“I saw something that I don’t want anyone to see,” recalls Armen Tadevosyan, the director of Jermuk’s community ropeway, on the night of September 12-13. The Jermuk community ropeway is community property. Armen Tadevosyan notes that the cableway had 25-35 thousand visitors on average. After visiting Jermuk, people also visit the cable car, waterfall, and pub. According to him, there were many foreigners on the Jermuk ropeway that day. “Fortunately, we did not have customers in the restaurants. That day was Monday, and it was a little lighter, so the people were resting. We didn’t have people that day, otherwise it would have been terrible.”
Armen Tadevosyan says that they closed the cable car at 12:00 at night. When they moved from the ropeway, the first blow was fired. “My employee was saved because of a game. He couldn’t live 100 percent himself, because everything is fixed with our slow-motion cameras. The first blow to the city was the cable car. I don’t know why. It was in the middle of the pillars. After that, there was our military unit, warehouses of the military unit, all areas near the city. The second blow was again to the cable car, mostly intermittently.
Read also
You see the traces left. The concrete cableway was bombarded with large-caliber mortars. There was a “Grad,” a mortar, and UAVs in the city.” He is sure that the ropeway was targeted. “Perhaps, in their thinking, it is considered to be of strategic importance, we have a height, you see, it is only built for mountain skiing. But according to Turks, this is a strategic and dangerous object. From the top of the cable car, you can see the entire area that they invaded at this moment.”
According to Armen Tadevosyan, they have not been allowed to go up to see the damage, because there are still unexploded mines. “The first substation is damaged because it has shrapnel injuries, the main engine with everything is located in a bus-like building. The adjacent area – cafe, restaurant, and the same one above – is completely damaged, nothing is left. God willing, let everything calm down, we will work again.” Speaking about the numbers, Armen Tadevosyan said that if the pillars and the rope are damaged, the minimum damage will be 200,000 USD. And the damages caused below are approximately 50,000 euros.
Photos by Gevorg Mkrtchyan
Ami CHICHAKYAN
