Your Namak for Wednesday, September 13
Nagorno-Karabakh blockade remains in effect, Azerbaijan gathers troops on border with Armenia, and Armenia sends first humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Despite Flurry of Diplomatic Activity, Nagorno-Karabakh Blockade Remains in Effect
Despite claims by top Azerbaijani officials that the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh would be lifted, the Lachin corridor remains closed. On September 12, according to former Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) State Minister Artak Beglaryan, the first humanitarian aid truck since June 15 entered the region via the Aghdam-Askeran road. The Azerbaijani government has sought to replace the Lachin corridor with this alternative route into Nagorno-Karabakh. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for “the immediate and simultaneous opening of both corridors to allow passage of desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the men, women, and children in Nagorno-Karabakh,” referring to the Aghdam and Lachin roads.
Azerbaijan Gathers Troops on Border with Armenia, Near Nagorno-Karabakh
Against the backdrop of Azerbaijan’s recent accumulation of personnel and military equipment along Armenia’s borders, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has warned of a new full-scale war on the horizon. During a cabinet session on September 7, Pashinyan said Azerbaijan has demonstrated “its intention to launch a new military provocation.” The Armenian leader reiterated his commitment to reaching a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Armenia Sends First Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine
In a rare gesture of solidarity, Armenia has delivered its first batch of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of the country began. On September 6, Armenian First Lady Anna Hakobyan traveled to Kyiv for the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, where she personally delivered the aid to Ukrainian children. The unprecedented move comes amid rising tensions between Yerevan and Moscow. In recent weeks, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other top officials have expressed their disappointment with Russia’s failure to defend Armenia. On September 5, Armenia pulled its representative from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance consisting of Russia and five former Soviet states.
Armenian and U.S. Troops To Hold Joint Military Drills
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Armenian and U.S. troops began joint military exercises in Armenia starting on September 11. The 10-day exercise, named “Eagle Partner 2023,” will include 85 American soldiers and 175 Armenian soldiers.
Ani Balayan: Meet a 17-year-old self-taught photographer from Nagorno-Karabakh who documented the blockade from inside
“After the war, you begin to blame yourself for not being able to do something to show this situation, and I started to take photography more seriously, which became even deeper during the blockade.”
I met Ani Balayan two years ago in Nagorno-Karabakh. She was already a curious teenager, always running around with a tiny camera around her neck.
During the Sunrise Stepanakert Art Festival in July 2021, Ani was in charge of photographing the events and guests. She took her job very seriously and took some really nice pictures. At the time, Shoushan Keshishian, one the founders of Sunrise Stepanakert, asked me if I could talk with Ani, as she was an aspiring photographer and also interested in journalism.
Even though she was still a bit shy, hiding behind her glasses and hair, blushing, Ani knew exactly what she wanted and was ready to work hard for it. I loved how she approached people respectfully but directly and was also ready to climb on a roof to get the wide shot she wanted. That’s the spirit and energy you need to succeed in this job.
We stayed in touch and I sent her links to various opportunities for her to keep on learning. I also occasionally asked her for help to get contacts or film something for me while I was not in Nagorno-Karabakh. But I did not expect things would turn out the way they did.
In December 2022, when Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh began, it meant among everything else, that journalists could not access the region anymore. I quickly contacted Ani and asked her for pictures. Even though she was very young, with the lack of access and because I trusted her work, I convinced editors to publish her pictures. We also shared them in Namak.
At only 17 years old, Ani became a major voice, a person able to witness and share with the world the daily life of Armenians inside the blockade. Her work was published in local outlets like CivilNet, but also in international media and agencies, including Le Figaro, AFP, Getty Images, Zeit and others.
A few weeks ago, Ani wrote to me that she needed to go to Yerevan to start her university studies. She was not sure she would be able to, as the Lachin corridor had been completely closed, even for humanitarian transport by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), for several weeks. In the end, the Russian “peacekeepers” arranged for Ani to be escorted out of Nagorno-Karabakh with some other teenagers who had just graduated from high school. A trip during which, as she witnessed it, three boys were arrested by Azerbaijani border guards under the eyes of the Russians who did not react.
Ani has now safely arrived in Yerevan and agreed to be interviewed for Namak. “It is always necessary to talk about Artsakh and I will always do it wherever I am,” she says. “I will continue to speak from Yerevan. I will show the blockade from Yerevan –– you can highlight the blockade not only from Artsakh.”
