Museum of Fallen Freedom Fighters

The Museum of Fallen Freedom Fighters was established in 2002 in the center of Stepanakert/Khankendi by an association of relatives of servicemen killed in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, on the initiative of Galya Arustamyan. Spread across three halls, the museum presented photographs of more than 3,300 individuals who died in the fighting, together with their personal belongings, letters written from the front, military medals, weapons, uniforms, a fragment of an aircraft, three artillery pieces, and a multiple rocket launcher. Documents pierced by bullets, hand-drawn combat maps, and a field telephone were also on display, alongside more personal items such as the wedding clothes of a couple who did not live to marry, kept as a tribute to those whose lives were cut short. Each exhibit in the collection was accompanied by the individual story of the person it belonged to, giving the museum the character of a collective memorial as much as a historical display.