Life in Artsakh after the war

Lika Zakaryan
4 min readDec 27, 2020

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After the signing of the trilateral agreement on November 10, the Artsakh government called on the residents to return to their homes. Of course, we are talking about those who still have a house. The government supports families whose homes have been shattered by the war, and those who are homeless have several programs in place.
The damaged houses are numerous, Stepanakert Mayor Savit Sargsyan stated about that. As many displaced people have also returned to Artsakh, now they are more concentrated in Stepanakert. The Stepanakert municipality has provided people with food, warm clothes, and other humanitarian aid throughout. He also stated that new buildings with apartments for displaced people will be built.

Lika Zakaryan and David Sargsyan (Stepanakert Mayor)
Stepanakert

By the end of December, about 50,000 people had returned to Artsakh. You could already see laundry and walking people in the city. Public transport has also started operating. Shops and markets have reopened, people have started going to work again.

Laundry, Stepanakert
Public transport, Stepanakert

As a result of the war, Artsakh lost 75% of its territory, leaving only 2,000 of the 12,000 square meters. As a result, the border between Artsakh and Azerbaijan was extended 2.5 times. At the moment, the Russian peacekeeping troops are stationed at each checkpoint, but the Armenian army is still in Artsakh and continues its service.

Armenian soldiers, Taghavard village

This picture is from Taghavard village, which was split into two parts after the war. Armenians continue to live in one part, and the other part has been occupied by Azerbaijan. For example, there are 400 displaced people from this village who find refuge in Armenia and Artsakh. On the other side of the village are the cemeteries of the people of Taghavard, for which the residents are very sorry.

Residents of Taghavard village, the Armenian side

And in this picture is a family from the part of Taghavard village, which was left in the hands of Azerbaijan. Mrs. Susanna says that they did not manage to take anything from the village at all, they left everything there. She was a schoolteacher and her husband was a craftsman. The son and daughter-in-law are looking for a job because they also lost their job, and now they all live together for rent with 7 people in a two-room apartment.

Displaced people from Tghavard village, a part of which is occupied by Azerbaijan

In addition, there are many wounded soldiers who are still receiving medical treatment to fully recover. The picture shows Karen from the city of Martuni. He says that he was injured on the front line. Once he was attacked by a drone, when he opened his eyes he saw that he had no hand. He turned around, found the two severed parts of his hand, went to the hospital on foot, and asked to join the hand, which was divided into three parts. After several surgeries, the doctors managed to keep his hand.

Karen, a wounded soldier from Martuni

The population of Artsakh is in a very difficult psychological situation․ The fact that they lost their home, their sons, the fact that he lost, is a great pain after winning in time and living as a winner for so many years.

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