Tag: stories

A peephole view into the kaleidoscopic distortions of other people’s lives where human interaction is set in ways foreign to you and distant from you yet in your city where the “hero” is your friend. A true, but not a real story from the ninth floor, in building 9a, in the Ninth District, the door without the peephole.

There is a Facebook group of Meghri natives that is more active than the official pages of many institutions. It is, however, also isolated, living a separate life, disconnected from the rest of the digital world just like the actual city.

The Homeland Defender’s Rehabilitation Center in Yerevan, known as Zinvori Tun (Soldier’s Home) has become a place of hope, healing and rehabilitation on the road to recovery for soldiers seriously wounded during the 2020 Artsakh War.

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.

After 44 days of reluctant and often one-sided reporting of the 2020 Artsakh War and amidst the grey horror of cluster bombed homes, the red flames of Karvajar’s houses instantly made international headlines.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus’ Aleksandr Lukashenko for cracking down on democracy and attacking civilians. Ilham Aliyev has actually been more brutal but has not been penalized.

Resolve is different from blind faith that “this too shall pass.” We need the entire Armenian nation to start getting ready for the next encounter, writes Raffi Kassarjian.

It had been almost two decades since Gohar Karapetyan last made the trip from Artsakh to Yerevan when she decided, on the morning of October 1, to repeat the journey, this time to escape a raging war.

Statistics about numbers of civilians and young conscripts killed in conflict often water down the true magnitude of human loss. This is the story of one family’s struggle through the 2020 Artsakh War.

In Stepanakert, EVN Report spoke with Artsakh's Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan about the political decisions of the international community and the reasons for the artificial parity in their vocabulary, their failure to realize that authoritarian regimes do not understand the language of statements but that of action and their failure to prevent, followed by their failure to protect.

As the war rages on, almost 80,000 Armenians from Artsakh have fled their native towns and cities and found refuge throughout Armenia proper. While they are grateful for the care they are receiving, their dream is to go back home.

This primer provides the reader with an overview of the historical origins of the Karabakh conflict, the Soviet era, the war, the peace process all the way to the Four Day War in April 2016.

The humanitarian emergency in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh requires the engagement of humanitarian and donor organizations, without regard to its international recognition, its present or future status.

The narrow geopolitical framework of the three-decade-old Karabakh conflict is now threatening to become a Eurasian nightmare: Turkey's involvement has sensationalized the war, Iran’s unease has reinforced the confusion, while Russia's perceived passiveness has created much regional anxiety.

Armenophobic comments from Azerbaijani’s President are nothing new. He has long drummed up support among his population by promoting hatred against Armenians and using dehumanizing language, often referring to them as dogs and vermin.

In light of the existential threat, high probability of ethnic cleansing and the already imminent humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, the international community has an obligation to grant remedial recognition to Artsakh.

Fleeing the war, the women of Artsakh -- mothers, daughters, sisters and wives -- held a rally in front of the UN building in Yerevan asking for one simple thing, the right to live in peace.

Journalist Lusine Musayelyan remembers the first war. She remembers Baroness Caroline Cox giving her colorful candy in crinkly paper. She remembers the bombing and the bunkers.

Photojournalist Eric Grigorian captures the devastation of war, its destruction of lives, heritage sites and schools. A portrait of a nation at war, of a capital where the elderly and the grieving live underground.

The war has infiltrated almost every Armenian home. While soldiers are fighting on the front, a new generation of children and their families who escaped this new war in Artsakh are looking for ways to cope with the new trauma.

Does the armed conflict of international character waged by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh warrant an international recognition of Artsakh’s remedial secession?

Azerbaijan, in collaboration with Turkey is responsible for grave breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes. The international tribunal should not turn a blind eye to the situation.

Statements and hints by Azerbaijan about an impending war went unheeded. Why would Armenia want to halt the negotiation process to start a war? Here are some of the facts and context which demonstrate it was Azerbaijan that started the war.

Given the geography, tactics and methods of the Azerbaijani offensive, the autocratic regime of Ilham Aliyev is aiming to forcibly occupy the territory of Artsakh through committing large-scale atrocities.

As the hordes mass at Armenia’s gates, the U.S. and Europe, the supposed guardians of peace and justice, remain reluctant to intervene to halt the violence due to self-interest and capitulation to Turkish blackmail.

The inclusion of the term genocide is not being loosely thrown around. As the war rages on, the potential for genocide against ethnic Armenians in Artsakh is very real and highly probable, writes Suren Manukyan.

As Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh came under continual shelling by Azerbaijani armed forces, photojournalist Eric Grigorian captured the devastating aftermath.

