Eleonora Lalayan was ten in 1988, during the Artsakh liberation movement, when her family from Baku to Artsakh to avoid anti-Armenian pogroms. They settled in Shushi.

Before the 2020 Karabakh war, Mrs. Lalayan worked at the Shushi culture center, her husband worked in construction. During the war, on October 9, they were evacuated from Shushi to Yerevan, and immediately returned to Stepanakert, the Artsakh capital, after the war.

The family is ready to confront any problems, only if they don’t have to leave their homeland again.

Mrs. Lalayan describes the mood today in Artsakh.

"Everyone is thinking about leaving, running away. But where should they go? We are refugees from Baku. I was still young when we moved to Artsakh. Should I go to Yerevan from here. Maybe I will have to flee Yerevan too. Should I pack my bags and run away from there? How far must one go to escape? The more people live here, the better it will be for us. It seems to me that this is the only way we can hold out. If we leave one by one, nothing good will happen to us, and Karabakh will not remain either. If people don't stay here, who else needs this land? Every day I say that the road will be opened next week or the next.”

The Lalayan family of five now lives in Stepanakert’s Hotel Heghnar.  For the past month, family members have gathered in their small room to talk about the uncertainty of life and their hopes for the future.

"It will be good," says Mrs. Lalayan, although the blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan continues.

"Shops don’t have personal hygiene items," says Mrs. Lalayan. "We buy what we can, fearing we won’t find anything tomorrow. People are stockpiling," she says.

Many necessities are hard to find, even after standing in long queues. "By the time your time to buy comes, there’s nothing left. It's almost the same with all products," says Hrayr, Eleonora's husband.

Hrayr is a builder, but there’s no construction materials. "We will endure this too. In 1992, it was worse, no one had a job," he says.

Their daughter, 22-year-old Yana, doesn’t agree.

“In 1992, there was no work, but everyone stayed and had no intention of leaving. It's not like that now. Everything has changed. Now, we can't even save money. We've gotten used to having too much of everything."

What food they have will be enough for a while. Later, they’ll switch to ration coupons. They initially thought the blockade would only last a few days. Now, the uncertainty is frightening. They are against opening the road by force because it can provoke a new war.

The Lalayans have three children. The youngest, thirteen-year-old Norayr, says the school cafeteria is open but only has candy and popcorn. They don't bake pies or cakes. Noray’s morale is high. He attends the Tumo Center after school and plays sports.

The Lalayans' eldest son, nineteen-year-old Lancer, is on active military duty. Before the 2020 war, Lancer studied at the Shushi Agrarian University.

Yana is a fourth-year student at Artsakh State University’s Faculty of Foreign Languages. She dreams of getting an education abroad, returning to Artsakh, and initiating change in the country. She questions whether she’ll be able to graduate this year.