Aze.Media
Who we are
Donate
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
  • News
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Ecology
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • Gender
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Home page
  • Culture
  • Defense
  • Diaspora
  • Gender
  • History
  • Interview
  • Karabakh
  • Logistics-Transport
  • News
    • Ecology
    • Economy
    • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Science
No Result
View All Result
Aze.Media
Home Karabakh

Trauma, stigma plague soldiers a year after Karabakh war

Insomnia and nightmares, heart palpitations and aggression — one year after Asif Maharramov was sent to fight in a brutal conflict between two ex-Soviet rivals, he is struggling with lingering psychological injuries.

Author: AzeMedia
September 27, 2021
in Karabakh
Reading Time: 3 mins read
8a1dabf5c6b49e1874e49e95cf0c087145a39b36

Azerbaijani Asif Maharramov, 20, is among thousands of veterans on both sides suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - Copyright AFP John MACDOUGALL Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/trauma-stigma-plague-soldiers-a-year-after-karabakh-war/article#ixzz77djwKeb5

For six weeks last autumn, his country Azerbaijan fought neighbouring Armenia for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh contested region in a war that claimed 6,500 lives and exposed the Caucasus foes to deep societal traumas.

Maharramov, 20, is among thousands of veterans on both sides suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patriarchal societies where seeking help for mental health can be taboo.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are working to expand access to psychological care for former servicemen, an effort that is gradually drawing out battled-hardened veterans overcoming fears of being seen as weak.

LatestNews

105153

‘Small Hiroshima’: Addressing systemic cultural heritage erasure in formerly Armenia-occupied territories

August 4, 2022
TASS_46839842

What are the reasons behind the new escalation in Karabakh?

August 3, 2022

American-style apology: State Department acknowledges death of OSCE Minsk Group

July 27, 2022

Armenia pledges to withdraw Armed Forces from Karabakh

July 23, 2022

But the challenge of reaching everyone who needs help is huge.

“A year has passed since the war but the stress is still there,” Maharramov told AFP, listing symptoms including a racing heart and sleeplessness.

“My temper worsened. When I hear someone saying something I don’t like, I want to hit them. It’s out of my control.”

Health professionals in both countries lamented an underdeveloped culture of psychiatric treatment they said was hindering efforts to help PTSD-diagnosed veterans.

Dreams of the dead

“Only a quarter of war veterans agree to undergo treatment,” said doctor Khachatur Gasparyan of the Intra psychological centre in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

“Society has to be taught there is nothing shameful in visiting a psychologist — that it’s normal,” he said.

In January, Azerbaijan set up psychological rehabilitation centres for veterans in all major cities.

“Since then the number of former soldiers seeking psychological treatment has kept growing,” said psychologist Sabina Rashidova.

The centre in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku has been seeing around 50 former soldiers each week, with rounds of treatment centring on psychotherapy and medication.

Her colleague Nargiz Huseynova said they routinely encounter “aggressiveness, insomnia, and apathy”.

Maharramov was among those to have received treatment.

Sent to the war days after clashes erupted on September 27 last year, he spent his first night under artillery fire.

His team managed to capture a strategic hilltop position, but Maharramov suffered a head injury and his captain was killed.

“We saw him laid on the ground and blood was flowing,” recounted Maharramov.

He spent five months in a hospital being treated for the head injury and PTSD.

“I often see him in my dreams,” Maharramov recounted of his captain. “I often see my fellow soldiers in my dreams. They are screaming, calling me.”

The government in Armenia has launched a similar network of rehabilitative centres for veterans, former war prisoners, and families of the dead and missing.

Programme coordinator Andranik Hakobyan told AFP he hopes 10,000 people will benefit from the rehabilitative services, citing “shock, rejection, and guilt” as endemic problems.

Time was a factor, he added: “Without timely psychological help, they suffer from suicidal thoughts or become aggressive.”

‘No winners’ in war

“There are no winners or losers in war,” he added. “Armenians and Azerbaijanis suffer equally from the war’s aftermath. We all have a long road ahead towards psychological recovery.”

David Stepanyan, who narrowly escaped death on his first day fighting when an Azerbaijani shell blew up a car he had just got out of, is still on that road.

