As part of the programs for internally displaced people (IDP) in Azerbaijan, the IRC team works with the community on every level to involve them in planning, leadership, implementation, and evaluation. In one of the communities in which IRC is working, two girls volunteered to express their experience as IDPs through stories and drawings. Their lives and works show their poignant longing for home and untapped potential for the future, some of the reasons why IRC continues to support families like theirs around the world.
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Gulmira Ismikhanova
Age: 11
Grade: 5th Origin:
Yusifjanly village, Agdam District
Current home:
Agcabedi Turkish Camp, Agcabedi District
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Gulmira’s favorite subject at School #91, a school for internally displaced children in Agcabedi Turkish Camp, is the Azeri language. She enjoys studying, and in her spare time she loves to draw and sew. When Gulmira is older, she hopes to become a professional painter or artist. Armenian forces now occupy the village of her birthplace, but the memory of this place lives on in the stories of her parents. She lives in Agcabedi with her family, including a sister and brother.
"Our House" is the title of Gulmira’s picture. One day, while on a trip with her parents, Gulmira saw a two-story house and pointed it out especially, wondering aloud whether they needed staircases inside. This sparked the memory of her parents, who explained to her that their family house, which they fled when Armenian troops moved in to Agdam, was also a two-story building. They went on to describe the house in detail. This description served as the inspiration for Gulmira’s drawing. Her mother says, “She has drawn her own house in Yusifjanly even though she cannot remember it since she was so young when we left.” Gulmira says about her picture, “I wish all the people who have fled from their homeland could return … And I wish that yearning for the mother land could be put to an end. The joy of knowing one’s native land is the greatest joy of all.” |
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Ulkar Aliyeva
Age: 15
Grade: 10th
Origin:
Garadaghly village, Agdam District
Current home:
Garadaghly village, Agdam District
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Ulkar has participated in IRC media workshops and an IRC-organized puppet show on malaria in her village, Garadaghly, in Agdam district-a district which has been partially-controlled by Armenia since the 1994 cease-fire between that country and Azerbaijan. She lives with her father, mother, and one younger brother. Her father is the deputy director of the school in her village, and shares her interest and talent in painting and drawing. Ulkar’s wish is to become a journalist when she is older. In the meanwhile, she enjoys baking and reading literary books. Her favorite authors are Ilyas Afandiger and Najaf bey Bazirov.
While visiting a neighboring village, Ulkar’s father pointed out to her a range of mountains and, atop one, the castle Shah Bulag. The castle is situated in the Armenian-occupied section of Agdam. After seeing this scene in real life, Ulkar was inspired to try her hand at drawing it. The castle is an important landmark for Ulkar because she has learned about it in her Azeri history lessons. As she describes, her drawing shows children from the Azeri region of Agdam nostalgically looking at the occupied mountains and the castle. Their parents are internally displaced peoples (IDPs), but the children were born after the exodus from the occupied regions, so they have never had a chance to see their true homeland. The tent behind them is where they live as part of a camp for IDPs. “They hope that soon they will have the chance to return, and beg God to let them go back,” explains Ulkar. |