The Azerbaijani-Turkish joint venture of transplanting mercenaries into Azerbaijan has the potential to turn the region into a new hub of sectarian violence and create a security breakdown for the wider region. Here is the EU response.

The city of Martakert in Artsakh came under heavy shelling twice since the start of the war. This photo story captures the aftermath.

The capital of the Republic of Artsakh was shelled twice today by Azerbaijani armed forces injuring civilians and damaging buildings and infrastructure. Photojournalist Eric Grigorian captured these images in Stepanakert.

While Iran's response to the current escalation is neutral and balanced, there are concerns about Azerbaijan's desire for a military solution, Turkey's involvement and the arrival of terrorists in the region.

A number of international media outlets have published stories about Syrian militants who have been offered up to $1500/month by Turkey to fight alongside the Azerbaijani military.

These powerful images capture fragments of life in Artsakh, a place that is boundlessly resilient yet has too often become a home to war.

Following the attack by Azerbaijani Armed Forces on September 27, the women and children of Stepanakert shelter in bunkers while most of the men are off to the frontline.

While Artsakh has experienced the highest per capita accident rate in the world, it has seen a ten-fold reduction in landmine accidents since The HALO Trust began demining operations in 2000.

The tourism industry has been particularly hard hit because of the COVID-19 pandemic. What does this mean for the three countries of the South Caucasus?

A recent joint statement by three Members of the European Parliament on the construction of a new, third highway between Armenia and Artsakh was not well-received in Armenian circles.

For Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and for Syrian-Armenians in Yerevan, crafting served as a way of earning a living and as a process of rebuilding and reimagining a social world through the temporal markers that help them nurture a sense of “home.”

As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Armenia, it is leaving behind physical and emotional scars. In this moving piece, Gohar Abrahamyan speaks with those who contracted the virus and survived.

A story weaving together the fragments of a woman’s life who organized the chaos of reality into a sensible and livable realm offhandedly called “home” but no one recognized it until she was gone.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent statement regarding a step-by-step approach to resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict reflects Russia’s centuries-old imperial instincts of using divide-and-conquer tactics on its periphery.

The liberation of the strategic town of Shushi was a turning point in the Karabakh war, causing a dramatic shift in the military progress of Armenian forces and ultimately obstructing future Turkish-Armenian relations.

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.

What does it mean to leave behind friends, family, community and memories? The pain of loss and departure can be difficult to bear and sometimes impossible to talk about. Those emotions, however, sometimes find their way onto the pages of diaries.

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.

Over a decade ago, Armenia’s government launched a pilot project called Deinstitutionalization of Orphanages. The initiative, which also sought the creation of a Foster Family program was not successful for many reasons, but mostly because it was never really child-centered. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is set to change that.

Many took the harrowing experience with them to their graves. Others would share only fragments of memories. All of them suffered unimaginable loss. They were the orphans of the Armenian Genocide and their stories must never be forgotten.

While taking the reader through the complexities of international law, Dr. Nerses Kopalyan writes that when Armenia and Azerbaijan speak about peace, they mean completely different things. What they are actually saying is that they seek peace on their own terms.

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.

Palliative care is an approach that strives to improve the quality of life of patients who are terminally ill; it endeavors to provide a life of dignity. In Armenia, culture, stereotypes and entrenched practices make this approach very difficult to achieve, and instead of helping the patient, often causes them to lose their voice and their dignity.

An artistic collaboration spanning continents and generations is attempting to turn stories into colorful murals throughout rural communities in Armenia.

The only thing this fairy tale needs to become a reality is peace and peace perhaps needs a fairy tale.

Being born with Down Syndrome has not stopped Tigran Gevorgyan from pursuing his dreams. From winning gold medals at the Special Olympics to finding love, Tigran is not only breaking stereotypes, he’s creating a life of joy, fulfillment and meaning.

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։

A series of extraordinary events in early spring of 2018 that came to be known as the Velvet Revolution fundamentally changed Armenia’s political landscape. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian reflects on some of her personal experiences during those heady days.

When a massive earthquake rocked northern Armenia in 1988, EVN Report’s Vahram Ter-Matevosyan was a fifth grade student in Gyumri. In this personal essay, he recounts his experience of being trapped beneath the ruins of his school for 18 harrowing hours.

Azat Adamyan, a young entrepreneur from Karabakh (Artsakh) created a hiking club, volunteered during the April War, opened the first-ever pub in Stepanakert and now has his sights set on bigger plans. While he realizes the limits of his reality, his dreams are boundless.