Ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh long for home, decry Azerbaijan

Sisters Lira Arzangulyan and Alina Khachatryan with their children outside the house they are staying in after fleeing their home in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh [Jessie Williams/Al Jazeera]

Yerevan, Armenia – Alisa Ghazaryan was full of excitement and nerves as she started her first year at university in Stepanakert, having moved from her village home in Nagorno-Karabakh.

But just as term began, Azerbaijani forces began shelling the city, which Baku knows as Khankendi, on September 19.