Icon: enlarge
Nelson Ohanyan (left), 40, and Armen Saghyan, 35, in their bakery in Stepanakert
Photo: Anush Babajanyan
It's just white bread, weighing just under 620 grams, baked in the oven at 200 degrees.
The ingredients: flour, water, salt, oil, yeast.
"Bukhanka" is easy to make.
You don't have to shape and knead it by hand like the flatbread-like “Lavash” or “Matnakash”.
Armen Saghyan, 35, and Nelson Ohanyan, 40, two beefy men with dark down jackets and even darker shadows under their eyes, run three bakeries in Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In the past few months, of all things, »Bukhanka«, their simple loaf of bread, has become one of the symbols of cohesion in a contested city - in an autonomous region that is not recognized under international law, over which Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in conflict for decades and which has been in conflict since the end of September war was waged again.
Icon: enlarge
Fresh bread in the "Aroghj Hats" bakery
Photo: Anush Babajanyan
Thousands of people died, 100,000 fled the war.
When the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed an agreement on the night of November 10th with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to end the fighting, it became clear that it was a defeat for Armenia.
Armenia had to hand over three important regions to Azerbaijan.
But not the city of Stepanakert.
In the past few days, displaced residents have returned to the city by bus.
In Stepanakert's Renaissance square, people are walking through the cold again.
About five minutes by car from the main square, a simple, one-story house shines brightly in the middle of the thick November fog.
It is the Friday evening of the first weekend in Advent.
“Aroghj Hats” is the name of the bakery they founded in 2014 - healthy bread.
There has been no sign on the door since it was founded in 2014.
Why also?
Up until the beginning of September, Armen Saghyan and Nelson Ohanyan seldom sold straight out of the window, but mainly supplied the Stepanakerts supermarkets and stores in neighboring regions.
100 dram for every "Matnakash" bread, the equivalent of 17 cents.
The army, one of the most important customers, paid 51 cents per kilogram of bread.
Then came the war.
The residents are used to unrest, such as the fighting in April 2016. "But you can't compare that," says Armen Saghyan. "We didn't hear any bombs in Stepanakert at that time." Her two wives and five children left the city;
Ohanyan's family stayed with their grandparents and Saghyan's family stayed with strangers in Armenia's capital, Yerevan.
The last employees left the bakery in mid-October.
Saghyan and Ohanyan stayed.
They baked five hours a day on behalf of the army.
The rest of the time for the population.
They started to bake only the box bread because it is simpler than the other flatbreads;
the expertise and speed of their employees were missing.
Icon: enlarge
Employees in the bakery: almost 14,000 loaves a day
Photo: Anush Babajanyan
And they decided to distribute the bread to the population for free.
Everyone who stood in front of the small window received two loaves of bread.
“We wanted to help.
We could have given each one just one bread.
You can't make bread like that on your own.
But we wanted people to be able to distribute the bread, "says Nelson Ohanyan." Many of them brought older neighbors with them. "
Employees also delivered the bread with the front lights switched off.
They wanted to prevent drones from recognizing the car.
A driver accidentally rammed a cow, another car was destroyed by bomb fragments.
Only one of the five vans is still working.
Icon: enlarge
“We wanted to help,” says Nelson Ohanyan.
“We could have given each one just one loaf.
But we wanted people to be able to redistribute the bread «
Photo: Anush Babajanyan
And in all the uncertainty and suffering of the war it became clear, according to the two bakers, that bread is much more than the staple food that is dipped into soup at lunchtime and eaten with meat and rice in the evening.
Their open bakery was a meeting point for many, where baked goods were baked 24 hours a day, regardless of whether rockets hit or the sirens rang.
Volunteers came to help, they say.
Friends and acquaintances, university students, schoolchildren, employees of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Their ovens ran continuously.
They only baked "Bukhanka", but almost 14,000 loaves of bread
a day
.
Icon: enlarge
The "Aroghj Hats" bakery: Here baked goods were baked 24 hours a day, regardless of whether rockets hit or the sirens rang
Photo: Anush Babajanyan
Well, at the beginning of December, many employees returned.
There will also be the flatbreads »Lavash« and »Matnakash« again.
"After I wanted to get away as quickly as possible, I am now considering investing in the region," says Armen Saghyan.
They want to repair the delivery cars, tens of thousands of euros
Invest in another bakery, hire around twenty more people - entrepreneurship against the gloomy mood in the city.
Transparency
notice
: After the photographer Anush Babajanyan published photos of the bakery on
her Instagram channel
in mid-November
, some of her 26,000 followers asked how they could support the bakery.
Babajanyan set up a donation account that raised more than $ 9,100.
They would buy flour from it, the bakers told SPIEGEL.
Icon: The mirror
This contribution is part of the Global Society project
What is the Global Society project? Up arrow Down arrow
Under the title Global Society, reporters from
Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe
report on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.
The reports, analyzes, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in the international section of SPIEGEL.
The project is long-term and will be supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for three years.
A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.
What does the funding look like in concrete terms? Up arrow Down arrow
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is supporting the project for three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros.
Is the journalistic content independent of the foundation? Up arrow Down arrow
Yes.
The editorial content is created without any influence from the Gates Foundation.
Do other media have similar projects? Up arrow Down arrow
Yes.
Major European media outlets such as "The Guardian" and "El País" have set up similar sections on their news sites with "Global Development" and "Planeta Futuro" with the support of the Gates Foundation.
Have there already been similar projects at SPIEGEL? Up arrow Down arrow
In recent years, SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: The "Expedition The Day After Tomorrow" on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals", as part of this several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have emerged.
Where can I find all publications on Global Society? Up arrow Down arrow
The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the topic Global Society.