During the recent war in Artsakh, the Armavir Territorial Pedagogical and Psychological Support Center in Armenia hosted 54 families displaced from Artsakh.

Olya Ginosyan, a psychologist at the Center, told Hetq that she worked with women and children who needed psychological support.

She says that children under eleven, not realizing what had happened, were psychologically unscathed in the main. The young children soon forget what they saw.

The situation was completely different for 12-17-year-olds. Ginosyan says that children in this age group witnessed corpses, destroyed houses and wounded soldiers on the way to Armenia. This left deep psychological scars.

For example, when the children were asked to draw as part of the remedial program, they only drew pictures of war: tanks, weapons, soldiers, trenches. In the evening, they refused to sing, arguing that there was a war in Artsakh and singing was inappropriate. Initially, they even refused food and stayed in their rooms.

When painting as a way to express their emotions, the children stuck with black and muted colors. Ginosyan says that this choice of color was a result of the children’s uncertainty about the future and ideas of death.

Ginosyan says that psychologists should regularly work with the children, otherwise they may have nightmares and fears that the same thing could happen to them.

Even the sound of the plane scared the children.  Ginosyan says that Armavir Center is close to Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport and the sound of planes frightened the kids. They believed the fighting had reached Armenia as well.

12-17-year-old girls experienced more fear and anxiety. They did not want to return to Artsakh. It was different for the boys, most of whom wanted to return to guard the border so that "their sisters and mothers would not cry."

Ginosyan believes the children will have many questions upon returning to Artsakh and advises parents to be open with their children and refrain from emotional outbursts.