The movement or internal migration of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, which started in September 2023, has not stopped until today. If their movement in 2023 was “organized” and in one direction, to Armenia, then their movement in Armenia resembles an anthill. People frequently move between settlements of Armenia and mostly end up in Yerevan. Former Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan says that approximately 80% of Karabakh Armenians live in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, and its neighboring towns. Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians mainly point to two reasons for living in Yerevan. First, people who have seen the war do not want to live in settlements bordering Azerbaijan, because it puts them in a difficult psychological situation; secondly, many move to the capital for employment. Economist Aghasi Tavadyan's research indicates that Yerevan hosts almost 80% of Armenia's private sector jobs.
Arevik and Armen Sargsyan's family lives in the Tegh village of Syunik Province, where the Armenian and Azerbaijani military positions are clearly visible since they are only 100 meters apart from each other and the road leading to Nagorno-Karabakh is closed with barbed wire and tires. “When we left Karabakh in 2023 and arrived in Tegh, I was sleeping in the car. I heard someone knocking on the window, carrying hot pies. “Come out,” ordered the daughter of the owner of this house where we are living at the moment. It’s horrible in Yerevan; I can’t pay the rent there. I understand those who don't want to live in border settlements; fear is in their hearts. It's not easy for us either, but we have no other option,” says Armen.

A Karabakh Armenian family member receives 4 or 5 million Armenian drams ($12,000) to buy or build a house in one of the 390 settlements offered by the Armenian government. For example, in Vayots Dzor Province, the Armenian government offers 44 settlements. The settlements are in Vayk, Areni and Yeghegis communities. According to Hetq Media Factory’s investigation, 12 of these settlements do not have a functioning school, 36 have no kindergarten, 2 have no access to drinking water, 35 have no gas supply, and seven of them have no population at all. In summary, the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians deemed the Armenian government's housing program unacceptable from the beginning.

While the Armenian government is “discussing” the housing program for the Karabakh Armenians, private construction companies are appearing, building chipboard houses in the suburbs of Yerevan and offering them to buy one. They mostly don't want to; even more so, they feel humiliated: “How can a family live in a ‘TV box’ like that?” However, some families, finding no alternative, already live in such mobile homes. It is already known that the 40+10,000 AMD ($125) social assistance program, which is truly existential, is being reduced and will end by April 2025. Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh mainly pay this allowance for rents. Fewer the family members, more problematic the issue is, considering the high rent prices in Armenia. Depending on its condition and location, a three-room apartment in Yerevan rents for approximately 250,000 AMD ($625). The closer to the city center or the subway, the more expensive it is. Many are already worried that a suspension of this program will force them to live on Yerevan's streets.
Rumors also circulate that international donors are reluctant to allocate funds for aiding Karabakh Armenians, and they are particularly interested in knowing if the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are actively involved in program development, decision-making, and program effectiveness monitoring. Artak Beglaryan suggests that if the Armenian government refuses to cooperate with the former authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh, they should at least discuss it with the representatives of NGOs. However, they don't do that either. All the international aid for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians goes through the Armenian government or through local NGOs.

While NGOs operate with transparency, the government does not share the same level of it. The Armenian government conducts an independent social policy, which both the former Karabakh authorities and people are in general dissatisfied with. The Armenian government's financial support often discourages Karabakh Armenians from vocalizing their dissatisfaction, leading them to settle for modest living conditions. Some dare to complain on social media; others keep it to themselves. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia reports that 25,000 residents of Nagorno-Karabakh have registered as employees, but it does not specify how many of them have found a job. Stepanyan says that only 1,500–1,600 people got jobs via the Ministry’s program, and it’s mostly low-paid salaries if we compare them with the salaries of other Armenian citizens. While some may perceive this as a purely social issue, it actually exacerbates the already challenging psychological state of the Karabakh Armenians, who have lost everything.

“I worked as a psychologist in Karabakh, receiving a salary of 220,000 AMD ($550). I am also a hairdresser by second profession, and I used to work in a beauty salon there. I tried to do the same here in Tegh, but I have no chance. I didn't even manage to get scissors, a hairdryer and other necessary items before we left Karabakh. Mostly elderly people live here. The Armenian government says let the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians live in the villages. I live in the last village in Armenia with my three kids, but the government does not even support the locals. Nor are they interested in solving the problems of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians; they simply say that they should go to the border settlements to live without creating minimum living conditions for them. You see yourself where we live. There are no forests here; we even buy firewood. The state should take care of this village, not push people to leave,” says Armen’s wife, Arevik, a mom of three minors.

