Invisible Republic: An Artsakh Journalist Caught in the Crossfire
Film screening of Invisible Republic followed by Q&A with Lika and light dinner reception catered by Koffee.
About Lika Zakaryan
Lika (Anzhelika) Zakaryan was born in 1994 in Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh. She studied at the Department of Political Science at the Artsakh State University and holds a Master’s degree. She focuses on conflict management and peace-building.
Lika is a specialist in civic journalism. She worked for one of the top Armenian media outlets, CivilNet, in the Artsakh bureau until her forced displacement this past winter.
During the 44-Day Artsakh War in 2020, she wrote and posted her personal diary, while living in a bunker to stay safe from shelling. The online journal escaped the bunker and offered a window into the events on the ground and the thoughts of a now civilian journalist. The journal became widely read and loved by people around the world. It remains a definitive chronicle of those forty-four days. In 2021, the journal was published in book form as “44 Days: Diary from an Invisible War” and subsequently made into a documentary film which she co-wrote called “Invisible Republic.” The film been was screened in film festivals around the world, as well as in the U.S. Capitol and the European Parliament.
Lika currently works as a freelance journalist. Her podcast series “Muklimandil” at Civilnet, where she collects human stories in the Artsakh dialect to preserve the stories and the dialect.
