(17 Nov 2020) There were joyous scenes in Nagorno Karabakh's capital Stepanakert on Tuesday as almost 500 ethnic Armenians returned home from Armenia.
They had been displaced by weeks of fighting over the disputed territory.
More than 1,000 people have already returned since November 14.
Most of Stepanakert's residents left their houses when Azerbaijaniani forces took control of the strategically crucial city of Shusha, but some fled to neighbouring Armenia at the very beginning of the war.
A mother of four, Bela Khachateryan left Stepanakert on the third day of the fighting, in fear for her new-born baby, and has returned for the first time in almost two months.
Khachateryan, a doctor at a maternity clinic, came back to her three-room apartment untouched by shelling, together with her daughters and mother.
Their flat doesn't yet have gas and electricity, but it doesn't matter for the Khachateryan family, who have been trying to get back home since Russian peacekeepers arrived in the region.
Unlike many their house has escaped the damage of war and life seems to get back to normal in Stepanakert but the afterbite stays with Ethnic Armenians including Bela's 65-years old mother Rita Zakharyan.
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