Bella Ghahramanyan was displaced with her family from Gishi village of Martunu region. On the day of the enemy’s pre-attack, the eldest child was at school, the daughters were at the kindergarten, as soon as she heard the shots, she contacted her husband, and the latter said that they should hide in a safe place with the children. She told this in in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project.

They stayed there until 28 September, after which they left their native land, not being able to bring anything with them.

“There were no difficulties during the days of the blockade, because we were in our homeland. There was no light, no water, but the important thing is that we were happy, we were at home,” Bella says.

According to her, the children need psychological support, they should contact a psychologist, because even now, it seems that the sounds of gunshots are in their ears, there are cases when they wake up at night.

No obstacles were encountered on the road. “We passed two checkpoints, the Turks stopped the car, looked in it, and then told us to leave. I was not afraid, because I am not afraid of the Turk at all, I said, who is the Turk that I should be afraid of?”

After moving here, they faced a number of problems, the most important of which is not having a place to live. Kindergarten No. 4 in the city of Masis was a temporary shelter for them and other displaced families, but they also realize that they cannot live there for a long time, taking into account the existing health problems.

Mariam Shahnazaryan

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