To the south-west of Azerbaijan lies the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked region of about 4,400 square kilometres that has been in dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan since Azerbaijan's independence in 1991. (I won't go into the politics of it, you can look it up if your interested.)
But whilst the politics and military actions continue, (although there is a uneasy stalemate that exists at the moment) it is always the indigenous people that pay the price. (About 583,000 people are displaced from their homelands, and 230,000 children have been born to IDPs.) I met a young man today that 19 years ago, with his family, fled his families ancestral land for fear of being killed in the conflict. He told me stories of a happy, uncomplicated, although poor childhood. He painted pictures of the mountainous area in which he lived, and the games that he and his mates used to play.
But then tears well up in his eyes as he recalls that in the last few months, he remembers that the only toys he and the other kids had they collected from the ground around their village. They took pride, at the time, in finding all different shapes and sizes of bullet and shell casings that they would join together into belts, chains, maps and what ever they could imagine. He recalls that as his parents hurried he and his siblings away all they took with them were these ballistic toys.
Arriving in Baku, he and his family moved into a single room at an old Russian Youth camp that had been set aside for the thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), some came to Baku, others have made their homes closer to the disputed area, living in hope of return.
19 years have passed, and the young man still lives with his family at the old Youth Camp. He has completed his schooling, which was all done in a room at the Youth Camp, he has obtained an undergraduate and Masters degree. He is working for a Non Government Organisation that is delivering Community Based Economic Development programming to the IDPs, and next year he gets married!
So, we sit and drink spiced tea together, we discuss the theories of economic development and the difficulties of life, (and what would I know really) - but, "essentially" he says, "I have to do this work, I have to try and make a difference for the people that I belong to, I have to try and offer hope. And one day we will all be able to go home if we want to. Inshallah."
But whilst the politics and military actions continue, (although there is a uneasy stalemate that exists at the moment) it is always the indigenous people that pay the price. (About 583,000 people are displaced from their homelands, and 230,000 children have been born to IDPs.) I met a young man today that 19 years ago, with his family, fled his families ancestral land for fear of being killed in the conflict. He told me stories of a happy, uncomplicated, although poor childhood. He painted pictures of the mountainous area in which he lived, and the games that he and his mates used to play.
But then tears well up in his eyes as he recalls that in the last few months, he remembers that the only toys he and the other kids had they collected from the ground around their village. They took pride, at the time, in finding all different shapes and sizes of bullet and shell casings that they would join together into belts, chains, maps and what ever they could imagine. He recalls that as his parents hurried he and his siblings away all they took with them were these ballistic toys.
Arriving in Baku, he and his family moved into a single room at an old Russian Youth camp that had been set aside for the thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), some came to Baku, others have made their homes closer to the disputed area, living in hope of return.
19 years have passed, and the young man still lives with his family at the old Youth Camp. He has completed his schooling, which was all done in a room at the Youth Camp, he has obtained an undergraduate and Masters degree. He is working for a Non Government Organisation that is delivering Community Based Economic Development programming to the IDPs, and next year he gets married!
So, we sit and drink spiced tea together, we discuss the theories of economic development and the difficulties of life, (and what would I know really) - but, "essentially" he says, "I have to do this work, I have to try and make a difference for the people that I belong to, I have to try and offer hope. And one day we will all be able to go home if we want to. Inshallah."
