Searching for Home: Ed Kashi’s Photos of IDPs in Azerbaijan - Wall Street Journal

The region has maintained relative peace by upholding a fragile cease-fire line between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but the absence of a permanent resolution leaves the fate of these people unresolved.“Daily life for these folks is very hard,” photographer Ed Kashi said.As a member of the VII Photo agency, Mr. Kashi was commissioned to spend a week in Azerbaijan, documenting the plight of the internally placed people and refugees. His photo series, entitled “Unresolved Dreams,” documents their uncertain future.A  report published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center said that despite government assistance, they still experience “inadequate housing, precarious livelihoods, gender-based violence, segregated education, discrimination against children of the displaced and IDPs’ limited participation in decisions that affect them.”Ethnic Armenian troops and soldiers have authority over the region, which sought to secede from Azerbaijan to join Armenia in 1988, spurring violence and unrest at the border in a six-year war. Despite a 1994 cease-fire, intermittent flare-ups of violence aren’t uncommon in Nagorno-Karabakh. A recent escalation in violence with a growing death toll has led to talks between the countries, mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.No concrete resolutions to end the conflict have been announced, leaving the refugees in limbo.Mr. Kashi said his subjects desired to return home once the conflict was resolved, especially the elderly. “They cried of returning to their towns and villages to be free to die in the land they cherish and miss so much.  While the kids only know this current situation and seem to be adapting as best as possible in an abject situation, I did not speak to a single one among them wishing to stay if given the choice. They all see these settlements as a temporary situation before they can finally end their refugee life and rebuild their lives in their own lands.”(Wall Street Journal)Bakudaily.Az