Previously, people from Nagorno-Karabakh would travel to Yerevan, and Armenian merchants would transport products to the region via this village. The village is strangely quiet today, with almost no cars passing by and all gas stations closed. Along the road, there are half-finished buildings planned for various businesses. In the center of the village, elderly people are gathering and spending the day. “There are around five families from Nagorno-Karabakh in our village,” says one of them. “Everyone has left, including our youth. They say there is nothing to do in the village; they are bored.” Unlike many others, Arevik has not moved to Yerevan, but she says that there is no support or attention from the state for this border village and people living here.
“I live here, just next to the trenches. How can I bathe my children in this cold weather and send them to school? Well, this house owner is very kind; we have almost become relatives, but how long can I live in someone else's house? Neither I nor my husband have a job; there is nothing for my children to enjoy. No matter where I apply, our problems remain unresolved. Winter is here. I applied to the village administration to get some firewood; they responded that they provide wood only to vulnerable families. I wonder who that vulnerable family is if not mine?” she asks.

It appears that the government and the broader society are unaware of the mental state and challenges faced by Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. When two Karabakh Armenians meet on the street, they seem to understand each other immediately; they feel each other's sense of mood, just as two patients suffering from the same diagnosis can understand each other.

At the same time, many Karabakh Armenians avoid living in settlements close to Karabakh. “I find it difficult to live in a place where Karabakh is directly behind that mountain; it has a significant psychological impact on me. That's why I left for the north of Armenia, Ijevan,” says Samvel from Stepanakert [Khankendi]. The fear of living in border settlements has also spread to the locals. Despite proposals to settle Karabakh Armenians in the Syunik province, it appears that the locals are also fleeing their homes. Azatutyun, citing the Statistical Committee of Armenia, reported a sharp decrease in the province's population. “The population in the regions bordering Azerbaijan - Syunik, Gegharkunik, and Tavush - has decreased sharply. The Statistical Committee reports this, presenting the statistics of the resident population for the first 9 months of this year”. In the same publication, demographer Mikael Malkhasyan claims that this numerical picture speaks of the anxiety of people living in the border regions after the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Foreign embassies in Armenia continue to implement various social-psychological programs for displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh living in the border settlements in Armenia. The Principles of Development NGO, in collaboration with the Sign of Hope (SoH) and with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, recently organized such a program in Goris. The program aimed to support Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and locals residing in border settlements.

“It's New Year's soon. There will probably be a Christmas fair. We are attempting to help the displaced Karabakh Armenians by providing them innovative ideas for promoting their handmade goods on social media, such as zhengalov hats. Additionally, we organize photography workshops for children, like the one in Goris, where 10 children from Nagorno-Karabakh participated. Locals and Karabakh Armenians participate in our projects, but we try not to emphasize their participation; instead, we strive to integrate them. I think this is a very good idea. We also plan to organize a summer camp next year for the same children, which will last longer, not just two days as this one,” says Marina Boyajyan, the "We and We" Project Manager.

International NGOs and embassies are also implementing business support programs for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians. For instance, Siranush Gharibyan is a beneficiary of the EPIC program, which supports entrepreneurs among the displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh. She was able to start her own beauty salon business in Artashat and trained 300 other refugee women. Recently, the German Ambassador to Armenia, Claudia Busch, herself paid a visit to the beauty salon of Siranush Gharibyan.

Siranush's success story showcases how the EPIC Project, commissioned by the German Government and implemented by GIZ (German International Cooperation Society), is making a real difference on the ground – supporting economic and social participation of vulnerable displaced communities and local populations in Armenia. Such programs are useful and encouraging for Karabakh Armenians, but the issue requires more efforts by the government.
Both in Nagorno-Karabakh and in today's Armenia, Armenians have not been able to fully resolve the social and psychological problems of refugees. For more than 30 years, some Armenians who fled Baku and Sumgait in 1988 resided in a Soviet-era student dormitory in Stepanakert [Khankendi], where, as Vysotsky once sang, there was only one toilet for thirty-eight rooms. Seeing that these people and some of those who suffered from the 1988 earthquake in Armenia still do not have an apartment of their own, one can conclude that a similar fate awaits the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Many people still recite an Armenian proverb today. If you have a nail, scratch your head. That means no one will scratch your head for you; you have to do it yourself.

About author: Marut Vanyan is a freelance journalist from Nagorno-Karabakh, currently based in Goris, Armenia.

Photo credits: Marut Vanyan