Residents of the Sotk settlement of the Gegharkunik province say that they stayed outside or slept in cars. The administrative head of the settlement, Sevak Khachatryan, clarified that they do not have enough space in Vardenis, some of the residents were accommodated in Vardenis, and the rest were offered shelter in the cities of Martuni and Yerevan, but the latter refused.
The Poghosyan family belongs to the number of families that live in a car. Three people live in the car: Valery Poghosyan, his wife Lena Karapetova and his mother Greta Melkonyan. Their house was also damaged as a result of Azerbaijan’s attack.
Lena Karapetova remembers that on the night of September 12-13, they had already gone to bed when her husband woke her up. “He said, get up, they started a war, get up, wake Mom up. I called my mother-in-law: Mom, come on, the Turks have come, they are shooting!
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She said, “What happened, what Turk, what? I said: escape, get up, we will leave! Somehow we got to the school from the towers.” During this time, they did not stay in the village. They came in the morning, fed the cows, and returned to Vardenis. “We sleep in the car to Vardenis. There is nothing left in the house. What was left was completely destroyed.”
Eighty-two-year-old Greta Melkonyan also says that the family has been living in the village for 30 years. She is saddened that the frame of her dead son’s picture was damaged by the Azerbaijani attack. However, she does not know whether the family will stay in the village or not. “But staying here is not my problem because I have a son and a daughter-in-law. They should decide where to go with them. I will not go without them either.”
Her son, Valery Poghosyan, adds that the woman left the house wearing a T-shirt. “We keep a safe with documents. We took that, we have a couple of clothes. We have been keeping this at the door for two years now. We keep documents: driver’s license, house documents, and warm clothes. We took it and went out, then we changed clothes in the car. But it can be said that we left the house almost naked.” And as for staying in the village or leaving the village, he said, “Grandmother is very afraid. I myself am a refugee boy. I created this house with my hands, with my sweat. I can’t let this go. I did not wish to be able to create again. It is difficult. My eyesight is not good, I can’t drive a car to earn money. I don’t have the strength physically to keep the cattle. Old age is not a good thing.”
Photos by Gevorg Mkrtchyan
Ami CHICHAKYAN
