How Artsakh’s women are coping two years after tragedy and loss By Anush Ghavalyan
Almost two years after the 44-day war, the Armenians of Artsakh are trying to restore their lives, even as challenges persist. Despite bearing the heaviest burdens of war and insecurity, women are instrumental in caring and providing for their families and rehabilitating the post-war society.
Two years later, the challenges people face in this little-known corner of the Caucasus are only multiplying. The November 2020 trilateral agreement to end the hostilities signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia redrew the map of the region, displacing thousands and making an uncertain future in the process. According to the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh, “Twenty thousand out of the 40,000 internally displaced persons are women, eight thousand are children. Six hundred women were widowed after the war, 12 out of 80 killed civilians were women.” Gegham Stepanyan shared the official data on women affected by the recent conflict, adding that “the fate of four missing women civilians is still unknown.”