Ani was born and raised in Stepanakert in 2006. Before the 2020 war, she never expected a full-scale conflict, but says life in the region was always tense.
“Growing up here you go through so many difficulties that you will not encounter in other peaceful areas,” she explains. “But also that means you can solve problems more easily. In 2016, I did not experience the war firsthand, but we were all tense.”
The young photojournalist was always fascinated by the art of photography and started taking pictures as a hobby. In 2017, she began attending classes at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies in Stepanakert, and learned a lot there. But it was after the war that she decided photography would become her profession.
“The morning of the start of the war, when we were sleeping and we heard very loud noises, we thought at the beginning that one of the neighbors was planning something,” Ani says. “Then we woke up and saw smoke. We understood that it was a war; we were all in shock. What kind of war? How is it possible? At the time, I thought that all wars will remain in the past and nowadays there is no more war. After staying in the basement for a few days, I moved to Yerevan, but my parents stayed in Artsakh.”
Ani moved back after the ceasefire was signed in November 2020 and continued her high school education in Stepanakert.
“After the war, you begin to blame yourself for not being able to do something to show this situation, and I started to take photography more seriously, which became even deeper during the blockade,” she explains. While pursuing her studies, Ani started working as a video editor and photographer for the Stepanakert office of Armenian media outlet CivilNet.
At first, Ani did not take the blockade seriously and did not expect it to last for so long. “I didn't take pictures on the first day, but then my colleagues said that I should take pictures. From the second day to my last day, I photographed everything from empty shops to demonstrations,” she explains. “There is always this kind of secret hope that you will be able to change something with your photo, that maybe the blockade will end a minute earlier. But it’s also like a duty.”
People did not always react in a positive way when they saw Ani taking pictures. “People here are very tense. They can often fight with me. They cannot also understand what I am taking pictures for,” she explains. “There are people who say: ‘You have been taking photos for eight months. What have you changed? Nothing.’ The road is closed and I just stay silent in response out of helplessness, because I understand them. We are all desperate. I also often went to bed hungry. You have to explain to people why you photograph and that you are one of them.”
One of the most difficult moments for Ani was the day she photographed the relatives of Vagif Khachatryan, a 68-year-old man arrested by Azerbaijani border guards while being evacuated by the ICRC for medical reasons. As of the publication of this profile, Khachatryan remains in Azerbaijani detention.
“There was chaos around me. Everything was messed up. Everyone was crying and screaming and it was the first time I was in such a place,” she says. “We all realized that we, our grandfather, our father, all of us could be next, because the goal of Azerbaijan is to genocide us, the Armenians.”
But the most difficult part was actually her decision to leave Nagorno-Karabakh in August 2023, which she made after numerous conversations with her family. “It was the hardest decision of my life,” Ani says. “There are many, many different thoughts, one is that I might never go back home, the other is that I might be kidnapped from that checkpoint, the other is the guilt of leaving my family alone. And my people are in pain and suffering while I go somewhere safer.”
The journey was a very challenging one. “We all saw that three boys were also kidnapped, which happened in front of my eyes. I saw how that boy was being beaten,” she says. “I wondered if they would take me next.”
Asked if she thinks she will ever go back, Ani gets very emotional. “I’m terrified of this question. I don’t want to imagine that I might not go home. I want to do everything to go back home, because my mind, my family, my childhood, me, everything related to me is there,” she says.
Ani will study photography at Yerevan State University and the basics of journalism at Hetq Media Factory.
Written by Astrig Agopian.
To visit: Becoming Van Leo, an exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on the Egyptian-Armenian photographer Van Leo. Born Levon Boyadjian in Turkey in 1921, Van Leo rose to prominence as one of the Arab world’s most celebrated studio photographers from the 1940s to the 1960s.
To read: From Sri Lanka to Artsakh: Human Stories of Blockade, an article by Shoushan Keshishian for EVN Report, about an intercultural dialogue with Vasuki, an artist who experienced an extended blockade during the Sri Lankan civil war.
To watch: Stop the blockade / Open the road, an installation by Armenian artist Mischa Badasyan in Zurich, Switzerland. The artist collected bread for three days to inform people about the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
Questions? Story ideas? An urge to say barev/parev? You can send us a secure email at namaknews@protonmail.com.