Yerevan, Armenia – Alisa Ghazaryan was full of pleasure and nerves as she began her first 12 months at college in Stepanakert, having moved from her village dwelling in Nagorno-Karabakh.
However simply as time period started, Azerbaijani forces started shelling town, which they know as Khankendi, on September 19.
As they carried out what they solid as an “anti-terrorist operation”, the 18-year-old took shelter within the college’s basement.
“I used to be born there, I grew up there,” she stated of her dwelling. “After I was there, I felt fully free.”
Till just lately, Nagorno-Karabakh, a long-troubled mountainous enclave, was dwelling to about 120,000 ethnic Armenians who dominated the area. Since Baku’s lightning offensive, greater than 100,000, together with Alisa, have fled to Armenia.
Regardless of assurances by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to guard their civil rights, many say they feared persecution after years of mutual mistrust and open hatred between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
A number of displaced individuals Al Jazeera spoke to in Armenia stated they had been anticipating a bloodbath.
In line with ethnic Armenian officers, a minimum of 200 individuals had been killed in Baku’s assault, together with 10 civilians, and greater than 400 had been wounded.
Baku performed down the claims of civilian casualties however acknowledged “collateral injury” was potential.
Azerbaijan, which has stated 192 of its troopers had been killed within the operation, stated its blitz was geared toward disarming ethnic Armenian separatists within the area, components of which now resemble a ghost city.
Al Jazeera was unable to confirm both facet’s toll.
The assault got here after a 10-month blockade, successfully imposed by Azerbaijan after it closed the Lachin hall to Armenia, stopping the circulate of meals, gas and drugs. Baku had accused Armenia of funnelling weapons to separatists by means of the winding, mountain highway, a declare denied by each events.
The native unrecognised authorities surrendered after 24 hours of combating. Aliyev stated his “iron fist” restored Azerbaijan’s sovereignty. Late final month, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian officers said the area will stop to exist as a self-styled breakaway republic on January 1 subsequent 12 months.
‘We’re solely right here to not be on the streets’
Alisa and her household fled by means of the Lachin hall, which has since been reopened.
They’re staying at a pal’s home exterior the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Fourteen individuals presently reside within the cramped area, sharing two rooms.
At night time, they sleep facet by facet on the lounge flooring.
“We’re solely right here to not be on the streets,” stated Alisa.
It’s a far cry from their home in Karabakh, which they’d simply completed renovating.
The journey to Armenia, which often takes a number of hours, took days for some, as individuals poured out of the area.
The European Parliament this week stated the “present scenario quantities to ethnic cleaning”.
Those that left are scattered throughout Armenia, dealing with an unsure future and mourning the lack of their homeland.
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijan’s territory, together with by Armenia. The ex-Soviet rivals have fought two wars over the enclave, within the nineties and in 2020. The primary battle noticed ethnic Armenians seize swaths of land, ensuing within the displacement of Azerbaijanis, whereas Baku triumphed within the 2020 struggle. Since then, Russian peacekeepers have operated within the area, however Armenians blame them for permitting Azerbaijan’s newest assault, which was extensively condemned within the West.
Now, there are only some hundred left in Karabakh, primarily aged or disabled individuals.
“The character was so stunning. There are mountains and forests. Our dwelling was proper on the sting of a forest, we used to stroll there lots,” stated Alisa, as she checked out a photograph on her cellphone of a verdant hillside.
Ina, her mom, wished to throw away the important thing to their home, however Alisa begged her to not.
“Possibly someday we are going to return, perhaps when I’m an previous girl,” Alisa stated hopefully.
“Aliyev describes us and our heroes as terrorists, however in actuality, he’s the terrorist. I would like the world to know that Artsakh is our motherland and never [Azerbaijan’s],” she added, utilizing the self-styled identify for the area.
A lot of these displaced had already fled, in earlier wars.
![Angela Sazkisjan-Yan eats ice cream for the first time since the start of the Azerbaijan-imposed blockade with her neice Narine at a cafe in Abovyan where she is staying with her sister's family-1696579761](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Angela-Sazkisjan-Yan-eats-ice-cream-for-the-first-time-since-the-start-of-the-Azerbaijan-imposed-blockade-with-her-neice-Narine-at-a-cafe-in-Abovyan-where-she-is-staying-with-her-sisters-family-1696579761.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Angela Sazkisjan-Yan, a glamorous 65-year-old, left Baku in 1995.
“No one would keep [in Karabakh] as a result of everyone clearly is aware of the handwriting of Azerbaijan,” she stated.
Some individuals destroyed their furnishings or dishes earlier than they left, however Angela cleaned her flat in Stepanakert, and even left the fridge on and crammed with meals, within the hope that someday she’s going to return.
“Everyone left their property however that’s a small a part of it – the worst half is that we left our homeland, our roots. Even my grandparents are buried there,” she advised Al Jazeera in Abovyan, northeast of Yerevan.
She is staying together with her sister’s household, whom she had not seen in two years.
