Nagorno Karabakh, The presence of war in everyday life

2017-07-12 admin - CONFLICTS 0

In Nagorno Karabakh’s green meadows the signs of war go underground. The region has the highest per capita incidence of landmine accidents in the world, and third of the victims are children, according to the Halo Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance organization. Since the 1994 ceasefire there have been 370 civilian casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance devices. Two all-women teams have joined the Halo Trust in NK in 2016. (https://www.chai-khana.org/en/the-presence-of-war-in-everyday-life)

By KNAR BABAYAN
Chai-Khana

When the Soviet Union went into meltdown, brewing tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the mainly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno Karabakh of the then-Socialist Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, exploded into open conflict.

In Nagorno Karabakh’s green meadows the signs of war go underground. The region has the highest per capita incidence of landmine accidents in the world, and third of the victims are children, according to the Halo Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance organization. Since the 1994 ceasefire there have been 370 civilian casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance devices. Two all-women teams have joined the Halo Trust in NK in 2016. (https://www.chai-khana.org/en/the-presence-of-war-in-everyday-life)

Around 25 years since the 1994 ceasefire that put on hold the bloodshed, the territory has languished in a state of “no war, no peace.” Claimed by Azerbaijan but de-facto independent since the mid-1990s, the landlocked mountainous region remains internationally unrecognized albeit strongly supported by the Republic of Armenia – yet over the last three years the frozen conflict, as the confrontation with Azerbaijan is labelled, has been more about fire than ice.

Today a state of war remains and it permeates the daily life of the 150,000-odd people – posters are plastered on buildings’ wall, mine-warning signs dot the region’s hills, and tanks rattle its roads.

While skirmishes have been common along the heavily militarized administrative border, known as the line of contact, a violent flare-up in April 2016 claimed more than two hundred lives on both sides in just four days, and threatened to destabilize the entire South Caucasus region. A hastened agreement brokered by Moscow averted the risk. For now, war clouds are gathering and analysts maintain that Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to an open conflict than at any point since the 1994 ceasefire.

This material may contain terms, which are not favored by all the parties of the dispute/conflict. Terms used in a material belong to the author and not Chai-Khana.