Тwo Yerevan women on civilian life during the war
The military operations in and around Karabakh are 400 km from Yerevan, but from the mood of the people, from their faces, it is easy to understand that most people’s thoughts are focussed on the war.
Two women reflect on civilian life during wartime.
Liana
In various parks, shops, theaters, cafes and restaurants, people organized collection points for the army and for those Karabakh people – women and children who moved to Yerevan after the outbreak of hostilities. Warm clothes, food, equipment, personal hygiene items are brought here.
Liana is one of those who bring help here from time to time.
“I remember how on the morning of September 27 I went to Facebook and saw a post from one of my friends – there were only three words: ‘War started in Artsakh’.
I went to the page of the Ministry of Defense and already there I read about the attack of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on Nagorno-Karabakh. I will never forget this morning.”
From the very first day of the war, Liana has been following the development of events. She is skeptical about the ceasefire agreement concluded in Moscow:
“We all see that the Azerbaijani side does not need a truce. Even a temporary one for humanitarian purposes. Do I believe that official Baku will suddenly begin to comply with the terms of the truce? No. Turkey is an active party in this conflict and official Ankara, even if not at the negotiating table, imposes its own terms of the game. And I am sure that in this matter, calls for peace will not be enough. In my opinion, only the mechanism of coercion can work here”.
Liana studied political science, but now she teaches online English lessons for students from different countries:
“Many people follow me on social media. At first there were those who were completely unaware of the Karabakh conflict. I write my posts on social media to talk about the conflict is and what is happening now.
Among my students there are people who not only actively support, but also offer to host those who were left homeless after the bombing. But this was more in the first days of hostilities. Now that they see the power of Armenian unity and support, many of them are going to visit Armenia themselves and get to know the Armenians better. And that makes me happy.”
Ayarpi
Ayarpi is also active on social media and tries to inform people about what is happening. She learned about the beginning of the war from her husband in the morning.
“There were mixed feelings. First of all, the pain, the desire to go and help in any way possible, the desire to finally end this war and start a peaceful life. And at that moment there was a strong desire to resolve the issue, not to allow us to narrow our borders.”
Ayarpi also does not believe in the effectiveness of the agreement that was reached in Moscow. In her opinion, Azerbaijan clearly demonstrates that it does not need peace:
“Therefore, the mediating countries must finally stop simply making appeals for peace and start acting. Armenia is now fighting the terrorists alone, and if they are not stopped, at any moment any of these countries may find themselves in the same situation. “
Ayarpi is raising a one-year-old daughter, so she rarely has time to participate in any actions in the city:
“For this I need to leave my daughter with my mother, and now she goes every day to sew sleeping bags for the army, and there is nowhere to leave the baby. Therefore, our family now helps the army more financially. We also take clothes to the collection points for help and everything that can be useful to our guys at the front now.”
The young mother spends all her free time in front of the computer. She tries to fight the spread of disinformation in the Armenian segment of Facebook:
“Many in our country cannot filter the information they hear and see, therefore false information is spread. And this can sow panic and lead to irreversible consequences. In general, whenever possible, I try to be active on social media, as the world should know what is really going on.”
