Margarita Movsesyan, a resident of the Sotk village in the Gegharkunik province, came home for the first time after the Azerbaijani attack on September 16 to collect her things. After seeing the state of the house, the woman could hardly hold back her tears.
She says that she stayed on the street with her two children. According to her, the house was robbed, and most valuable things were taken. “The windows are completely broken, and the doors are completely broken. There is nothing, nothing is left. Come and live here, can a person live here?” She remembers that when Azerbaijan started attacking the village, they thought it was the sound of rain. “We came out and saw fires burning from four places. We ran away from here, we didn’t manage to take anything. No documents, nothing.”
Mrs. Margarita believes that staying in the village is dangerous. “There is no light, there is nothing, the lights are off, the windows are open, the doors are open, let’s stay here at night, the saboteurs will come and take us captive, shall we escape? At least we can save our skin from here. What other woman will stay here?” Ms. Margarita’s family moved to Sotk from Azerbaijan, but she says that it was not even like this when she came to Armenia in those years. “We, who came from Azerbaijan, really did not escape like this. At least they would give us time and tell us to collect our belongings.”
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She says they have nowhere to go, and they have to spend the night on the street in Vardenis. “And hundreds of people like me. They are all outside. Come to Vardenis. Wherever you see a street, people are outside. What are you going to do?”
We asked Sevak Khachatryan, the administrative head of Sotki, to comment on the citizen’s statement that her house was robbed. “I can’t say for sure. The resident says so, but we do not see strangers in the village nor have we not recorded such a case. But it is possible, I don’t rule it out. The resident says so.”
Sevak Khachatryan also addressed the problem of residents sleeping on the street and in cars. “We have offered everyone an area where they can stay, it can be in Martuni, it is far away, but they don’t want to go because the cattle are here. And in Vardenis, we could not accommodate everyone. But we have places in Martuni, Yerevan.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
