Exodus after 10-Month Blockade: the Aftermath of Bloody Peace

Let the Numbers Speak

As of today about 100,625 forcibly displaced persons have arrived in Armenia from Artsakh, and 91,924 of them already have been registered by Armenian officials, Armenian Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Nazeli Baghdasaryan said: “The number of registered and already identified persons is increasing hour by hour. As of now, it is 99.2 percent. We are confident that this number will reach 100 percent in the next one or two days.”

Baghdasaryan also noted that 8,000 people have already been connected to primary health care centers while 324 people continue to receive treatment in medical institutions.

Among the forcibly displaced persons, there are students and children. According to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport, 8,000 students — 32 percent of children — are already visiting various educational institutions in Armenia.

If You Fall into Their Hands, You’re Done!

“I have been forcibly displaced twice. The first time I was displaced from Shushi to Stepanakert after 2020, and this time here. I didn’t bring anything with me. I just got up and came. It was cold, and I was freezing,” said Edik Edigaryan, a gray-haired man in his early 60s, who sent his family to Goris first and then came later with his fellow villagers.

When the war started, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces first attacked the electrical station of their village. People stayed without electricity and then things got even worse when the Azerbaijani forces started shelling the village. He helped to take out the bodies, but the hospitals were full. People were placed on the ground and in the corridors as all the rooms were full, he said.

“There were young boys among us, 13-, 14-, 18-year-old boys, who came to help us, so we managed to take out the corpses. We did it at night to escape the shooting from their side, but they were shooting anyway. We barely took out the bodies,” Edigaryan said.

Coming from a village near Stepanakert, he saw Azerbaijani forces making “big-big fire on the mountain” to put psychological pressure on the villagers.

Passing the checkpoint was an additional challenge, especially for the men. “I was lucky to be in a car with only old passengers and children. There was an old woman, an old man, and three children. They [Azeris] didn’t pay any special attention to us, but when there were younger people, those who were in their 30s, and the Azerbaijani soldiers called them out of the car, started to bully them, make fun of them to provoke a fight, and arrest them.”

Edigaryan also says Azerbaijani soldiers filmed some people to say things “that weren’t true.” “They force people to say that ‘Karabakh is Azerbaijan’ and that everything is peaceful now and so on, putting psychological pressure on them.”

For a moment, Goris seems like a station where all the destinies take to one place – chaos and uncertainty.

“Witnessing all of this, one starts to lose touch with reality. I am afraid Azerbaijan won’t leave Armenia alone,” he said.