People’s artist Kajik Harutyunyan was displaced from the city of Stepanakert. He told in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project that he had worked in the State Theater of Stepanakert for about 60 years and dedicated his performances to the public.

“I have visited almost all the military units of Armenia and Artsakh, not only me, many others along with me, but I have considered it my duty to visit and present poems on patriotic themes to our soldiers,” he says.

He says that he never imagined that Artsakh would be completely de-Armenized, because Armenians have always lived in Artsakh for thousands of years.

Recalling the days of the blockade, he said that they went through great difficulties during the 9 months. “Only I and Karabakh people know what hardships the Karabakh people endured during the 9 months, and, no one else can feel it on their skin.

Only the Karabakh parent felt that his child was hungry, sitting at home, there was no bread to eat, not speaing that the shops were completely empty. There was so little flour that bran was mixed with flour to increase the volume a little, and this bran bread would stick in the throat while eating.

During the days of the September aggression, he went to the garden he cultivated, on the way he saw the neighbors of the garden, they said, “Where are you going? Do you know that the Turks have already arrived, they have reached here?”

“I went, and reached our vegetable garden, I changed my clothes to enter the garden, I heard that bombs were exploding, I did not know what to do anymore, I went into a small house, I huddled, and thought to escape at least, but the bombs were exploding every second.

I waited there for 4 hours, Suddenly I saw my son came, he said, “What are you doing, do you understand what is happening? Let’s go”.

We reached the city on foot and saw that there were no people all around.

His wife’s sister had a missing child, and she fell ill because of those expectations and thoughts, the doctors could not save her, and as a result she died. Her body was supposed to be taken to the cemetery, but since Azerbaijani soldiers were already standing on four sides of the cemetery, the gravedigger refused to dig a grave hole, and in the end, the body was moved to Goris.

Kajik Harutyunyan told us about the way they passed, how they reached Armenia, and also about the difficulties and problems they face after the displacement.

Details in the video.