End of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh: the inhabitants of the region between uncertainty and anger

Audio 01:16

Refugees leaving the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia at a checkpoint after the border with Nagorno-Karabakh near Vardenis, Armenia, November 7, 2020. AP Photo

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5 mins

The war is over in Nagorno-Karabakh, the displaced people who had taken refuge in Armenia are called upon to return.

They have a hard time, after six weeks of war, to believe it.

Goris, a region that is still closed and prohibited except for humanitarian workers and soldiers, is located about twenty kilometers from what is no longer Nagorno-Karabakh, but an Azerbaidjanaïse reconquest.

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With our special correspondent in Goris, 

When you go up from the capital to Goris you only see the other way around, cars or vans packed to the brim.

They are overflowing with suitcases and furniture.

The displaced are leaving the city for the capital Yerevan.

Goris, which was a hub for families from Nagorno-Karabakh, is now empty.

In a hotel in the city center you can still hear some children's laughter, but out of 280 people at the height of the conflict, only around 100 remained.

“ 

"

Maria comes from the village of Askeran, a town almost on the border with Azerbaijan.

Left just after the start of the war at the end of September with her identity papers and some clothes, she no longer wants to return to her city, which was very damaged by the bombings.

" 

 »Maria is still awaiting the return of her son who is doing his military service and that of her husband who has not yet been demobilized.

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♦ Kelbadjar district: people move and leave nothing

In the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the inhabitants of the pro-independence province and the districts around them saw the signing of the

as a tragedy.

None of the approximately 17,000 inhabitants of these districts want to stay there, as they are about to come back under Azerbaijani control.

This is particularly the case of the district of Kelbadjar, where the inhabitants are working to empty their house before November 15, the day of the return from the district under Baku control according to the agreement signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia under the aegis of Russia.

Story of a day between tears and anger, with

.

In front of most of the houses in the village of Karvatchar, we pile up a whole life in a Gaz, these sky-blue Soviet trucks.

In the dumpster, we put beds, sofas, kitchen utensils, all the rage to the heart.

The rage of having to abandon houses often built with their own hands after the end of the war of independence of 1991-94, for inhabitants then destitute of everything being refugees from districts of Azerbaijan.

Some are so enraged that they burn down their homes before leaving for Armenia.

No question of leaving his wealth to the Azerbaijanis.

Sometimes even the doors and windows of houses and administrative buildings are dismantled. 

Everywhere along the roads of Kelbadjar district, chainsaws are knocking down trees to take the wood with them.

Hoisting machines dismantle the large parts of the electrical substations.

On the roads, this gives curious processions made up of trucks loaded with wood, old Soviet cars and 4x4s carrying refrigerators and backpacks on the gallery, combine harvesters and cattle trucks.

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• Nagorno-Karabakh

• Azerbaijan

• Armenia

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