Armenia has seen a lot of violence over the past five years. The small state in the Caucasus with a population of around three million emerged defeated from the 2020 war with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Still, many of the ethnic Armenians that lived in the region stayed.

In the years that followed, Armenia saw a series of bloody border clashes with Azerbaijan. Then, in September 2023, Azerbaijan seized full control of Nagorno-Karabakh, leading a mass exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians, who at that point had survived a nine-month blockade and war.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict explained (Oct. 2023)

Many of the Armenian men who had fought in that war returned home carrying unhealed trauma ― after all, they had witnessed a lot of death and violence. Yet they received little to no psychological support. Their difficult state was compounded by other issues, too, including the uncertainties of the still unresolved conflict between their country and Azerbaijan.

Increase in violence due to trauma and lack of mental health support

All these factors contributed to a surge in domestic violence. Though such crimes often go underreported due to cultural and other stigmas, data from the national prosecutor’s office show an unprecedented rise in 2024 — the highest since Armenia’s domestic violence law came into force in 2018.

According to the prosecutor’s office data, murders related to domestic violence jumped from three in 2023 to 13 in 2024.

While Armenia’s prosecutor’s office told DW it has no analysis explaining the rise in domestic violence, human rights defenders link the surge to the psychological toll of the 2020 war and its aftermath.

This aligns with globally observed domestic violence increases up to five years after a conflict.

“The increase in cases of violence that manifest three to five years after” a war goes back to a combination of “post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the socio-economic consequences of war, and the lack of a consistent and developed system of support,” Zara Hovhannisyan of the Yerevan-based Women’s Support Center, told DW.

On top of that, the use of alcohol “as a way out of the situation” is also increasing among war veterans, which, according to Hovhannisyan, “is one of the factors contributing to violence.”

Armenia: 2025 sees more domestic violence than previous year

Another rights advocate, Karine Davtyan, founder and head of the Women’s Rights House NGO, told DW that the rise in Armenia’s domestic violence cases is also partly linked to monthly awareness campaigns run by rights groups targeting women across the country. She says that growing trust in support centers and NGOs encourages more reporting.

According to data Davtyan obtained from Armenian authorities, 1,588 domestic violence cases had been recorded in Armenia as of September 30, 2025 ― already surpassing 2024’s total of 1,360.

The situation of the Nagorno-Karabakh refugees is particularly harsh. In the 2023 exodus, they left behind their lives and had to start over from scratch in Armenia, or beyond its borders. Immediately after the exodus, rights advocates foresaw a potential increase of gender-based violence among the refugees because of lost jobs, cramped living conditions and psychological distress.

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh adjust to life in Armenia

More than two years after their displacement, Hovhannisyan assessed their situation as complicated still.

“Many of the men have been in the [military] service, witnessed armed… conflicts, but have never received any support. Women always came to terms with survival and fear, have been silent for years, and now, having lost everything, have also found themselves in material and economic difficulties. All these are contributing factors that affect the severity of the cases,” Hovhannisyan said.

She pointed to the lack of a coordinated response to the observed “serious traumas” among refugees.

Domestic violence in other war-torn countries

Other countries that have gone through war see an increase in domestic violence as well.

Data from the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) show that intimate partner violence more than doubled within five years after conflict, compared to before, during and more than five years after the conflict in several eastern European countries that have experienced war.

The data were collected through a survey conducted in April and September 2018 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine and Kosovo.

“Participation in war conflicts and exposure to war trauma can be a ‘trigger’ for violent episodes,” Women Against Violence Europe, a feminist network, noted in its 2022 report. Domestic violence after conflicts doesn’t just increase in terms of case number, but also gets harsher, the researchers found.

This is also supported by the OSCE’s 2020 report, with the organization’s spokesperson telling DW that “women affected by conflict face higher levels of severity in violence compared to those not directly exposed to it ― particularly among refugees, displaced women, and returnees.”

Protecting women has to be ‘at the center of peace efforts’

The same OSCE survey also found that participation in armed conflict has lasting physical and psychological effects on many men, which is often compounded by financial hardship, leading to more frequent alcohol and substance abuse. These are factors that contribute to domestic violence.

“Ending this cycle of violence requires placing women’s protection, leadership and participation at the center of humanitarian, peace and recovery efforts,” Kalliopi Mingeirou, head of the Ending Violence against Women section at UN Women, told DW. “There can be no lasting peace or recovery without the safety, rights and dignity of women and girls.”

Edited by: Carla Bleiker