two weeks after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees continue to bury their dead

A scent of incense perfumes the paths of the Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. A crowd gathered on Wednesday October 4 to pray around two coffins covered with Armenian flags. Two young soldiers from Karabakh are buried, two weeks after Azerbaijan’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The faces are hard, the fists clenched around the bouquets of flowers. Women cannot contain their tears. Wounded soldiers, dressed in their fatigues, on crutches, accompany their comrades to the grave.

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“My heart exploded, my heart bled”, slide Artsyom, veteran of the 2020 war against Azerbaijan. He did not support the capitulation of the Armenians of Karabakh. This former artilleryman survives with shrapnel in his legs and spine and with the ghosts of war.

“Can we forget the war?”

Considering him traumatized, the doctors advised Artsyom not to come to attend this funeral, but he didn’t want to hear anything: “They are idiots to me. How could I forget my brothers and not come here? Can someone who has seen so much forget? Can we forget the war?” A Guard of Honor comes to raise the coffins of the vanquished, the young soldiers are buried in a sinister atmosphere of defeat, far from their homeland, which has fallen into the hands of their enemies.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were due to meet on Thursday October 5 at the summit of the European Political Community, but there will ultimately be no meeting in Granada, Spain. Azerbaijan still said it was ready for talks with Armenia under the mediation of the European Union, an advisor to the Azerbaijani president assured Thursday.