South Caucasus
In 2023, more than 120,000 Armenian Christians were displaced from Artsakh after Azerbaijan's military offensive, losing their homes, livelihoods, and connection to their historic Christian homeland.
Armenia, the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity in 301 A.D., has a tradition of faith, resilience, and survival amid persecution. Over a century after the Armenian Genocide, the country faced another humanitarian crisis in 2023, when Azerbaijan launched a military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing over 120,000 Armenian Christians to flee their ancestral homes. Families arrived in Armenia with few possessions, having lost homes, livelihoods, and centuries of cultural and religious heritage. Shai Fund is working on the ground to meet urgent needs, providing displaced families with essential household items, tools to restart livelihoods, and support to maintain cultural and religious traditions, helping them rebuild their lives with dignity and hope.
Armenia's history is marked by a long-standing Christian faith and a legacy of resilience in the face of persecution. As the first nation to adopt Christianity in 301 A.D., the Armenian Apostolic Church has been central to the nation's identity for over 1,700 years. This enduring faith has withstood repeated attempts to erase Armenian communities, most devastatingly during the Armenian Genocide of 1915, when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed or forcibly displaced under the Ottoman Empire. These historical experiences of targeted violence continue to shape Armenia's commitment to protecting its people, heritage, and religious traditions today.
Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a mountainous region historically inhabited by Armenians for millennia. Artsakh has maintained a distinct Armenian Christian identity despite repeated invasions and rule by empires including Persia, the Ottomans, and Russia. In the early 1920s, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin assigned Artsakh to Soviet Azerbaijan, creating an autonomous region but leaving the majority Armenian population under Azerbaijani administration. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Artsakh declared independence in 1991, sparking a three-year war with Azerbaijan that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and widespread destruction. Despite a ceasefire in 1994, Azerbaijan maintained claims over the territory, and sporadic clashes continued over the following decades.
In 2023, this long history of tension culminated in a humanitarian crisis. Months of blockade by Azerbaijan had cut off food, fuel, and medical supplies, leaving civilians in desperate conditions. In September, a sudden military offensive forced over 120,000 Armenian Christians to flee Artsakh within days, with widespread threats to lives, homes, and cultural heritage. For the first time in over 1,700 years, no Armenians remain in the region, an outcome widely described by international observers as ethnic cleansing.
Displaced families now reside in Armenia, grappling with trauma, loss, and uncertainty.
Shai Fund is responding through humanitarian programs that provide essential household items, tools to restart livelihoods, and aid that preserves Christian traditions. These efforts not only meet immediate survival needs but also help families restore stability, independence, and community cohesion, ensuring that Artsakh's cultural and spiritual legacy continues even in displacement.
Support families forced from Nagorno-Karabakh with essential aid and the tools to restart their lives.
