Public Story
Lost War by Lenka Klicperová
Sandrine Hermand-Grisel, is the curator for this month's show.
Part of the exclusive online showroom developed by All About Photo, this exhibition is on view for the months of November 2021 and includes twenty photographs from the series 'Lost War'.
LOST WAR
At the end of September 2020, Azerbaijan attacked the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, administered until then by Armenia. What had been a somewhat frozen conflict flared up again. I immediately went there with my colleague and friend Marketa Kutilova. We didn't know how we would get there, as Covid restrictions were stringent everywhere. But we knew we would somehow.
The fighting broke out with incredible fierceness and cruelty. Azerbaijan was well prepared and armed for the war, enjoying support mainly from allied Turkey, which armed it with modern drones. The Armenians arrived in Karabakh with forty-year-old equipment. Though the young Armenian soldiers, who had spent only a few months in training, could just barely use Kalashnikovs, they could not operate advanced weapon systems. Dozens of Azerbaijani drones slaughtered them. But Armenian rockets also landed in Azerbaijani territory. The war ended with a truce on the night of November 9-10. The Armenians were left with only a fraction of the territory they had conquered in the previous war. Armenians had to leave their homes. Most of them had settled down there thirty years ago after Armenia had won the previous war. Now they were given a few days to pack their things and leave. Some of them set fire to their houses so they would not fall into the hands of the Azeris. They became homeless refugees. Many of them also lost loved ones. The exact numbers of the dead are unknown. There are still missing Armenian soldiers whose bodies have not been found. The truce was brokered by the Russians, whose peacekeeping forces occupied Nagorno Karabakh. Now the Russians control the part of the territory retained by Armenia. The Armenians have lost thousands of young soldiers and territory, and hostilities with the Azeris continue to this day.
Lenka Klicperová - Lost WarAll-about-photo.com
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