Before the Azerbaijani attack on September 13, Sargis Abrahamyan lived in the Sotk village of Gegharkunik. He engaged in animal husbandry and land cultivation. After the attack, he moved his family members and livestock to Vardenis, and they are still staying there at a friend’s house. He says that he will not return until the situation in the community stabilizes. And the situation is such that there are concrete threats. As a result of the attack, the Azerbaijanis keep the village under direct fire. During the attack on September 13, the windows of Abrahamyan’s house were broken, but some houses were burned and completely destroyed, and also caught fire.
“I only managed to take my family and leave. We have not come back. Now we stay in Vardenis: me, my brother, and my parents. I come during the day, dig the potatoes, carry the grass, but I don’t stay here at night. It won’t be fixed. Only the windows need to be changed, but even if they are changed, I won’t come back either. I did not ask anyone for financial help. It was a thump, a thump… The people barely escaped, and now they don’t have a house or a place to go. They can’t come back and live here,” Sargis told journalists who visited Sotk.
He asks a question: “If this is the case, who else will come back to the village? There aren’t many Armenians left. We have to live peacefully. Are we afraid? Of course we are! We don’t play games with the enemy…” In response to the observation that if all the inhabitants leave, the enemy will achieve their goal, Sargis replies: “Who says that everyone will leave? Not everyone will. They send the children away and come and stay here like me. But it doesn’t depend on us. We have a state. We have a government. Let them gather, come here, and see what is happening. What will be the end of this? I am not the owner of the state to think whether this will continue or not. I have no claim against the state. We all know that the state must answer. It must answer against its homeland.”
Read also
One civilian was killed and 4 were injured as a result of the Azerbaijani attack in Gegharkunik region, and one citizen’s whereabouts are unknown. In the Sotk settlement, the administrative building, windows, and the roof of the school were damaged. About 120 residential houses were partially damaged, and 60 of them were completely damaged. The example of Sotk is another argument that Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions and occupation policies accompanied by war crimes, in addition to violations of the rights of the civilian population on the Armenian side, also aim to depatriate them.
Luiza Sukiasyan
