STORY: :: Iranians describe their life under bombs and without internet as they flee through Armenia’s border
:: Meghri, Armenia
:: June 20, 2025
“We heard bombs, we were very near them. We were tourists, we were visiting and now we are escaping. It’s just awful. Our flights were cancelled, and I have to travel with a little baby, it’s just horrid.”
“Our families in Iran are in a peaceful situation for now, but it is terrible – sometimes they hit Tehran, sometimes Tehran hits Israel. We want peace, so that all this ends as soon as possible. The entire Internet is disconnected – it is terrible, we have no contact with our families at all. We are trying to contact them in different ways. It is a very stressful situation.”
The border is located 237 miles (386km) from Yerevan, though the drive, which winds along a hairpin mountain road, takes around 8 hours.
Sputnik Armenia, a Russian state news outlet focussed on the former Soviet republic, reported on Tuesday that the flow of refugees had seen taxi drivers in the nearby town of Meghri triple their ordinary fares for the trip to Yerevan to $220 per car.
With many of Iran’s neighbors like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq themselves struggling with internal turbulence, Armenia offers a relatively democratic and stable island in a deeply troubled region.
Meanwhile, Iran’s much longer border with Armenia’s neighbor and bitter rival Azerbaijan has been largely closed since the covid pandemic, although some foreign nationals have been evacuated to Baku by special arrangement.
