Page 36 - bnemagazine bne_December 2021_20211203.pdf

36 I Cover story bne December 2021
Ishkhanasar mountain as seen from Sisian (Photo Neil Hauer).
saw Armenian forces capture the Azerbaijani provinces that lay to Syunik’s east, holding them as
a depopulated buffer zone for nearly three decades. During and after last year’s war, however, those regions returned to Azerbaijani control – and with them, Azerbaijani soldiers who have sought to make life along Syunik’s borders as difficult as possible.
Problems began in earnest this May, when Azerbaijani troops advanced across the newly relevant border as the snows melted and occupied Armenian territory around a lake known as Sev
Then, more recently, fighting erupted. Using artillery and armoured vehicles, Azerbaijani troops launched an assault across the border on November 16, just 10 km north of Sisian. Heavy fighting ensued that left dozens of casualties and prisoners in the worst clash since last year’s war.
The sound of artillery shelling, audible in Sisian itself, spurred more locals into action.
“We heard the bombing from Sisian, but not everyone realises the seriousness
of the situation,” says Gevorg Asatryan,
who want peace must always be ready for war,” he adds.
Another volunteer, two generations his junior, echoes these thoughts.
“I was interested in these courses because I like military life, and I always wanted to be a soldier,” says Basentsi Azoyan, 15. “My father was a soldier, and his father as well. I’m too young still to fight but I want to help however I can and be ready when the time comes.
It’s a war situation, and we have to be ready” he says.
The trainings are not gender exclusive: plenty of women are participating as well.
Katya Babayan, 37, is a medical assistant and certified first aid trainer in her day- to-day life. She left her job and joined VOMA full-time this summer after realising her skills were needed.
“The physical regimen was very demanding at first. My whole body was sore,” she says, describing the rigorous exercise programmes involved in VOMA trainings. “Now I teach [the volunteers] how to stop bleeding, apply pressure bandages, safely revive the unconscious – all things necessary not only on
“We heard the bombing from Sisian, but not everyone realises the seriousness
of the situation”
Lich, about 15 km northeast of Sisian. In other areas, Azerbaijan blockaded roads whose paths crossed the haphazard Soviet-drawn border, and Azeri servicemen seized cattle from shepherds whose herds wandered too near the boundary.
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69, a retired bank manager who joined VOMA in March.
“We must immediately become a nation- army, and the country must become
a fortress,” he says. “Unfortunately, only strength can guarantee peace. And those