Landmines still a deadly threat in Armenia

Rather than seek sanctuary from the deadly clashes around her, Ruzanna Hovannesian insisted on waiting in the bread line a few hundred meters away from home, ration card in hand. As usual, dozens of people waited in a lengthy queue for a single loaf.

“We heard a deafening blast and time came to a standstill,” Hovannesian said. When she managed to stand up amid the wreckage and dust clouds, the sight she saw was horrifying: death was everywhere. Most people in the queue were now lying lifeless. “I was terrified when I thought of my home, my family,” Hovannesian said. It was too late: the target of the blast was her own house.

Hovannesian is still living in Syunik – a region of Armenia bordering Azerbaijan – and is not interested in leaving her village despite the tragedy she experienced. “Peace shall come to this region through the leadership of women,” said Hovannesian, who is now actively working for the Peace Center – an institution that struggles to clear the mines along the Azerbaijani-Armenian border. These mines were laid during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, fought between Azerbaijan and the region’s ethnic Armenian population. Hovannesian is also the founder of the University Graduate Women’s Organization, which is the sole non-governmental organization in Syunik.

Tough conditions

Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan has cleared the mines even though it has been 16 years since the war ended, Hovannesian told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review for the second Postcard from Armenia. “Many children and adults have lost their lives on both sides of the border because of those mines and there are hundreds who have stepped on a mine and survived,” she said. According to Hovannesian’s recent research on mine casualties, the survivors struggle to live under the extremely hard conditions in Armenia. “The people I have interviewed are not aware of their legal rights. The government is required to give prosthetics to them. We inform them of these rights,” she said.

The mines continue to pose a grave threat, especially to the children, Hovannesian said. “Mines are too close to the villages of Yegvart, Akarak and Hang. The adults are largely aware of the risk but the children are not.”

Many villagers earn their living herding cattle and their worst nightmare is that a whole herd could be slaughtered by a single minefield, Hovannesian said. She called on both Azerbaijan and Armenia to clear the mines as soon as possible. “I hope these lands may never experience war again. That’s my biggest dream. After clearing the hills of mines, this land may become a delta of peace.”

Hovannesian also spoke of her life before the war, suggesting the region’s desire to revive enduring inter-communal relations. “Our villages were close to each other, and these differences did not have meaning before the war,” Hovannesian said. She said hostility and fighting between the two nations do not benefit anyone and voiced a call for the long-awaited peace. “I want to have dialog and friendship between the two nations,” she said. “Just as it was before the war.”

Hovannesian mood darkens whenever she hears about war. “Each time, it takes me back to the exact day when that bomb destroyed my home. This word makes me experience that unbearable pain once more.”

In our third Postcard from Armenia, another peace activist steps forward, this time with 40 wolves in tow, and a debate over a disputed song contest grabs attention across the country.