Arevik Petrosyan, forcibly displaced from the occupied Republic of Artsakh, told in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project that she was forcibly displaced from Stepanakert.
In 2020, they were first displaced from their father’s house, from Nor Seisulan village in Martakert region.
“During the 2020 war, I lost my house, and I also lost my brother as well. He was a volunteer. After that it was very difficult to return, but then you begin missing Artsakh. Artsakh makes us to miss the motherland, the land of Artsakh always calls. We could not imagine our life anywhere else, we returned to Artsakh and started working there,” our interlocutor said.
She emphasizes that after being under siege for 9 months, first they had no idea what was going on, and then, when everything was exhausted, they realized that everything was serious.
“In the end, we all imagined what this situation would lead to. In fact, it is very difficult to look in the child’s eyes when he is facing hunger. I was able to come up with a few things. It is easier to support one child than four. Children who were in a more difficult situation lived next to us. If you find something for your child, you felt guilty that sometimes you couldn’t share it with your neighbor,” Arevik said.
According to her, they were at home during the war of 2023 and had no idea what could happen.
“We heard the first explosion and understood. The explosions lasted for more than a day and did not stop, day and night. They were very close to us. It cannot be explained. You pray to God that it doesn’t explode in front of your house. We were on the first floor, we put the couch in front of us to protect ourselves with something, although the sofa would not save us. My friends’ children were also in our house, I did not let them go out from behind that couch. I thought, I was protecting them,” our interlocutor said.
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Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
