Dark parallels: children in the heat of war in Ukraine and Karabakh
Karabakh war and war in Ukraine
“I was on the bus when I found out that the war had started in Ukraine. It was a shock. I imagined the confused faces of Ukrainians awakened by the sound of explosions. The faces of those who hurried down the subway, which immediately became a bomb shelter. Or those who rushed to buy essential products.
I imagined the anxiety, fear and uncertainty prevailing in Ukraine, but also in the families of Russian military personnel.
The war is familiar to me firsthand. During the 44-day war in the fall of 2020, I was in Stepanakert (Khankendi), the capital of Karabakh.
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After September 27, 2020, the day when the clashes began, the fate of hundreds of thousands of people became important and close to me, which immediately became tragic.
And when I heard that the Russian troops had begun to advance, I immediately felt the same things I felt again during the Karabakh war.
And now, reading the news and analytical articles, I draw parallels. I guess I’ll be doing this all the time. This is a consequence of the trauma that I experienced in those days when we all lived and worked in basements. Life in a military city has changed me.
Until then, wars existed only in the form of television and radio broadcasts and newspaper texts. And here in front of me were the tragedies of real people who were afraid for themselves and for their loved ones.
When reading that there are explosions in Kyiv, I remember the children of my Stepanakert friend Margarita. It’s been a year and a half since the war, but every Sunday morning they still rush to their parents’ bedroom. September 27, 2020, when the second Karabakh war began, was a Sunday.
And I understand that there are many such children, from all sides of the fronts – Armenian-Azerbaijani, Ukrainian-Russian, or some other.
The news feeds today are full of reports about millions of Ukrainians are leaving their homes, not knowing if they will ever come back.
It so happened that on the evening of September 27, 2020, I went to Stepanakert. In front of me was a continuous stream of cars with women and children who were taken away from explosions and shots.
War is a huge tragedy, consisting of hundreds of thousands of lives and destinies of ordinary people”.
