Spotlight Artsakh

This is not a story about war. This is the story of what happens after the bullets, missiles, bombs and drones no longer fly through the autumn air. Maria Titizian recounts her journey to Artsakh last year, two days after the signing of the trilateral statement ending the war.

A year has passed since the end of the 2020 Artsakh War. The ceasefire statement signed by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020, brought a new geopolitical reality to the region.

While the majority of women didn’t pick up guns to fight in the war, many used their skills to fight in their own way. On this first anniversary of the 2020 Artsakh War, Kushane Chobanyan presents the stories of six extraordinary women who were on the front lines.

Armenian cultural, religious and historical monuments and sites currently under Azerbaijani control in the aftermath of the 2020 Artsakh War are under immediate threat of vandalism and destruction.

For nearly three decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been buying large quantities of weapons from a number of countries. Hovhannes Nazaretyan presents a comprehensive list of weapons acquired by both countries since independence.

The military phase of the 2020 Artsakh War seems to have ended but the legal fight for restoring and upholding human rights is just beginning. Armenia’s Inter-State Application against Azerbaijan to the ECHR marks the beginning of that strategic process.

International human rights defending organizations have been speaking in a language of “neutrality” which, in the context of the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan during and after the 2020 Artsakh War, is anything but objective, writes Karena Avedissian.

The Yezidis of Armenia fought alongside their Armenian comrades during the 2020 Artsakh War. One Yezidi volunteer says that “this is our country, the graves of our ancestors are here and the future of our children is here.”

As part of its mirroring propaganda operation during the war that was intended to cloud the information landscape, Azerbaijan also systematically mirrored the Armenian side’s visuals as well.

Faced with loss and uncertainty, the Armenians of Artsakh are trying to come to grips with the defeat following the war and finding a way to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.