ARMINE HAD HER SON IN MIND — HE DIED DEFENDING KHRAMORT VILLAGE
After burying her son, who had died in defensive battles, Armine Grigoryan, along with her family, took the road of displacement on September 27. The car moved slowly through the overloaded streets of Stepanakert. Conflicting news was coming from the Azerbaijani checkpoint at the Hakari bridge.
New vehicles from the villages of Artsakh were joining the convoy, which was stopped for an indefinite period. It was at this point that Armine’s attention was drawn to a white car behind theirs, in which there were also three young children.
Read also
The family in that car was from Khramort, the very village her 20-year-old son Garegin Harutyunyan had died defending on September 20, 2023.
Thanks to the heroic resistance of Garegin and his fellow soldiers, the enemy had not managed to enter the village. The population had been able to evacuate safely. The Azerbaijani army launched a surprise attack on the few defenders of the besieged village already after the ceasefire.
- Read the transcript: Armine recounts
- Every day someone writes to me, saying they knew Garegin, describing how he was… Colonels also write about what kind of a person he was, lieutenant colonels write that they used to talk, how they used to know him, that it’s such a pity the boy is gone, he was such a different kind of person. I don’t know… I knew my child. They come and retell his heroics. Some of those things I didn’t even know about. For example, that the villager-post guards acted cowardly, left the post, and fled when the Azerbaijanis were nearing. So Garegin and his unit came down from their post from above, stood firm and defended the village until all the villagers had been evacuated. That man was telling me that there was a very intense fighting, that only 17 of them were defending the whole village. The struggle ended, but at the end, the Azerbaijanis came and surrounded the boys, killing them. The fighting was over, but they still returned to kill them.
Armine’s daughter, Anna, also noticed the car in the convoy.
The vehicles had been stationary for 4 hours, and there were rumors that the checkpoint was closed with no clear indication of when it would reopen.
There were children in the car, crying from hunger and asking for food. Armine noticed her mother’s attention was on that family.
“Do you see those children? If Garegin had fled, they probably wouldn’t be alive. The turks [Azerbaijanis] would have entered the village and killed them, just as they did in other villages.
The family from Khramort had nothing to eat.
There were thousands of people in the convoy who had somehow managed to reach Stepanakert under the explosions from different parts of Artsakh.
Armine had baked some bread, but it wouldn՛t be enough for everyone—everyone had suffered from the blockade.
She had flour at home. What should she do?… Without thinking long, Armine got out of the car and turned back home; they had not gone far.
Even in conditions of extreme food scarcity, the women of Artsakh managed to save food, gram by gram, and stockpile for the winter. With the last portion of these savings, Armine, using her years of culinary experience, quickly kneaded dough.
While the dough rested, she emptied the refrigerator completely and cooked the remaining meat. Then she noticed the hens had laid 6 eggs, which she took as well. Armine took the last jar of jam from the pantry to share with the hungry people in the convoy.
Sixteen loaves of bread were baked from the dough. Armine washed the last dish, so the house would remain as it always had been—clean, tidy, and well-maintained.
“I didn’t lock the door, thinking maybe we would come back. Or if not, if the turks [Azerbaijanis] were to come, let them just enter without breaking the door.
The convoy had not moved during this time. Armine distributed the bread and food to families with children, “the adults could at least somewhat grasp the situation, but it was very hard for the little ones.”
- Read transcript: Armine recounts
- That long road was something horrible. On this side a car was burning, on the other side a large truck had fallen into the ravine… How that happened, whether there were people inside, no people inside… Everyone was moving in a daze. Probably, not to lie, 80% of the people in the cars were hungry.
Hours later, the convoy started slowly moving; the checkpoint had reopened. What Armine saw is difficult to remember and describe.
Armine is tormented by the thought that she is leaving Artsakh and her son behind.
Garegin was buried in the cemetery of Stepanakert, next to his grandfather, a day before the road opened.
On one hand, Armine’s heart was at peace, knowing Garegin found eternal rest in his homeland. On the other hand, it was hard for her to imagine that she might never be able to visit her son’s grave again.
“People seemed surprised that they were still alive. Seeing this helped me understand the value of Garegin’s and other patriots’ heroism. And I was able to feed those for whom my son sacrificed his life. Maybe it was a sign, maybe it was Garegin…
Authors: Gayane Sargsyan, Gayane Yenokyan