World YWCA Statement on Armenia
The YWCA Armenia seeks to bring the attention of the YWCA global movement, partner organizations, and worldwide supporters of safety and dignity – human rights – to the reality of children and women in Armenia. More than 120,000 Armenians of Artsakh, including 30,000 children, 2,000 pregnant women, and 20,000 elders, have been suffering from severe hunger, malnutrition, and deprivation of all vital products and goods during the nine-month blockade. Now, they are subjected to immediate physical threat due to the attack by the Azerbaijani armed forces, launched in September 2023.
The General Secretary of YWCA Armenia, Aida Zurabyan, states, “This is nothing short of ethnic cleansing and genocide, which Azerbaijan carries out in broad daylight.”
As a result, accompanied by violence and murders, Azerbaijan has achieved the forced emigration of Artsakh Armenians. The Republic of Artsakh, formed in 1991 through a referendum, is being dissolved democratically in front of the eyes of the whole world. Already 110,000 Armenians from Artsakh are in Armenia, deprived of their historical homeland through weapons, humiliation, and violence. These displaced Armenians are refugees, having taken almost nothing with them. Many families only took the bodies of their murdered children or parents with them, to be buried in Armenia. There will be more.
YWCA Armenia pleads with the world, international geopolitical structures, faith institutions, and more for support. Specifically, resources for a safe house in Yerevan and to provide basic needs for the refugees: food, hygiene items, clothing, medicine, and more.
YWCA Armenia has been providing support to these people living as refugees, and partners with the municipality and the Ministry of Social Affairs. With more support, YWCA Armenia can do much more to tend to the desperate situation these women, children, and elders are in.
To learn more about how to help or to provide financial resources, please contact:
Eliza Abovyan : eliza.abovyan@gmail.com
Connect with YWCA Armenia:
Thursday, October, 26, 2023