Anna Sargsyan rents a home with her two children in the Akner village of the Syunik province. She told Aravot that she and several neighbors are now living in the basement of one of the neighbors because their basement is not suitable for shelter. It is true that the neighbor’s basement has windows, but the residents have lined up boxes in front of the windows.
“There was a terrible thump and terrible sounds. I called the neighbor and said, ‘Do you hear that?’ They said yes. Then I saw that my sister was calling. My sister said, ‘Anna, be careful, it’s a fight.’ When we saw that there was a fight, we gathered what we had and came to my neighbor’s house. We gathered in one place with four families,” says Anna. According to her, the children cannot sleep out of fear.
“My children were terribly scared. Our downstairs neighbor’s son, a second-grade boy, is handsome. He cries every minute. No matter how much we say that nothing will happen, he cries with every noise. It’s a terrible situation. We don’t know what to do.” Anna said that they try to convince the children that nothing is wrong, everything is fine, but the children do not believe the words of the elders.
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“To tell the truth, the children know better than us what is happening. Will you tell children nowadays what happened? They know everything. That you say that there is nothing, they are working somewhere, they are beating, and they don’t want to believe anything. They say you are stopping us.”
Neighbors, however, are in no hurry to leave the shelter until the situation is clear. They sleep on the ground in the shelter. Each of them brought bedding from their home. However, the basement is damp, and they have to take out the bedding every day to dry.
“During the 44-day period, we were not as afraid as we are now. They are on our heads, they are above us. If they want to shoot, it is here at once. Where should I go? What do I or don’t I have? Where should I go? I don’t even have the opportunity to take it and leave here.” Despite the situation, Anna continues to work. “We make cheese in the village. There has been fighting for several days now, but we’re making cheese. We’re working to get a few pennies to support our children.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
