The market in Stepanakert is back up and running after the end of the war.
Almira Khachatryan and Marsel Saghatelyan also went back to work. They mostly sell vegetables and preservatives at the market. They said that they did not increase prices because they understand the condition the people are in. Even more, they try to provide people in need with discounts.
“There is a lot of activity now that the war is over. There are many refugees, so there is a lot of activity, but we don’t have a lot of buyers. We can’t even sell anything for more,” Almira said.
All of their harvests come from Armenia now. Once upon a time, they received goods from Artsakh. The greens came from Hadrut, and the potatoes and cabbage came from the Chanakhchi village.
Read also
“The person who gave me mulberry syrup came and bought it from me again. The person from Chanakhchi gave me potatoes, and they bought the potatoes back,” Marsel said.
They also said that they do not receive homemade cheese from the villages anymore. “We sell anything that is available. Armenians adapt to everything. We eat what we can, and we sell what we can.”
Almira remained in Stepanakert during the heaviest days of the war. Thankfully, her home was not damaged, but her neighbors’ homes were. “We went to Yerevan and stayed there for 10-15 days. We took our children, but I came back. I was also here during the worst of it. They were attacking with projectiles and UAVs. I was also here when they bombed us. I did not go into the bunkers. I would watch from my window where the projectiles would fall and explode. They did the right thing when they evacuated the residents. I can now feel that pain. My heart aches. I did not feel any fear at the time. It’s the sadness, the grief of the people, I don’t know. One thing is for sure: it’s sad. The people are sad. When you look, it seems as though the buildings and the trees are crying. It’s so sad, it’s terrible. So many young people died… there are so many that they couldn’t even find all of their bodies to bury them and feel some relief. And now, they gave away our lands as we slept. It is a terrible, very terrible situation. It’s trade: people want to leave or they don’t. Believe me when I say that we aren’t thinking about that. We have money for our daily bread and that’s enough. We aren’t thinking about anything else.”
She remembered that they tried to come up with plans before the war. They tried to gather money so that they could buy the children necessities, but those plans are now secondary. “What we have is enough. We live with what we have. We just hope that people can live happily and in peace. We don’t want war. We’re now scared for our girls. The Turks come here with the Russians. When our daughters go to school, we’re scared that they’ll kidnap our daughters or our sons. How are they supposed to know? The Turks speak better Armenian than we do. People are scared.”
Ami Chichakyan
