As the world watches the daily horrors unfold in Gaza, and the civil war continues unabated in Sudan, another tragedy has been quietly taking place in Europe’s South Caucasus.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked area between Eastern Europe and Western Asia that is home to a large Armenian population but is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan have been battling over the region for decades, and after months of enduring a full blockade of food, fuel and medical supplies, more than 100,000 of its ethnic Armenian residents have fled to Armenia since September. Several international experts have said the mass exodus meets the conditions for a war crime and a crime against humanity. A former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said “there is a reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed” as a result of the blockade.
Those forced from their homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh arrived in the southern region of Armenia, specifically Goris Syunik, and in the capital city Yerevan, in a deeply traumatised and devastated state. They were mostly starving and possessed very few belongings. Many had lost family members – fathers, husbands, or sons – either killed in the recent attacks, wounded or missing.
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European Network
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Humanitarian
More than 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents have fled from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia since September.
Narek Aleksanyan"It took us three days to get to Yerevan. Usually, the road takes around five hours,” one woman told staff at the Women's Resource Centre (WRC), IPPF’s local partner in Armenia, on the condition of anonymity. “The kids were distressed, they wanted to get off the car but the Azeri military controlling the road would not let anyone out. When I think of families that lost not only their house but also their dear ones, children, husbands, I am grateful for our situation."
The more than 200-day blockade in Nagorno-Karabakh meant that access to sexual and reproductive health services dwindled, and the lack of medicine, contraception, and menstrual products took a devastating toll on women’s sexual and reproductive health. Increased levels of stress and malnutrition has led to anaemia in more than 90% of pregnant women and a tripling of miscarriage rates, according to a statement by the Artsakh ministry of health.
When I think of families that lost not only their house but also their dear ones, children, husbands, I am grateful for our situation.
WRC is one of the few organisations offering emergency care with a feminist approach of empowerment to displaced women and girls living in shelters in Armenia. WRC services include providing access to contraceptive methods, counselling for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, post-rape kits, referrals for abortion services, and other sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services.
"The specific needs of women and other vulnerable groups are not always addressed properly within the humanitarian aid process,” said Anush Poghosyan, the Executive Director of WRC. “Response to sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence, and other specific dimensions of displacement regarding women’s rights are not properly addressed yet by the state. We work to ensure that the current response is more attuned to gender-sensitive considerations."
Response to sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence, and other specific dimensions of displacement regarding women’s rights are not properly addressed yet by the state.
Women's sexual and reproductive health needs not always addressed properly in humanitarian responses.
Narek AleksanyanGender-based violence is undeniably intertwined with armed conflicts, with women and children being subjected to physical, sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse. Tragically, rape and sexual violence against women are often employed as military tactics and weapons of war. Though it is little investigated, Armenians and Azerbaijanis have reported violence, ill treatment and sexual harassment by State agents against women since the start of the conflict in 1988. As is the case in all conflicts, internally displaced women and girls in Armenia are at a heightened risk of violence, including domestic violence, due to the uncertainties and lack of access to services associated with displacement.
Over the coming months, IPPF will continue to support WRC in the fallout of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to deliver vital care for these forgotten refugees.
