Immediate relief and long-term recovery efforts are being put into place to alleviate the physical, psychological and economic havoc that befell the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100.000 people have become refugees due to Azerbaijan’s military attack on the region.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has developed a three-part strategy to help with the consequences of the calamity: psycho-social support, heritage monitoring and research on the losses faced by the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Psycho-social support and the reestablishment of livelihoods will be delivered through three organisations with expertise and experience in these domains. Grants will be given to the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), Near East Foundation (NEF) and We Are Our Mountains to provide on-the-ground support to the refugees who have escaped to Armenia.

Heritage monitoring is the second area of focus, in response to the physical destruction or falsification of Armenian tangible heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. Expert documentation for the systematic presentation of Armenian tangible heritage will be prepared by a research team based at INALCO in France and in Armenia. The project will include more than 2000 monuments in danger, including ancient churches, monasteries and stone crosses.

Research is the third area of focus. The analytic research component already in place on the causes and consequences of the war will continue and develop. An oral history research component will be added. The aim is to record the losses through memory documentation, including descriptions of villages, tangible and intangible local culture and heritage, customs and traditions, as well as Nagorno-Karabakh unique Armenian dialect.

Saint Sarkis Charity Trust in London will also contribute to the realisation of the initiatives providing psycho-social support and the reestablishment of livelihoods in partnership with the Foundation.

Kornidzor, Syunik, Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh in the distance. Photograph by Scout Tufankjian.