1 / 1

“While the world was fighting the pandemic, children in Artsakh were in the shelters. So, one of the 8-year-olds remembers: we were lucky it was Sunday otherwise if we had gone to school it would be very hard to survive. As a result, actually of the Azerbaijani attack which was accompanied by the open help from Turkey, large numbers of people have been wounded and they required medical care, which has put the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh healthcare systems under unprecedented pressure.

This strain has forced many of existing Covid-19 centers to shift their scope and most non-emergency medical care has either been delayed or cancelled. Nagorno-Karabakh, with a population of 150.000 people had the pandemic case before like 300 cases. However, because of the widespread destruction and displacement of people, it was impossible to track the Covid-19 situation on the ground.

Furthermore, regular bombardments forced residents in the major cities to seek refuge in large groups in basements and bunkers, which are confined spaces. Thus increasing the chances of the spread of the virus.

So, according to 77 protocol of Geneva Convention ‘children shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of assault.’ However, it was not the case during 44 days in Nagorno-Karabakh. The war had a devastating effect, not only on the physical but also on the mental health of children living there. Children who have lost their parents, homes, normal life and have looked into the eyes of death.

And, just some statistics, because of Azerbaijani aggression, 71 schools and 14 kindergartens were destroyed. Because of that aggression, accompanied by Covid-19 pandemic, more than 8.000 children lost their right to education. As a result, 24 children were deprived to attend schools. So, pandemic accompanied by the aggression and war destroyed lives of many Armenian children living in Nagorno-Karabakh and creating lots of pain and mental problems for them for their entire life.

In the end, I want to thank you for the important topic you brought up and I found it very important that, apart from all the calls coming from international partners to fight together against the pandemic, in Nagorno-Karabakh people have to fight also against the aggression and war,” Tatevik Hayrapetyan said.