Anahit Harutyunyan

6 Posts

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Anahit is a broadcast and multimedia freelance journalist from Gyumri, Armenia. She has covered social, economic, educational, and cultural issues in the country since 2010.

On the left, objects commemorating the late husband of Narmin Bakhtiyarova, on the right objects commemorating the son of Stella Baghdasaryan. Photos: Ismayil Fataliyev/Anahit Harutyunyan.

Armenia

Mothers after war

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•6 min read

Four new and expecting mothers speak about the personal cost of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war and what they think may come next. The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War tore through families like shrapnel. Thousands on both sides lost sons, brothers, and husbands. Many children will grow up never knowing their fathers. OC Media spoke with four mothers of such children of war, two women who are Azerbaijani and two who are Armenian. The women spoke about the pain of losing their relatives, about the

Araksia Martirosyan. Photo: Anahit Harutyunyan/OC Media.

2016 April War

Voice | ‘Women must put an end to the war’

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

Araksia Martirosyan, a resident of the Armenian border village of Shurnukh, served in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, fought during the four day clashes in 2016, and returned to the front during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The 54-year-old told OC Media about her experiences and her thoughts on three decades of war. ‘This conflict should have been solved in time. I’m a woman who has seen war. This issue should have been solved in 1995–1996, it’s true we took these lands at the cost of blo

Vardanush Zakaryan and her husband Andre Andreyan. Photo: Anahit Harutyunyan/OC Media.

Armenia

Voice | ‘I went to war at 17’

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

In 1941, aged just 17, Vardanush Zakaryan was called to serve in the Soviet Army — at the height of WWII. Shortly thereafter, her husband was also sent to the front. For the next four years, the two saw each other infrequently, but their love never died. ‘I went through a lot. I lost my dad when I was a child, so I moved from Tiflis, where I was born and lived, to Baku, where I began to live with my mom and stepfather. I was 12 when my mother died. So I grew up an orphan. One parent is buried

Armenia

Voice | ‘In my hands, a weapon has become a work of art’

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

Artist and jeweller Artak Tadevosyan from Gyumri gives new life to used bullets and casings, turning them into jewellery. ‘I am an artist by trade, but I have had to earn money in many different ways: including in retail and doing home renovations. For some time I worked abroad, but then I returned to Gyumri, my hometown, where I now live with my wife and two daughters.’ ‘For a long time, my wife Ayarpi and I couldn’t find a job, until she began to weave dolls and I copper wire jewellery.’

Regular labour migrants who have been unable to travel abroad this year due to COVID-19. Photo: Anahit Harutyunyan/OC Media.

Armenia

Migrant workers left in Armenia due to COVID-19 face unemployment

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

The usual rhythm of life in the villages of Armenia was to go abroad to earn money in the spring and return in the winter. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now forced to stay on their own land, turning to agriculture to survive. ‘For 20 years I have been travelling abroad to work, but this year I didn’t go; we were left without work because the borders are closed’, Hamlet Grigoryan, a resident of the village of Vahramaberd in north-western Armenia, told OC Media. Almost every fam

Old Gyumri. Photo: Anahit Harutyunyan/OC Media.

Armenia

In pictures | Life under quarantine in Gyumri

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

On 10 March, Gyumri, the second-largest city in Armenia, was listed by Forbes among the 17 best spring destinations for 2020. Local residents were delighted by the news, and tourism operators and entrepreneurs began to prepare for a large influx of tourists. However, a few days later, that expectation was replaced by uncertainty. The first case of coronavirus infection was already confirmed in Armenia on 1 March. The number of people infected quickly increased, as the infection spread across

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