Shurnukh: Life Has Stopped in the Village Divided with Azerbaijanis, Forgotten About Living for 4 Years

MediaHub reports: "Now, when the entire news flow is about the delimitation and demarcation processes of the Tavush region, residents of Shurnukh village in the Syunik region, which is 'divided' with Azerbaijanis, are surprised that there are those interested in them. The administrative head shared his concerns with MediaHub: life in Shurnukh has stopped, people are merely surviving, and they have forgotten about living fully for already 4 years.

“The residents whose homes have passed to Azerbaijan went away and never returned. Some of them are living on a rental basis in Kapan, Goris, and various settlements. The community has built 13 houses, everything is ready, but no one has returned yet. We have even offered displaced families from Artsakh to come; they came and saw that the Azerbaijanis are very close, and they did not stay because they lost their homes because of them. There is no security guarantee, I don’t know, it’s uncertainty,” said Grigor Darbinyan.

Before the events of 2020, the residents of Shurnukh were engaged in farming and animal husbandry. Darbinyan states that everyone had large and small livestock. Unfortunately, they sold them because the grazing lands were placed under Azerbaijani control. “Now we are engaged in neither animal husbandry nor farming. People are all in their homes; it’s idleness.”

Currently, 28 families live in Shurnukh, with 7 children attending kindergarten and 16 attending school. Previously, before the Azerbaijanis appeared, that number was nearly 40. Will those who were forced to leave the village return?

“Even if they don’t come back, no one can blame them because the presence of Azerbaijanis is everywhere. Of course, we wouldn’t want them to be here, but what can we do? We have no other place to go. Several times, the livestock has crossed to the other side, and we returned them through the Russians; now they have left our territory too. Our hope is in ourselves and the border guards. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” added Darbinyan.

He also commented on the statement made by the Speaker of Parliament today, claiming that “the CP will achieve a resounding victory in the elections in Kiran.” The administrative head of Shurnukh did not rule out that Simonyan may have considered their village’s example, as they came with a false agenda for peace and false promises before the 2021 elections. However, after that, in 2022, there was war in Syunik, as a result of which Azerbaijanis, embedded in the sovereign territory of the RA, have not left to this day. “The people of Shurnukh no longer believe anyone. There is no one thinking about the people. Everything has changed and lost its meaning since 2020. As for security, there are no discussions because the Azerbaijani flag and Azerbaijanis are visible from our houses,” he added."