Awaiting New Year Under Blockade

They started practicing before the blockade, but performed after it started. Some of the invited guests couldn’t make it to Artsakh.

The children clearly know what’s happening and they express their desire for the road to be open. They know it because they hear about it on TV and from their parents, who try not to discuss everything with them. “They already do not have the best childhood. It is not the easiest childhood. So we just keep them away from this problem.”

After the 2020 Artsakh war, Stepanakert city lit a Christmas tree for the first time to make it more festive and bring joy to the children. This will be the first New Year for many families to celebrate without enjoying the unity of their families.

Nina says most of the families are planning to celebrate the New Year anyways and celebrate the best way possible even with the food shortage. On the search for a carrot and a potato to make Olivie salad, as Nina says, people of Artsakh want to make sure Azerbaijan doesn’t achieve its goal of making them feel hopeless.

“You can’t make us suffer because New Year is a sacred thing here. We will do it even if you put us in a blockade,” Nina says. The vacant cream cheese shelves give her hope that everybody will at least have their cakes for Christmas and will make sure to celebrate it.

Shortage Amid Long Winter

The situation in the Lachin Corridor was also on the agenda of the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on December 20. During the session, the immediate and unconditional reopening of the corridor was explicitly called for.

In an interview given to News.Am, Stepanakert Mayor Davit Sargsyan said the city has almost completely run out of basic necessities. “The stores are virtually empty. Groceries, [vegetable] oil, and sugar are left in few stores — and that only in small quantities. There are no fruits and vegetables left. There are cases when these products are not provided to people. We don’t have a flour and wheat problem as the bread factories are working as normal,” shared Sargsyan. He also stated that the cars now rely on natural gas as only five percent of the gasoline stock is left in Stepanakert.

Due to the blockade, three severely ill patients were under medical supervision at the Medical Center of Artsakh and were just transported to Armenia only on Friday, December 30, with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Red Cross also transported 10 tons of various drugs shipped from Armenia but “mostly got first-aid medication … The quantity is too low,” according to an Artsakh medical official’s interview to Azatutyun.am.

On the Other Side of the Road: Christmas without Family

Nina’s sisters and others stuck on the other side of the road wish they could be in Artsakh. Nina says there’s a clear understanding that it’s a lot better to be in the blockade than outside of it because it’s extra worrisome to imagine the situation from outside.

Out of more than a thousand who can’t cross the blockade are students who wanted to go back home after passing their exams or those traveling to Yerevan and abroad for other educational and work purposes. Sofi Abrahamyan is a senior at Artsakh State University, majoring in Translation Studies. She went to Yerevan days before the blockade to travel to Spain in the scope of the Erasmus + cultural youth exchange program.

While she was in Spain, she hoped the roads would open. They workshop was about “Digital Storytelling” and the participants from different countries worked on their short films. Sofi’s 3-minute film was about Armenia, the 2020 war, and unfortunately, the blockade was also added to the list.

“I urged my international friends not to stay silent because basic human rights are violated and they need to speak up,” Sofi shares.

Sofi’s studies and work are mired in uncertainty as the blockade enters the third week. Her capstone and exams, as well as her work in WikiMedia Armenia seem to be hanging in the air. She is in touch with her professors and colleagues, but it is not effective to work from distance when she needs to be there physically.

Her father is in Yerevan with her, while her mother, brother, and grandmother are in Stepanakert. “It’s an unbearable feeling to see my family divided and it is more unbearable that I can’t do anything about it. We’re in touch all the time but it’s not the same. We won’t be able to be together for this family holiday.”

While financial resources are running low, Sofi’s grandma is among those whose medicine is no longer available in the pharmacies and she’s using the last package of it.

Sofi’s friends from Italy were also present at the peaceful protests organized in Yerevan. By organizing and taking part in these demonstrations, Sofi and her friends try to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis people of Artsakh are facing.

When asked about hope, Sofi says the word ‘hope’ itself already makes her sad. She says dejectedly, “We are hoping the road will open, but we have not reached the end of the countdown. Instead we remain mired in uncertainty.”