Despite Threats of Deportation, Residents of Aghavno Refuse to Leave

Arusyak, Shushan, and Nairi came to Aghavno as teachers, but they built strong relationships with the schoolchildren, and the teacher-student relationship grew into deep friendships. Gathering by the river became a tradition to unite generations and is always accompanied by singing and guitar music. However, the post-war traumas resided deep inside the children’s souls, and even insignificant events reopen their wounds.

“One of my students missed class because of the rain. He said the thunder sounded like an explosion, and he was scared to leave the house,” recalled Mkrtchyan.

Aghavno and Berdzor are hotspots again as Azerbaijan is finishing the new route construction. According to the trilateral agreement of November 10, the new route to connect Artsakh with Armenia should be completed within the next three years. However, Azerbaijan kickstarted the construction at an accelerated pace. The Azerbaijani state road agency published the most recent photographs of asphalting the road, which will be 32 km. long and will bypass Berdzor, Aghavno, and other localities. The fates of the pipeline, the high-voltage power line, and the Internet channel that passes through the Lachin corridor, also remain unrevealed. Their loss will have crucial consequences for the Armenians of Artsakh.

A day after Pashinyan’s comments on the handover of the Lachin corridor, “Artsakhgaz” announced that for technical reasons, gas will be cut off throughout the territory of Artsakh Republic from June 29 to July 5. Many connected this incident with the developments around the Lachin corridor, through which the pipelines pass.

One of the political activists, Nairi Hokhikyan, a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), urged the Armenians to move to Berdzor to live there and show support to the locals. He claimed that Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev’s goal is to hang the Azerbaijani flag in Berdzor, which the Armenians could prevent by populating the town and its neighborhood. He wrote that “we must achieve that the Russian peacekeepers stay in Lachin on July 1, and should ensure the transportation of gas, electricity, telephone, and internet routes from Armenia to Artsakh to the area of an alternative corridor.”

Amid apparent threats of a handover, Chavushyan believes everything depends on the people’s endurance and will to stay in their homes.

“It is not a desperate situation; we work and try to change the outcome. I see people have planted more trees this year because, in the last stage, they learned not to give up, to be self-confident,” he said.

Chavushyan recalled that residents organized themselves in the village during the 2020 war, and had a military detachment to protect Aghavno from the opponent and looters. Recalling the victory in the First Nagorno-Karabakh war, he assured that the quantity of people does not matter if they unite around one idea: protecting the land.

“Aghavni” is the word for dove in Armenia, and the name of the village derives from it.

“Doves symbolize peace and serenity, but they attack with their wings to protect their babies. And the 185 people in Aghavno live under the same motto,” Chavushyan said.