Civilnet
By Charlotte Snoonian
Ruzanna lived among beautiful nature, close to her entire family, with her days revolving around gatherings with relatives. Now, she lives alone, far from her children, in a place once again threatened by border tensions.
Ruzanna Tsatryan, 60, lived her entire life in the Matchkalashen village in Artsakh. When Azerbaijan took control of Artsakh in 2023, Ruzanna was one of over 100,000 Armenians who were forced to flee their homes. She now rents a home in Meghri, a small town on the Iran-Armenia border in the southern Syunik province. Despite this, she hasn’t escaped the tension with Azerbaijan.
The recent Washington-brokered peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan suggests a potential route through the Syunik province, where Meghri is located. The so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) is a proposed route that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia.
Meghri is the only part of Armenia that borders Iran, and the only other open border is to the north with Georgia. Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed. This makes Meghri a strategic town for security and trade, but the route could risk Armenia’s open border with Iran because of its placement. The proposed route would pass right along the Armenian-Iran border, meaning it would go through Meghri.
“If they agree to give away that corridor, then that would be the end of the game. Do you think the [Azerbaijanis] will come crossing the road without doing any harm? That’s impossible. Everyone wants to present a guarantee or something, but I don’t believe that’s going to work out,” she says.
Ruzanna has lived under Azerbaijani violence for decades in Artsakh. As a medic in all of the wars since the nineties, she was on the frontlines treating soldiers and sometimes even helping them escape illegal phosphorus bombs, even when she had young children.
When Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh on September 19, 2023, residents had to leave everything behind. Taking only two pairs of clothes, Ruzanna left the village she was born in and fled with 10 other people in an eight-person car. They were on the road for two days on a route that would typically take one hour to travel.
“Until the last minute, until crossing the border, we were expecting to turn and go back,” she says. “Suffering from the blockade for nine months and then having to leave everything behind. How can you do it?”
Within a month of the 2023 attack, 5,540 people from Artsakh settled in Syunik, according to a 2023 report released by the government. Since then, more people have settled in Syunik. Ruzanna, like many others, initially went to stay in Yerevan for about one month after leaving Artsakh. Her son found work in Russia, and her daughter moved to a town north of Yerevan with her family. She says while village life in Meghri is quite similar to her life in Artsakh, it isn’t exactly the same.
Despite uncertainty once again taking over the area Ruzanna lives in, she says fear will only make things worse. She is hopeful Artsakh will one day be a place she can return to, but will only live there again if it’s under Armenian control.
In Meghri, Ruzanna has a home, employment and a full garden, but it’s not where she was born and where she spent her entire life. Her garden in Meghri is full of pomegranate and apple trees, but she won’t plant anything new.
“I don’t want to start something of my own here because that would kill my hope to go back,” she says. “I don’t want to be tied here.”
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