
At the edge of the war, an uneasy calm: dispatches from the Armenia–Iran border
As civilians trickle across the border, some seeking security others returning home, local residents are feeling the economic consequences.

As civilians trickle across the border, some seeking security others returning home, local residents are feeling the economic consequences.

Two years on, Nagorno-Karabakh refugees still struggle to navigate Armenia’s housing programme and successfully rebuild their lives.

Once part of a vital railway linking Armenia and Azerbaijan, the station is now a haunting symbol of fractured regional ties and shifting geopolitics.

Following the mass displacement in 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians have struggled to preserve their identity, dialect, and culture.

One year has passed since the exodus of practically the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh. OC Media reconnected with refugees interviewed in the immediate aftermath to hear how they are a year on. On 19 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched its last large-scale military offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, calling it an ‘anti-terrorist operation’. Days later, the region came under the full control of Azerbaijan. Armenians living in the region had not expected such an outcome, continuing to wait

With Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor continuing, food and medical supplies in Nagorno-Karabakh are running out. The dwindling supplies have led some to warn that the region is entering the worst phase so far of the nine-month blockade. Larisa, 69, moved to Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital of Stepanakert following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, after Azerbaijan took control of Togh, her village in Hadrut region. ‘I have seen a lot of suffering’, Larisa tells OC Media. ‘My 1