A gray wall has divided the Armenian village of Kirants, with some 70 houses and 350 inhabitants, for a year now. It is around 100 meters (ca. 330 feet) long and made of three-meter-tall concrete slabs.
The village, which lies on the border with Azerbaijan, often came under fire during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, even though it is situated almost 500 kilometers from the mountainous region, over which Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought in the past 35 years.
The first took place in the early 1990s, the second in 2020. Then, in September 2023, Azerbaijan took complete control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which at the time was predominantly inhabited by ethnic Armenians, most of whom fled.
In 2024, Armenia and began demarcating a border using Soviet maps. Suddenly 15 hectares near Kirants, which previously belonged to Armenia, became part of Azerbaijan.
That’s when the border wall was erected through the village.
A village divided
has since been plunged into a political crisis. In spring 2024, protesters called for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and a reversal of what they called a “unilateral handover of territories” to Azerbaijan. But the demarcation of the border continued.
Now the people of Kirants are trying to adapt to their new circumstances. Homeowners whose property was suddenly on Azerbaijani territory have received compensation from the Armenian government. But the economic situation in the village has deteriorated. Many farmers have lost access to some of their land because of the border wall and the number of livestock in Kirants has almost halved.
Moreover, the sight of the wall, the barbed wire and Azerbaijani flags in the background is depressing to many. “We have lost our homeland,” one of the villagers, who wished to remain anonymous, told DW. “Not just our property, as the authorities portray it.”
Vladimir Babinyan, who runs the local school, told DW that he, like many others, was finding it hard to get used to the fact that life in the village was now “walled off.” But he said he was optimistic and that the villagers understood that the wall was necessary for keeping the peace.
All the more so considering border villages such as Kirants were among the first to be targeted whenever there was an escalation of the conflict. Other villagers confirmed this view and said that they had not a single shot fired since the border wall was erected. Not like in the 1990s when Kirants often came under fire.
Babinyan’s school is directly affected by the new border wall, which is just a few meters away. It was planned and approved in 2019 but only completed after the end of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war. Asked what would happen if a student accidentally threw a ball across to the Azerbaijani side, he said with a sense of humor that in such a case, “we simply say, the ball is in their court.”
Doubts remain despite calm
The Armenian authorities also say that tensions with Azerbaijan have decreased, especially in areas where the border demarcation is complete. This is also visible in the border areas where heavily armed soldiers have been replaced by border guards, who wear neither helmets nor bulletproof vests.
However, according to official sources, only 11.7 kilometers of the 1,000-kilometer-long (621 miles) border have been demarcated so far.
In early August, in presence of US President . The aim is to accelerate the demarcation process.
Despite the current stability, the people of Kirants still harbor doubts. “Yes, everything is calm here now,” one of the villagers told DW. “But can we be sure that it will stay that way in future?”
This article was translated from German.
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