Elena Galstyan, 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, the capital city of Artsakh Republic.
She served in the Defense Army from 2003 to September 2023, she was on maternity leave during the 44-day war in 2020, but still she did not want to leave Artsakh.
“My husband said that we should leave so that he would know what to do. I did not want to, but when I realized that I was left alone in the basement with my children, I understood that I had to leave.. We moved to Goris, to the village of Karashen, we stayed there for 2 days, and then we saw that the situation was getting tenser, and there was shooting here as well, so we moved to another place. It was an acquaintance’s house; we stayed there with 22 people: our family, daughters-in-law, my sister, my aunt, we all stayed together. Then on 16 November, when my husband came to us, we returned to Artsakh. We were sure that if the Russian peacekeepers are there, it will be fine. We returned to our daily life, we were living,” Elena says.
She says that during the 3 years after 2020, living next to the enemy, they had no fear; it seemed that everyone in Artsakh was a soldier.
“The blockade was a test for us. We thought: let’s pass this too, everything will be fine. We all helped each other. We exchanged food. I explained it to the children in somehow, I said: you know, it was worse in the 90s, wait a little more, it will be fine. We believed that it will be fine, we have to endure. During that time, we did not think about leaving Artsakh, absolutely. Whoever said if the road will open I will leave, I said: you are unpatriotic, you are a traitor. That’s what I thought, but anyway, we had to behave so,” she says.
According to her, in September 2023, when the first shots were fired, she was not at home, as soon as they heard the sounds; they entered the bank, where she calmed down several children.
“I told those children not to cry, to calm down, but I was thinking in my mind, where are my children now?” I got home somehow; the children were in the basement. I used to say: wait doe 2 days, everything will be over. We were waiting for my husband to come or to call. We did not know where he was and no one knew as he did not call. A few days later, we learned that my husband is under siege. I had decided that when my husband would come, we would all leave, everyone was leaving. My husband came and said: we are not going anywhere, we are staying in Artsakh. After he went to the military unit, he learned that there was no question of staying, everyone was leaving. He came home, and said: I will send you, I will stay. They brought gasoline for us to leave, the gasoline was not enough, and they went after the gasoline again, the explosion happened. As a result, my children and my brother-in-law suffered, we still have not found my sister-in-law’s son. And just at that moment I said, I do not need anything, I am leaving,” Elena said in a conversation with Iravaban.net.
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Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
