83-year-old Maro Abrahamyan, who was forcibly displaced from the occupied Republic of Artsakh, told in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project of Iravaban.net about the 9 months of the siege of Artsakh, noting that no one had seen such days.

“For us at this age, it was a very big misfortune,” she said.

Mrs. Maro stated that the most notable misfortune for her was that she left their house.

“We were afraid that there would be explosions, which would fall on us. We, with three small children with us, hid somewhere. We were crying. Suddenly there was a strong sound of explosion… what happened to our house before our eyes… In the morning we were told to escape, to run away, run away, run away. We reached Stepanakert by trucks,” she said.

According to our interlocutor, they were told that the Turks had come and were 2-3 km away from them.

“We left a lot of wealth. We had a big farm: 17 cows and calves. We left 120 hives and 3 cars. We had a country house. I do not know how to explain,” she said.

Mrs. Maro said that on 19 September, she was cleaning beans outside when the enemy unleashed another aggression.

“I was shelling beans when we learned that Ter Hovhannes was wounded in his yard and three of his workers were killed.”

Mrs. Maro’s family was on the way for two days, they were regularly stopped and checked.

She also spoke about the reintegration proposed by Azerbaijan, stressing that it is not possible to return to Artsakh..

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“Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project of Iravaban.net is aimed at collecting the memories and testimonies of citizens forcibly displaced from Artsakh occupied by Azerbaijan, about the genocide of the Armenians of Artsakh committed by Azerbaijan, atrocities, the days of war, the path of deportation, etc.

Iravaban.net seeks help from citizens who will voluntarily agree to translate materials into different languages: Russian, English, French, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Georgian, Chinese…

You can write to our e-mail address at: [email protected]

To donate for realization of the project: https://iravaban.net/en/become-a-supporter

Details in the video.

Hasmik Sargsyan