The summer of 2023 saw the most gruelling phase of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region (also known as Artsakh).

Azerbaijan began its nearly ten-month blockade on 12 December 2022, when it cut access to the Lachin Corridor, known among Artsakh residents as ‘The Road of Life’, as it is the only route connecting their ancestral homeland to Armenia and the outside world.

This led to a humanitarian crisis in which the entire population of Artsakh, more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians, were unable to access basic goods and supplies. Some of the worst consequences included lack of food and transportation, medicine, paramedic services and even natural gas and electricity.

Women’s maternal health was especially at huge risk. Due to the lack of fuel, pregnant women had to walk for hours in the hot sun to reach the maternity hospital just to have a regular check-up.

“Women lost their unborn children due to psychological stress, malnutrition, lack of medicine and the impossibility of proper medical examinations,” Tatevik Khachatryan told Harbingers’ Magazine. “And women like me who were planning to get pregnant put off planning, contributing to the sad statistics of declining birth rates.”

From January to July 2023, the level of anaemia among pregnant women under medical observation had reached around 90% “due to inadequate nutrition and the absence or insufficiency of appropriate medications”, according to the Artsakh Ministry of Health.

“Compared to the previous year, the number of miscarriages up to 12 weeks of pregnancy increased by 78%, and the number of medically ordered terminations in pregnancies over 12 weeks increased by 73%,” reported Khachatryan.

Khachatryan is a journalist and co-founder of The Center for Support of Mothers of Artsakh. The group (founded in 2018 by Lilit Borisi, later joined by Khachatryan and Mariam Abrahamyan) was very active in the public life of Artsakh and fought for civil rights, particularly for families. It played a major role in improving kindergartens and cooperated with medical and government institutions on behalf of mothers.

“We wanted to be educated mothers ourselves, and to see educated mothers around us,” Khachatryan said, adding that the group had recruited dozens of doctors to provide mothers in Artsakh with free medical consultations.

Women-only protest

On 7 April (Mother’s Day) 2023, the group organised a women-led protest in Artsakh – the first of its kind – to gain international recognition of the humanitarian crisis. In addition to garnering attention from both Armenian and international news publications, the mothers participated in monitoring reports by the Artsakh human rights ombudsman’s office.

Leaving Artsakh

On 22 February, the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordered Azerbaijan to “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions”. The government in Baku ignored this order.

In anticipation of 1 June (International Children’s Day), Khachatryan and fellow members recorded a video about the inhumane living conditions of the more than 30,000 children in blockaded Artsakh, which received thousands of views.

On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched a full-scale military invasion of Artsakh. Later that week, Azerbaijani authorities lifted the blockade, prompting more than 120,000 Artsakh Armenians to flee for their lives and take refuge in Armenia and elsewhere.

Since then, the World Court, the ICJ, the EU, and US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have made statements urging Azerbaijan to ensure the safe and guaranteed return of the ethnic Armenian population to Artsakh.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has demolished Artsakh government buildings, Armenian churches and homes abandoned by refugees.