On Sept. 19, 2023, Marut Vanyan was scrolling on social media in his living room in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, in the house he’d lived in most of his life, when he suddenly heard shelling outside his window, and the city’s sirens took off.
“After that, we, people there, understood that this is the end for Armenians because they can't stay under shelling that continues whole day and night,” he said.
Not long after, Vanyan was one of about 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijan’s fast offensive to retake the breakaway territory.
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About the author
Stéphanie Fillion
Stéphanie Fillion is a New York-based reporter specializing in foreign affairs and human rights and a United Nations resident correspondent. Her work has been featured in outlets such as Forbes Magazine, Foreign Policy, CNN, among others. She has a master's degree in Journalism, Politics, and Global Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University. In recent years, her U.N. coverage received two U.N. Correspondent Association awards as well as a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media.