“I’m very comfortable to rejoin with them as a result of we’re an inseparable a part of one another, however I’ve a giant soul ache for every little thing that’s occurred,” she stated.
Many Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh say they had been cut up up from kin throughout the blockade.
Lilit Shahverdyan, a 20-year-old freelance journalist, was in Yerevan together with her sister throughout the tensions, whereas the remainder of her household was at their dwelling in Stepanakert.
“We simply hugged one another and began to cry,” she stated, describing the second when she lastly noticed her household, within the border city of Goris, after nearly a 12 months aside.
She stated the blockade made her household nearer and stronger than ever.
“All we’ve got now could be simply our household and only one house in Yerevan. All the things else – not simply the property, however all our recollections, life targets, and the long run was in our homeland – now it’s all gone.”
As her mom locked their entrance door for the final time in Stepanakert, tears streamed down her face.
“It was essentially the most stunning home. My father constructed it 10 years in the past. I actually loved waking up there on daily basis simply going to the backyard, hugging my cats or speaking to my neighbours. In my childhood, every little thing was linked to that home.”
Lilit had hoped to return to Stepanakert to work after she finishes her college course in Yerevan. Now, she desires to depart Armenia altogether.
“I’m simply afraid that some sh** will occur once more. And I don’t need my youngsters to undergo as a lot as I did. Armenia just isn’t a secure place so long as we’ve got a neighbouring dictator and we’ve got this authorities. I don’t need to have one other traumatised era,” she stated.
![Lilit Shahverdyan, a 20-year-old freelance journalist, was in Yerevan with her sister during the blockade, while the rest of her family was stuck at their home in Stepanakert-1696579885](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Lilit-Shahverdyan-a-20-year-old-freelance-journalist-was-in-Yerevan-with-her-sister-during-the-blockade-while-the-rest-of-her-family-was-stuck-at-their-home-in-Stepanakert-1696579885.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C660)
Hopes of a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be fading after an important assembly deliberate for this week, between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, was cancelled by Azerbaijan on the final minute.
“It’s not solely unrealistic, it’s additionally against the law to consider that now could be the time to collaborate on a peaceable relationship,” stated Angela, who stated she is aware of 10 individuals who had been killed within the current combating.
“They killed us, how can we reside with them in peace?”
Ara Papian, an Armenian lawyer and former diplomat, thinks additional aggression by Azerbaijan is feasible sooner or later, notably within the Syunik area the place Azerbaijan desires to construct a hall by means of Armenian territory to attach with its exclave, Nakhchivan.
Even when a peace treaty is signed, Azerbaijan will “discover an excuse and assault”, he predicted.
Papian accused the West of refusing to sentence and sanction Azerbaijan as a result of some nations don’t need to get on the improper facet of NATO member Turkey – Azerbaijan’s closest ally.
The European Union’s fuel take care of Azerbaijan exposes the bloc’s hypocrisy, he added.
“The EU and the West don’t purchase oil and fuel from dictator [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to not gas the struggle in Ukraine, however they purchase the identical from Azerbaijan realizing that the cash will go to not prosperity of individuals in Azerbaijan, it is going to develop into new weapons, which suggests a brand new struggle – which has occurred.”
Housing is now the primary precedence for displaced individuals, stated Margarit Piliposyan, deputy nation director for the NGO Fund for Armenia Aid (FAR), which has been distributing meals and humanitarian provides in Vayk, a city south of Yerevan.
The Armenian authorities just lately introduced monetary help for displaced individuals with 100,000 dram per particular person ($239) after which 40,000 dram monthly ($96) for six months for housing prices.
Nonetheless, a number of individuals advised Al Jazeera they had been but to see any authorities help, similar to Lira Arzangulyan, 33, and Alina Khachatryan, 31, two sisters, who fled after the most recent escalation.
They moved with their 4 kids and mothers-in-law, to Mrgavan village, in Artashat, a province within the shadow of Mount Ararat, the place greater than 100 displaced households now reside.
They had been beforehand displaced from their dwelling in Martuni after the 2020 struggle.
The home is small with peeling wallpaper and one fuel range. It’s chilly inside – even on a gentle September day. The proprietor is letting them keep there free of charge, for now.
“We don’t have every other place to go so we’re going to remain right here. The homes for lease are too costly, we are able to’t afford it. We’re nonetheless unsure and in shock,” stated Alina.
The youngsters play within the different room as their moms cry softly. Lira’s mascara runs throughout her cheek as she says how a lot she misses visiting her mom’s grave in Karabakh.
They each lament the Russian peacekeepers, who Lira described as being “detached and doing nothing” to guard or assist them.
The primary United Nations monitoring mission visited Karabakh on Sunday.
“Why didn’t they arrive once we had nothing to eat? It’s empty now, there is no such thing as a one residing there. In the event that they got here earlier than this escalation began they usually gave us hope and a assure that there’s somebody to help us, then we’d have stayed there,” stated Lira.
Their kids run in and hug them shut.
“I hope this subsequent era will change and perhaps when our children develop up they may have the ability to return there, perhaps as a vacationer, to see the place they’re from,” Alina added.