Karabakh refugees tell about post-war wanderings

After the war, families with children from Nagorno-Karabakh had to wander among relatives, refugees have complained.

As a result of the 2020 war, more than 120 dwelling settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh came under Azerbaijan's control; and more than half of the 40,000 people are still residing in Armenia, an employee of the Nagorno-Karabakh operative headquarters in Yerevan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Today, the number of residents of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) forcibly deported to Armenia makes 5448 families or 21,615 persons. 68.7% of them live in Armenia regions; 31.3% – in the city of Yerevan," she said.

In the village of Msmna of the Martuninsky District of Nagorno-Karabakh, 14 residential houses are being repaired; they will be provided to forced migrants, Arthur Grigoryan, the community head, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Four houses have already been renovated, and the first family has already been accepted," he has added.

Anait Eremyan with her husband and children was the first refugee family that settled in this village. Before the war, the family lived in the Erik village of the Kashatag District that came under Azerbaijan's control.

"During the war, we stayed in the village until the last day. We didn't believe that our village would also be surrendered, therefore we stayed there. When it was announced that the district was passing under Azerbaijan's control, in one day we gathered the most necessary belongings and left for the village of Verinshen located near the city of Goris. We lived there with our relatives. Then, we moved to the village of Tekh, again to our relatives. We wandered among relatives until we found out that in the village of Msmna they offered housing to forced migrants. We arrived here with my husband, looked at the houses and decided to settle here," Anait told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 18, 2021 at 05:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.