'A survival problem': Canadian-Armenian woman describes life in blockade amid Armenia-Azerbaijan unrest
'A survival problem': Canadian-Armenian woman describes life in blockade amid Armenia-Azerbaijan unrest
When the electricity comes back on, Huri Zohrabyan limits the heat to one room, shutting the doors so it can't escape.
It's become part of everyday life in Nagorno-Karabakh, where power outages are a daily occurrence and winter winds are cold.
Zohrabyan is among 120,000 people living in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked enclave populated mainly by ethnic Armenians but recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan.
Born in Lebanon but of Armenian descent, Zohrabyan immigrated to Montreal as a teenager. After marrying her husband 2021, she made her way to his homeland: Nagorno-Karabakh, called Artsakh by Armenians.
Soon after, in December 2022, the only road connecting the region to Armenia and the outside world -- the Lachin corridor -- was blockaded by protesters claiming to be environmental activists.
As a result, food, medicine and gas are in dangerously short supply.
"With this blockade, since the road is closed, we don't receive anything. The stores are empty," Zohrabyan told CTV News over a video call on Wednesday. "The stores are empty, the pharmacies are empty. We have run out of vegetables ... fruits, oil, rice, flour."
Gas is frequently cut off, electricity comes and goes, and health care has taken a serious hit. Schools and many businesses have closed, furthering economic instability.
"It's a survival problem here," Zohrabyan said. "Azerbaijan is creating a humanitarian crisis."
According to Anar Jahangirli, board chairman of the Network of Azerbaijani Canadians (NAC), protestors are trying to prevent the smuggling of gold and copper "extracted illegally from Azerbaijan's Karabakh region."
He said the objective is not to restrict civilian traffic, which he says is "being hindered by the Russian peacekeepers and the Armenian administration."
But Zohrabyan and many Armenians believe the blockades are a strategic attack by Azerbaijan on Karabakh's inhabitants.
"Their motive, their goal, is always to do the ethnic filtration of Armenians," Zohrabyan alleged. "I think that's [their] goal, is just to create panic and make it unlivable."
Like many, Zohrabyan has questioned whether she and her husband will stay in Karabakh when the blockades are lifted.
But for now, she doesn't intend to leave.
"If we start to think that this place is a place where we cannot live anymore, then Azerbaijan is going to reach its goal. So yes, sometimes we think that, 'Should we stay here? Should we leave?' But at the end, you know, it's our homeland. We have to fight for it," she said.
"We also have to have faith. We have to hope that everything will be okay."
Huri Zohrabyan (right) and her husband Petros Asryan (left). (Courtesy image)
MORE ACTION NEEDED FROM CANADA?
Sevag Belian is the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada.
While Canada has called upon authorities in Azerbaijan to lift the blockade, he says the nation should do more to combat the crisis.
"We expect the Canadian government to ramp up diplomatic efforts to apply that pressure politically and economically, whether that may come into in the form of sanctions or anything else on Azerbaijan," Belian told CTV News.
He said Canada and other nations should act before tensions derail even further, perhaps even by lending aid "on the ground."
"Canada has very, very rich experience in terms of peacekeeping and peacemaking. And certainly, efforts from Canada and like-minded countries would be very much welcomed on the ground," Belian said, noting the shaky state of Russian peacemakers currently serving Nagorno-Karabakh -- the same peacekeepers charged with keeping the Lachin corridor secure.
Meanwhile, Jahangirli of the Network of Azerbaijani Canadians says Canada should "speak with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to encourage them to achieve the fastest resolution of the conflict based on the norms and principles of international law."
In addition, he said Canada should "support demining efforts in the region."
Huri Zohrabyan wants to see more international awareness of the crisis.
She frequently compares life in Canada to life in Karabakh, and the difference is striking.
"I've seen how people live in Canada. Why [do] people here have to struggle?" she said. "Why [can't] children can have a normal education, why can't they live in peace?"
"After 45 days, the time has come really to [be] more active in this matter. Not only Canada, but the whole world."
Rogers Communications Inc's $26-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. cleared the last regulatory hurdle Friday, more than two years after the deal was first announced.
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has approved Rogers Communications Inc.'s $20-billion takeover of rival telecom Shaw Communications Inc., but there are conditions attached and penalties of up to $1 billion if the companies violate them.
Disgraced South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been denied parole, the lawyer for Reeva Steenkamp's parents said after the parole hearing.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says he will not seek re-election and plans to resign his seat this spring. The Ontario MP led the Conservatives and served as official Opposition leader from August 2020 until February 2022, when a majority of his caucus voted to remove him from the post.
The vote of a Manhattan grand jury to indict the Republican former president on charges related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign catapults the now-candidate Donald Trump into a new era of legal risk and complicates his attempts to return to the White House.
The Liberal government's controversial online-streaming bill is one step closer to passing after the House of Commons approved most of the Senate's amendments to the proposed legislation.
A 10-year-old boy is dead following a chain-reaction crash on the QEW. The highway was closed for several hours as police worked to piece together exactly what happened.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020. Vowing changes will come, here's what Trudeau said in Truro, N.S.
Dozens of decades-old trees are at risk due to construction set to get underway in London’s Old North neighbourhood. Residents say not enough was done to keep them informed and seek their input.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
As the dust continues to settle around Wednesday's verdict in the Renee Sweeney murder trial attention is now turning to what's next for the case. CTV News spoke to a legal expert and here is what he had to say.
A Toronto man, whose neighbours vanished eight years ago and left their home completely abandoned, said he's fed up living next door to a property that is in complete disarray.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
At Academy Farms in Langley, they raise bison and water buffalo, but this is more than a farm. It's a place that's helping people from across the country find their way out of addiction.
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The redevelopment planning process was quietly halted earlier this year, and now the Kwikwetlem First Nation is speaking up about what they’d like to see happen on the land where the Riverview Hospital operated for a century.
The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that's why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.
The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry filed a charter challenge against the provincial government for stipulations in its disability program that require seniors to take their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) money out early.
Videos posted on the social media app TikTok showing individuals in Regina experiencing mental health crises are bringing into question the stigma still attached to addictions.
The bodies of six people, including one child, were found in the St. Lawrence River Thursday afternoon after an air search involving the Canadian Coast Guard, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police said.
The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry filed a charter challenge against the provincial government for stipulations in its disability program that require seniors to take their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) money out early.
Huri Zohrabyan (right) and her husband Petros Asryan (left). (Courtesy image)
