On September 25, a few days after Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against Artsakh, Arevik Israelyan went to work at the Artsakh Scientific Center in Stepanakert for the last time.

Israelyan was the Deputy Science Director at the Artsakh Scientific Center and supervised the laboratory of microbiology and biotechnology.

On that last day, Israelyan managed to rescue just a few of the center’s valuable scientific research items. An Italian microscope was one. Recently acquired sterilization devices were left behind.

"Once in a while you think, what have we left behind. But at that moment, the most precious thing for a person is human life," says Israelyan.

The family fled Artsakh the following day, making the forty-hour trek to Armenia.

The Artsakh Scientific Center was founded in 2007. Several laboratories were operating in the center: microbiology and biotechnology, ecology, chemistry and agriculture, radio physics, astronomy, history.

In 2011, Israelyan and other researchers began to study the lactic acid bacteria separated from the milk of domestic animals in different regions of Artsakh.

Within twelve years, they created a gene pool of Artsakh lactic acid bacteria. Fortunately, the collection of these microbes is preserved in the Armbiotechnology scientific production center in Yerevan.

Israelyan stresses that while useful microbes exist in the human gastrointestinal system, abnormal food and lifestyle have led to the fact that they have greatly decreased in the human body. Meanwhile, bacteria provide the microflora of the human body, preventing the occurrence of several diseases.

Hetq met with Israelyan in the center’s probiotics technology laboratory. It was her second day at work. Her thoughts are still in Artsakh.  

"I feel like a guest. In 2010, while doing work here, I always thought of returning home. I have such feelings now,” Israelyan tells Hetq.