys or a bicycle with the same colors as his in Stepanakert – the former capital of Nagorno-Karabakh – as if he were remaking parts. about the life he left behind,” Baziyan explained to IPS from his apartment in Yerevan’s northeast.
“This girl even asked me if the birds had also left Stepanakert. It’s as if she still can’t believe what happened to us. She says she’s jealous of the birds,” said an Armenian woman.
Although Baziyan does not believe that coexistence is possible, he is unequivocal about the will of his people: “All Armenians want to stay in their homes.” Most of them would gladly return if there were guarantees of safety and dignity, but not under Azerbaijan’s rule. We cannot face the killing of people in our homes,” he adds.
Right of Return
Despite a deep personal desire, the return of refugees and exiles is a right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Two months after the mass migration, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Azerbaijan must guarantee the “safe and unimpeded return” of these displaced people, as well as the European Parliament’s decision adopted last March.
The government of Azerbaijan has offered Karabakh Armenians the opportunity to return to their homes as long as they agree to remain under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction. This proposal, however, has been rejected by both the local leaders and the citizens of Karabakh even before the scandal caused their mass exodus.
Meanwhile, former residents of Nagorno-Karabakh watched helplessly on social media as Azerbaijanis looted their homes, vandalized their cemeteries and destroyed cultural heritage including medieval churches.
“Going back is impossible. If it were possible to live together, why would people abandon their homes, their land and their country in just a few days?” Gegham Stepanyan, Arsakh Ombudsman and member of the Committee for the Protection of Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh told IPS by phone from Yerevan.
This lack of security guarantees has been supported by numerous reports from international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. During the 2020 war, they also expressed concern about attacks on civilians, violations of the laws of war, and the killing and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and civilians.
Similar violations were reported during the 2023 shutdown.
On September 2, 2024, the International Association of Genocide Scholars—a US-based non-partisan organization—issued a resolution condemning Azerbaijan’s “acts of genocide” in Nagorno-Karabakh and calling on the international community to “take notice of these atrocities, ensure the right of Armenians to return to their country and ensure its security.”
Azerbaijan is also under scrutiny for its handling of civil liberties, press freedom, political prisoners and human rights abuses, particularly in conflict zones. However, the lack of security guarantees does not seem to be the only obstacle in the way of the return of the displaced.
“The right to return is directly related to the right to self-determination and is included in the international law of nations. The people of Karabakh are no different, they also have this right,” said Stepayan.
His committee is working to create “a forum where solutions can be considered but he admitted that such a body does not yet exist, because Armenia has removed the issue from its negotiating agenda.
“The solution to this issue ultimately depends on the political will of international actors, some of whom are very focused on their economic and financial interests in Azerbaijan,” said Stepanyan.
After Russia’s gas cuts after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe has signed several energy deals with Baku to ensure supply.
To struggle
After joining a caravan that covered several kilometers fleeing Nagorno Karabakh last year, 22-year-old law student Snezhana Tamrazyan took refuge in Kapan, 300 kilometers south of Yerevan.
“Living under Azerbaijan’s rule was not an option. It’s not just a risk, it’s a matter of principle. Our struggle, the struggle of our parents, grandparents and our children was to keep Artsakh as an Armenian territory. What was the point of all that?” Tamrazyan tells IPS by phone.
Like the families displaced from Karabakh, Snezhana also drags the story of war and displacement. He remembers that his mother was the same age when he was expelled after a seven-day shooting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in 1990, which ended with the definitive expulsion of Armenians from the Caspian city.
“We have gone through a lot… How can I live with those who are responsible for the death and suffering of our people?”, said Snezhana, who remembers feeling like a “traitor” when she left the besieged area last year.
“Leaving my country was not my decision,” he told himself. “I was forced out. We were all forced out.”
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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