In the mountainous regions of Armenia, not far from the picturesque town of Goris, the village of Degh became the unlikely backdrop for one of the most poignant images to come out of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In 1990, a 106-year-old Armenian woman was photographed sitting solemnly outside her home, clutching an AKM rifle. It was a chilling sight, for the elderly woman was not just holding a weapon; she was guarding the legacy of her ancestors, her home, and her people, against the continuing tides of war that had shaped her existence.

This image was not just a snapshot of an old woman with a rifle—it encapsulated a lifetime of survival against insurmountable odds. From the Hamidian massacres in the late 19th century to the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century, this elderly woman had lived through nearly every major tragedy in modern Armenian history. She had endured invasions, bloodshed, and forced displacement—surviving through each catastrophe with a tenacity that only deepened as time went on.

The backdrop of this image is a region marred by centuries of territorial disputes, cultural clashes, and violent warfare. In the late 1980s, the Nagorno-Karabakh region—an area internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but heavily populated by ethnic Armenians—became the epicenter of a bloody conflict. This dispute would eventually erupt into a full-scale war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, stretching from 1988 to 1994. By the time the photograph was taken in 1990, the fighting had displaced hundreds of thousands of people, left tens of thousands dead, and further deepened the wounds between the two nations.

But for the woman in Degh village, the war was only the latest chapter in a long history of tragedy and perseverance. Born in the late 19th century, she likely witnessed the Hamidian massacres in the 1890s, where Ottoman forces massacred an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Armenians. As a young woman, she would have also lived through the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, forcing many into death marches or concentration camps. These traumatic events were part of a history that shaped not just the woman in Degh village, but the collective memory of the Armenian people.

The elderly woman had seen her homeland torn apart more than once. The Soviets had taken control of Armenia after World War I, incorporating it into the USSR. While the Soviet regime promised stability, it also imposed its own set of challenges and hardships. Many Armenians, including this woman, would have spent years under Soviet rule, enduring the ideological battles and the societal changes brought about by the communist regime. However, it was the end of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s that reignited tensions in the South Caucasus, particularly over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which had been an autonomous region under Soviet control but located within Azerbaijan’s borders.

In 1988, as the Soviet Union began to dissolve, the legislature of Nagorno-Karabakh passed a resolution to join Armenia, which led to protests and eventually violent clashes. By the time of the 1990 photograph, the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh was already underway. The elderly woman, now in her late 100s, had seen her people endure generations of violence. And yet, despite it all, she remained vigilant, sitting outside her home with her rifle in hand, determined to protect her family and her land.

The rifle she held—an AKM—was not the latest or most sophisticated weapon of its kind. The AKM, a variant of the famous AK-47, had been introduced by the Soviet Union in 1959 and was widely used across the Eastern Bloc and in many parts of Asia and Africa. Its rugged reliability and simplicity made it a staple in conflict zones worldwide. The woman’s choice of the AKM to guard her home was symbolic of her connection to the Soviet era, as well as a practical tool for self-defense in a region still steeped in violence. Despite her advanced age, she knew how to wield the weapon, a testament to her resilience and the harsh realities of her environment.

Her story is representative of the countless elderly Armenians who lived through some of the most brutal chapters in modern history. As a child, she would have witnessed the initial waves of violence that plagued her people during the Hamidian massacres. In her youth, she experienced the horrors of the Armenian Genocide, an event that decimated her community and left deep scars across her homeland. And in her later years, she lived through the bitter conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a war that displaced her once again.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the late 20th century had roots that stretched back to the Soviet era, but it was also shaped by the lingering historical and ethnic tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The Soviet government had created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region in the 1920s, but the region’s predominantly Armenian population was placed under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. This decision set the stage for decades of unrest. When the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late 1980s, the Armenian majority in Nagorno-Karabakh pushed for greater autonomy and eventually full integration with Armenia. This sparked violence and resentment from Azerbaijan, leading to the full-scale war that erupted after the region declared independence in 1991.

The elderly woman in Degh village had lived through every phase of this history. She had experienced the brutal massacres of her people, the oppression of Soviet rule, and the violent conflict that once again threatened her homeland. Yet, she sat there with her rifle, embodying the resilience of her people. Her act of guarding her home was not just an individual act of self-defense—it was a statement. It was an expression of survival, of the enduring strength of a woman who had witnessed the worst of human history but refused to surrender to it.

As we look at her image today, we are reminded of the long and painful history that many people, particularly those in conflict zones, have endured. The elderly woman’s story is not just one of personal survival—it is also a story of a people’s resilience, a reflection of their ability to endure and fight for their existence in the face of overwhelming odds. In a world that often seems divided by conflict, the story of this Armenian woman provides a powerful reminder of the strength that lies in the human spirit.

Her story also serves as a stark reminder of the enduring legacies of war. The wounds inflicted by centuries of violence do not heal easily, and the repercussions of such conflicts reverberate across generations. Yet, in the face of adversity, there is also hope—hope that the generations that follow will learn from the past and work toward a future of peace.

The 106-year-old woman with her AKM rifle represents not just a moment in time, but a lifetime of resistance. She stands as a symbol of the Armenian people’s enduring strength and their unyielding determination to protect their homes, their families, and their identity in the face of unimaginable hardship. Through her, we see the resilience of an entire nation, one that has faced nearly every form of violence but continues to survive, rebuild, and hope for a better future.