Displaced students adapt to life in Armenian universities

Among the 100,000 Armenians displaced from Artsakh after Azerbaijan’s 19 September military operation, 4,600 are students. Many of them have enrolled in new universities in Armenia and are gradually adapting to their new life. Yet professors and students of Artsakh State University have not forgotten the university they were forced to abandon and are demanding its restoration, writes Anna Harutyunyan for The Armenian Weekly.

According to official data from the Armenian government, of the 4,600 students from Artsakh who can continue their studies in Armenia, 2,100 are in higher education and 2,500 in secondary vocational education. A total of 1,600 have enrolled in state universities in Armenia, according to Public Television of Armenia, and 1,086 students from Artsakh are studying at Yerevan State University, 888 of them in the same departments as their universities in Artsakh.

The 19 September attack came in the wake of Azerbaijan’s recent military assaults aimed at regaining full control over Artsakh. The military operation was preceded by a nearly 10-month-long blockade imposed by Azerbaijan on the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, a vital route through which Armenians received essential supplies, including medicine and fuel. Consequently, Artsakh Armenians faced severe shortages of essential supplies such as food, medicine, water and electricity. Locals described Azerbaijan’s actions as a “slow-motion genocide”, using starvation as a tactic to compel them to leave the region once the road reopened.
Full report on The Armenian Weekly site