The 21-year-old was wounded less than a month into the war and taken — unconscious — to a hospital, where doctors told him a sniper’s bullet had pierced his flesh millimetres from his heart.

The bullet is still lodged in his chest and his entire body is scarred, but it’s the psychological wound he struggles with most.

For months, he said, he couldn’t sleep well and fragments of memories from the war would encroach into his dreams and waking hours.

“I couldn’t interact with family or friends and finally decided to get medical help,” he told AFP.

“The worst memories from the war are the moments when you see your wounded friend nearby, but can’t help him because of the enemy’s heavy fire,” he said.

But he said eight psychotherapy sessions had brought about some relief and that he now can sleep for as much as four hours a night.

Not everyone makes progress.

Maharramov, the Azerbaijani veteran, now works as a security guard at an oil facility outside Baku and feels his life lacks prospects.

“If I ever get married, there will be no music at my wedding party,” he told AFP.

“I know people who will never marry because they died in a war.”

Emil GULIYEV with Mariam HARUTYUNYAN

AFP

Share6Tweet4SendShare

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe

Related Posts

105153
Karabakh

‘Small Hiroshima’: Addressing systemic cultural heritage erasure in formerly Armenia-occupied territories

August 4, 2022
TASS_46839842
Karabakh

What are the reasons behind the new escalation in Karabakh?

August 3, 2022
1651731392-1651730966-2021-08-16t211457z_1862476728_rc2k6p96s9ip_rtrmadp_3_afghanistan-conflict-usa
Karabakh

American-style apology: State Department acknowledges death of OSCE Minsk Group

July 27, 2022
Security-Council-of-Armenia-Secretary-Armen-Grigoryan
Karabakh

Armenia pledges to withdraw Armed Forces from Karabakh

July 23, 2022
Armenia_Azerbaijan_50477
Karabakh

Armenia’s refusal to withdraw forces from Karabakh jeopardizes peace efforts

July 21, 2022
1653655773_1653654658232452025_1000x669
Karabakh

The Great Return begins: Zangilan residents move back to their home land

July 19, 2022
218438
Karabakh

The redevelopment of post-war Karabakh

July 16, 2022
FSfh18OXEAEkEgF
Karabakh

Malaysian business community welcomed to invest in liberated Karabakh

July 15, 2022

New articles

Opinion

The Armenian Diaspora in Russia: The Second Karabakh War and its Outcomes

August 7, 2022
Diaspora

UK Azerbaijanis appeal to country’s Parliament and Home Secretary regarding attack on Azerbaijani Embassy

August 7, 2022
News

Azerbaijan, Türkiye’s Albayrak Construction explore investment opportunities

August 6, 2022
Opinion

Armenians demand that French troops be brought into Karabakh

August 6, 2022
Opinion

Political PR agent of Iran and Armenia in the heart of Brussels

August 5, 2022
Opinion

How Ukraine weakened Russia in the South Caucasus

August 5, 2022
Opinion

British Shia attacks Azerbaijan

August 5, 2022
Defense

What to expect at ADEX 2022 Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition

August 5, 2022
News

Azerbaijani embassy in UK attacked by radical religious group

August 5, 2022
Opinion

“Iranian hopes” and provocative fakes: What is Yerevan counting on?

August 4, 2022
c24a7d34-02d2-45a2-95ad-980aa8264ad5
426082d1-a9e4-4ac5-95d4-4e84024eb314
ab65ed96-2f4a-4220-91ac-f70a6daaf659
96e40a2b-5fed-4332-83c6-60e4a89fd4d0
759bde00-a375-4fa1-bedc-f8e9580ceeca
aze-media-logo-ag

Aze.Media offers an independent and strategic insight on socio-cultural, political and economic life in Azerbaijan. We are thinkers of diverse disciplines spread across countries working together as one team to provide international audiences with an alternative point of view on Azerbaijani and foreign realities.

Email: editor@aze.media


© 2021 Aze Media International Platform for Alternative Thought.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Economy
  • Ecology
  • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Diaspora
  • Who we are

© 2021 Aze Media International Platform for Alternative Thought.