A view of Armenia’s Shikahogh nature reserve in the area of the town of Srashen October 22, 2026.– AFP pic
Released: Friday, 30 Oct 2026 9:00 PM MYT
SRASHEN, Oct 30– From a hillside above Armenia’s Shikahogh nature reserve, regional main Marat Harutyunyan indicated forests cleared for Azerbaijan’s military, building and construction Yerevan states threatens uncommon wildlife and the incomes of regional villagers.
The fight over the fate of the forest exposes the deep, sticking around stress in between the 2 nations as they look for to broker an enduring peace after 3 years of hostility and several wars.
Beforehand in 2021-2022, Azerbaijan caught parts of the reserve that lies along the nations’ shared border.
The dispute culminated in 2023 when it retook Karabakh from Armenian separatists, triggering the whole Armenian population– some 100,000 individuals– to leave.
The 2 nations have actually given that attempted to broker a long-term peace offer and in 2015 initialled a contract in Washington, viewed as a significant action towards ratification.
While the capitals talk of detente, in the rural southern Armenian area of Syunik, homeowners are still on edge.
Close-by Azerbaijani military positions and landmines trigger them to fear for their security.
“All the land is straight in the opponent’s sights,” stated Harut Aghatelyan, a 35-year-old biologist who has actually operated at the reserve for the previous 15 years.
He has actually consistently discovered dead animals with missing out on legs– exploded in landmine blasts that echo through the woods.
A view reveals Azeri military websites in forests of the Shikahogh nature reserve as seen from the area of the Armenian town of Srashen October 22, 2026.– AFP pic
‘Cut down whatever’
After taking part of the location, Azerbaijan’s armed force is now developing broad forest courses to enhance gain access to and supply lines.
Above Srashen town, pale roadways snake through the fall forest, and a cops checkpoint obstructs the old path towards the reserve.
Hill Armenian and Azerbaijani flags mark completing positions, often just a few hundred metres apart.
Azerbaijan’s advances have actually left a neighboring town, Nerkin-Hand, surrounded on 3 sides, as its soldiers “inhabit more than 2,700 hectares of the reserve and a number of hundred hectares of farming land”, Harutyunyan, the Armenia authorities, stated.
“They reduced whatever, without inspecting whether a types remains in the Red Book or not,” he included, describing Armenia’s register of threatened types.
Armenia has actually highlighted the concern as it hosts the UN’s COP17 biodiversity top in Yerevan, where states collect to evaluate international efforts to safeguard types and their environments.
Forest specialist Ayser Ghazaryan talks in the area of the town of Srashen in Armenia’s Shikahogh nature reserve October 22, 2026.– AFP pic
‘Large-scale ecocide’
Azerbaijan has actually declined allegations of inhabiting Armenian area, stating that the border in the location has actually not been officially demarcated.
Developed in 1958, Shikahogh covers approximately 12,400 hectares of oak and beech forests, aircraft tree groves and yew– a threatened types.
It likewise shelters Caucasian leopards, brown bears and bezoar goats.
Harutyunyan fears tree felling and engineering work might activate landslides, mudflows and rockfalls.
The military existence and landmines have actually made evaluating the repercussions on the ground difficult, homeowners and experts state.
“Nobody understands the real level of the damage,” stated forest specialist Ayser Ghazaryan.
His analysis of satellite images shows earthworks throughout about 90 hectares, consisting of some 60 hectares of forest, and the felling of an approximated 14,000 to 16,000 cubic metres of lumber.
It is unclear whether a complete healing from what he called “massive ecocide” is even possible.
Muraz Arzumanyan trips on a cars and truck in the area of the town of Srashen in Armenia’s Shikahogh nature reserve October 22, 2026.– AFP pic
‘No security’
The loss of farmland and grazing is likewise threatening residents’ incomes.
Muraz Arzumanyan, 26, is out of work and copes with his moms and dads. Trained as a metallurgist, he formerly functioned as a soldier with the Armenian army.
“How can I begin a household and have kids when there is no security?” he stated.
“I can not envision my kid maturing here, entering into the lawn to play and run around, continuously in somebody’s sights.”
The school in Shikahogh has simply one student.
Senior homeowners state they can no longer check out family members’ tombs.
The town runs complimentary buses and hopes those who left will one day return.
Aghatelyan, the biologist, on the other hand is figured out to remain.
He raises bunnies and declines to leave the town where his household has actually lived for generations.
“I was born and matured surrounded by forests. I enjoy these forests,” he stated.
“My kid is 18 months old, and I desire him to mature here.”– AFP
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