Tatev Soghomonyan who was forcibly displaced from the occupied Stepanakert city of Artsakh Republic, told in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023: Stories of Survivors” documentary project.
Tatev said that even after 27 September, 2020, she did not leave Artsakh, she did not leave her home. “I never thought that I could leave my homeland for a long time. I thought so until the last moment. I left Stepanakert on 30 September. We stayed for 10 days, hoping that something might change. We also thought that those who left would come back, so we waited, believing that we could stay, at least for some time, under certain conditions,” she said.
Our interlocutor, who lived under the illegal blockade, said that they did not believe that the blockade would last long. “Little by little, we felt the lack of both food and hygiene items. In recent months, there was almost nothing. In the first days of September, there was already a problem of bread. But we helped each other, even joyfully, it seemed to us like martyrdom, that we have to live and everything will be fine in the end. We believed in something good,” Mrs. Tatev said.
According to her, every citizen of Artsakh will say that it is better to live under siege than away from the land, from the homeland. “On 19 September, 2023, I left work to take my child. I heard an explosion in the central part of the city. I looked back and saw that there was smoke behind the headquarters. I already felt that the situation was serious and quickly entered the basement of the nearest building.”
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Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
