“Us relatives, sisters, and brothers have twelve soldiers in the army. We are not thinking about being anywhere but here,” Liana Baghdasaryan, a resident of Stepanakert, said. Liana has gone to work every day during the current war in Artsakh. A UAV was flying above her, but she walked quickly to reach her workplace. There was something to do every day, including gathering food and other necessary items to send to the appropriate addresses.
“When I heard the first explosion near our house, the gunshots followed soon after. I immediately thought of my son, who is currently serving in the army. At first, I didn’t understand what was happening. I thought they had reached the city, and I was wondering how close they are. We all went outside because we didn’t understand what was happening. We thought that there must’ve been some sort of mistake and that this was temporary. But no…” Liana said.
This is the third war that she has seen, but she said that this war is very different. “Before, we knew that there were the frontlines and the battlefield. Now, people don’t know where danger awaits. The streets of Stepanakert and the battlefields are in the same condition. They are both sites of tense fighting. A rocket can be shot towards our city at any time. The rules of the war have changed.”
The basement of their building turned into their temporary residence. “We were even wondering whether it’s truly safe in the bunker. But at the same time, us women and girls are all together. We are all mentally strong. They gave our volunteers a day off, and when they came to the bunker it seemed like a wedding took place that day.” She said that everyone in the bunker has someone at the frontlines. If the women did not give each other hope, they would have all gone crazy. Liana’s brother fought during the Artsakh Liberation War, and now her brother went to the frontlines with his two sons.
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Liana also saw the Artsakh Liberation War. She had written about it in a diary, and then it was turned into a play at a theater in Yerevan. A friend of hers read her notes from 30 years ago and encouraged her to do so again. “Unfortunately, the opportunity arose for me to write such notes again.”
During the first few minutes of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10th, the women living in the bunker decided to get dressed up. Liana said that the bunker turned into a small beauty salon. “One of the girls brought her blow dryer and told us all to sit down so she could fix our hair. We could at least temporarily celebrate peaceful skies without explosions.”
Nelly Babayan
