Spotlight Artsakh

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on March 31. While voter turnout was high (72.7%), no presidential candidate received the required majority of votes, necessitating a runoff election to take place in two weeks.

Voters will be given masks, hand sanitizer and their own pen as the vote looks set to go ahead on March 31 as originally planned.

In the face of war and turmoil, music has remained one of Artsakh’s most cherished aspects of their culture. Tradition and new influences are what keep the music alive.

Gayane Ghazaryan pieces together the stories, struggles and dreams of the people of Artsakh through a series of vignettes.

For many, it might seem that Artsakh, an unrecognized state, is an unlikely place to hold an international football tournament. But that is exactly what will happen starting June 1, when Artsakh hosts the 2019 European Football Cup of the Confederation of Independent Football Associations.

Shamakhi is an Armenian dialect that is on the verge of extinction. While many Armenians from Shamakhi feel a sense of pride in their history and dialect, for the new generation who, along with the rest of the Shamakhetsis were forced to flee their village during the Karabakh War, the dialect is simply a matter of history.

When the war broke out in Artsakh in the early 1990s, Aida Serobyan was a 36-year-old doctor and mother of three. She decided to volunteer for two months as a field doctor, but ended up staying for two years until the end of the war in 1994. Although she helped to heal the injured, she herself was wounded four times on the battlefield. This is her story.

A personal essay by Gayane Ghazaryan about a trip to Artsakh to see her brother for the first time after he left for his mandatory service in the army. A day her family had always known would come but was never fully ready for. Գայանե Ղազարյանը գրում է իր նորակոչիկ եղբորը առաջին անգամ Արցախում տեսակցության գնալու իր փորձառության մասին։ Մի օր, որին նրանք սպասել են, բայց այդպես էլ պատրաստ չեն եղել։

In this moving photo essay, journalist Yelena Gevorgyan and photographer Mariam Loretsyan explore Stepanakert through their eyes and impressions, piecing together the stories that bind the Armenians of Artsakh to the land.

What is it like to find yourself on a heavily militarized contact line? How does it feel to see an adversary, a mere 400 meters away, who was the reason you became a refugee? Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, a refugee from Baku, writes about her emotional journey to the line and back.