“In the passport control line at the Zvartnots airport in Yerevan, which looks very spacious and somehow festive, my anxiety reared its head. I looked at the faces of the border guards trying to guess which of them was kindest. I was directed to one of them. He scrutinized my...
“There are no photos where dad and mom are together. They collected photos in one album. When we moved, our things were moved to my grandmother’s house, and then there was a fire and the album was destroyed.
"I can describe the liberation of Lachin like this: imagine that you lost all your money. Then you go back to search for it, and here it is on the ground. That's how I rejoiced. Lachin was all that I had, and I lost it. And now I've found it...
In Soviet times, the railway settlement of Minjivan in the Zangilan region of Azerbaijan was a busy transport hub, where trains went from Baku to Yerevan and Norashen, and from Moscow to Tehran. Vafa Farajeva spent her childhood and youth in this village. Later, in 1993 during the first Karabakh...
When the 44-day war began in 2020, in addition to thousands of casualties on both sides, the civilian population also suffered — 76 Armenians and 94 Azeris, according to official figures. Sociologist and activist Sanubar Heydarova was conducting training in Barda, a frontline region, when the war began. She returned...
Dilber Ahadzade sent her two sons to the second Karabakh war in 2020. One of them did not return. Having moved to Baku from the country and not having her own housing, for many years Dilber lived in an abandoned dormitory —- two rooms in substandard condition, and there she...
Armine puts flour, milk, sugar, a stick of margarine, three eggs, a pinch of vanilla, a little salt, and says he will bake a different kind of gata today. Gata is a glazed pastry with a sweet filling in Armenia and Azerbaijan traditionally baked in a tandoor. It has many...
In the south of Armenia, there are many butterflies among the rocks near the city of Meghri. Until recently, 30 year old Vardan Vardanyan could not have imagined that his future would be with butterflies
A girl on horseback blocks the way of women returning from a collective farming plot. Looking at each other, the women part and Munavvar silently steps forward. The rider is also silent, giving Munavvar a long look from head to toe, then riding off. Munavvar remembered this beauty in a...
