THE DISPLACEMENT ROAD WAS THE MOST HORRIFYING THING
The Stepanakert care home was preparing to celebrate a birthday. Despite the blockade, and at any cost, they had managed to gather the necessary ingredients for their favorite dish, dolma.
On the much-anticipated dolma day, September 19th, the first bombs exploded near the care home. Staff and doctors immediately left, hoping to find their families.
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The residents of the care home remained in the basement for two days. Then buses arrived to evacuate them from the bombarded building.
Haykanush’s 90th birthday was on September 18. It was for that occasion that they were going to make the dolma at the Stepanakert care home. Under the conditions of the blockade, this was indeed a luxury.
Haykanush Barseghyan was born in the village of Jrakhach in Artsakh. After getting married, she moved to Aygestan in the Askeran region and lived there until 2016. She worked at the silk factory for 32 years and was the Komsomol secretary there. She says she had a good reputation and honor, but her life was very hard. First, at a young age, only three years after her marriage, Haykanush lost her husband, then she lost her son in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, and years later her disabled daughter. After her daughter’s death, Haykanush’s legs weakened. She moved to the Stepanakert nursing home in 2016.
On September 19, 2023, when the bombing started, there were about 200 residents in the nursing home. They stayed in the basement for two days without food or hygiene supplies until buses came to evacuate them from the bombed building.
- Read the transcription: Haykanush grandma recounts
- The buses lined up one after another to evacuate the care home. I thought everyone was going to leave, that they would leave me there, but the director seated me before everyone else. For two nights, we stayed in the bus when we got to Stepanakert, waiting for the peacekeepers to open the road so we could go. After 12 o’clock, the bus driver arrived to say we were leaving. They came… Oh, what an unseen thing… cars, youngsters, kids… Eating, sleeping, breastfeeding children anywhere they could. It was such a bad situation that it is indescribable. I couldn’t watch, my heart couldn’t bear it.
Haykanush considers the loss of Artsakh and the journey of displacement the most terrifying thing she has ever seen. The Azerbaijanis stopped their bus several times; although the elders were not harmed, Haykanush’s heart would shrink with fear each time.
- When I see a turk [Azerbaijani], I tremble, especially since my son was killed by them. I don’t want to see their faces․
Before the loss of Artsakh, she had a dream—to die in her homeland and be buried next to her son, daughter, and husband. Haykanush even ordered a tombstone with her picture, leaving only the death date blank.
Now, to have a grave has become a dream—at death to die with dignity…
79-year-old Yura Baghiryan tried to go to the basement from his room during the bombing but he couldn’t make it. The blast wave threw him to the ground. He got injured in several places and stayed there until two other residents found him.
- Video the transcription: Yura Baghiryan recounts
- I saw the wave hit the wall, it pierced my shoulder, but I didn’t faint. I fell. Metal sheets and dust fell from above the door… I wanted to lift my foot, but it kept slipping. Then I saw my shoe filled with blood.
Yura is from the village of Tsor in Hadrut. He had been living in the care home since the 44-day war, when he lost his house in Hadrut. Yura had no wife or children and didn’t want to burden his relatives.
Even during the blockade, Yura fainted and fell in the street, he got injured but didn’t inform his relatives. With gas shortages, he didn’t want to cause trouble.
Now Yura is looking for the young people who saved his life that day. He didn’t get to thank them and this thought keeps him awake at nights.
He agreed to this interview only with the hope that the young people will see it and contact him, and then he can finally express his gratitude.
On the road of displacement, the residents saw discarded weapons and disarmed soldiers. Men were burning their military booklets, clothes, and even military boots.
Azerbaijanis monitored the road with military vehicles, and checked their bus too.
- Grandpa Yura realized then; there is no way back.
I realized that we are leaving Artsakh, that they took our Artsakh, in which we lived for centuries, millennia…
Haykanush and Yura, along with 36 other forcibly displaced elderly from Artsakh, now live in the “Victory” round-the-clock care center in Yerevan.
Read the transcription: Haykanush grandma recounts
When I lay down, I can’t sleep for several hours. My mind is at my home, our village, our people… The birthplace is a sweet thing. It’s true, there are Armenians here too. Armenians stand by Armenians, I don’t say they don’t, they are our Armenians too. But the birthplace is a sweet thing…
Authours: Sona Danielyan, Zaruhi Tonikyan
