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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: NAGORNO-KARABAKH END
HEAD: Armenian Refugees Say No Hope of Return to Nagorno-Karabakh
SUBHEAD: The bitterly fought over enclave is no longer home to the decades-old self-declared Republic of Artsakh
DATE: 10/02/23 at 3:15pm
BYLINE: Heather Murdock
VIDEOGRAPHER: Heather Murdock, Yan Boechat
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: MAS,Reifenrath, SV (ok)
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA ORIGINAL
DATELINE: Ishkhanasar, Kornidzor, Armenia
ITEMCODE:
TRT: 3:16
TYPE: TV/R
APPROVED: MAS
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _x_ RADIO _x_
UPDATE:
((INTRO:))
[[Nearly the entire population of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh have fled to Armenia, and the one-time residents of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh are scattered. But as VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Ishkhanasar and Kornidzor near the Armenia border with Azerbaijan, many fear the war that drove them out is not over.]]
((NARRATOR))
This is Stepanakert in 2020, the city that was the de-facto capital of what, until last week, was the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, a majority ethnic Armenian nation within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.
For decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought bitterly over the enclave, best known as Nagorno-Karabakh, or the Karabakh region.
And last week, after a fierce assault in mid-September, Azerbaijan won. More than 100,000 residents — almost the entire ethnic-Armenian population — fled to Armenia.
((Ashot Arushanyan, Refugee)) ((Male in Russian))
“I came like this. I didn’t even change my clothes. I didn’t even take bedding. Nothing at all... I left my car there.”
((FOR RADIO: Ashot Arushanyan, a 45-year-old refugee, stops on the side of the road to fix the truck he borrowed to flee Nagorno-Karabakh. He says he left without clothes and valuables and left his car because he had no fuel.))
((NARRATOR:))
People abandoning Nagorno-Karabakh stopped in border towns in Armenia before scattering across the country, with many moving to scantly populated border villages.
Others refused offers for free border-village homes for fear the Azerbaijan-Armenia dispute would once again cross into Armenia proper, as it did in 2020.
((REST OPTIONAL))
((FOR RADIO: Ani Aloyan, a resident of the Armenian border village of Ishkhanasar, says bombs crashed into town that year, burning fields and causing terrifying explosions.))
((Ani Aloyan, Resident of Ishkhanasar, Armenia)) ((Female in Armenian))
“They were shooting, and the fields were burning everywhere. A shell fell and exploded.”
((NARRATOR:))
Azerbaijani officials sometimes call this part of Armenia part of the ‘historical’ lands of Azerbaijan, provoking ire from Armenian officials.
And even teenagers train in military tactics in this region, preparing for possible battles that they believe could come to their towns and villages.
But families who recently fled their homes also blame the governments of Artsakh and Armenia, and Russian “peacekeepers” for failing to protect them and their land.
((FOR RADIO: This is Naela Grigoryan, a 56-year-old refugee who settled in a border village a few days ago.))
((Naela Grigoryan, Refugee)) ((Female in Armenian))
“What I know about Artsakh is that two of my brothers-in-law, my husband and my brother went to fight for this land, and then Armenians gave it away without a fight.”
((FOR RADIO: She says the men in her family fought for Artsakh before officials gave the land away without a fight.))
((NARRATOR:))
Left behind on the land, former residents say, is far more than property. They left behind their cultural heritage, the graves of their parents and the dream of having their own country, one that never quite came true.
((FOR RADIO: Arevik Sargsyan, 21, is Naela Grigoryan’s daughter:))
((Arevik Sargsyan, Refugee)) ((Young (21) Female in Armenian))
“I spent my childhood there. I spent my days there until now. It’s the place of my bloodline and the water of my homeland."
((She says she fled the place of her childhood, her “bloodline” and “the water of [her] homeland.”))
((NARRATOR:))
Like other Armenian refugees we meet, she says she has no hope of returning to Nagorno-Karabakh. But, she says, she does hope future generations learn the brief history of Artsakh, a place, she adds, that will always “call her back.”
((Heather Murdock, VOA News, Ishkhanasar and Kornidzor, Armenia))
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