It’s been over two years since foreign nationals could visit Artsakh, the indigenous Armenian region internationally known to many countries as Nagorno-Karabakh.

For a brief period of time after the 44-Day War between Armenian and Azerbaijan in 2020, it was still possible to apply for a visa at the Artsakh embassy in Yerevan and travel through the Lachin Corridor, which is the only road that connected Armenia to Artsakh. In March 2021, access was restricted only to those who held a Russian or Armenian passport.

We can’t get in, and Artsakhcis can’t get out.

The closest thing you can do from the Armenian side is get press accreditation and peer into the region. As you leave the village of Kornidzor and approach Azerbaijan’s illegal customs checkpoint on the Hakari bridge, Artsakh is visible in the distance. The capital, Stepanakert, is over the mountains. But one can still see the village of Berdzor, which was handed over to Azerbaijan almost one year ago today. Azerbaijan is now turning the flagship church in Berdzor, the Holy Ascension Cathedral, into a mosque. 

Near the Azerbaijani checkpoint, the trucks carrying humanitarian aid which were sent by the Armenian government remain idle. Every so often, you hear them turn on to keep the freezers cool.

They didn’t just send dry goods. These were the same trucks that the Armenian government used to transfer dead bodies from Artsakh to Armenia during the 2020 war, a colleague tells me. 

Peering down into the Azerbaijani checkpoint is surreal. You can see the bridge, and a vast array of Azerbaijani and Russian military infrastructure. What’s strangest is that the Russian facility is considerably larger than Azerbaijan’s. It stands out from everything else, with massive letters reading “Army of Russia” (Армия России) on the roof.

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Camera: Shant Katcherian & Katia Galati

On-Camera Correspondent & Editor: Fin DePencier