Yelena Budaghyan was forcibly displaced from the occupied Republic of Artsakh. She has two disabled sons, one of whom was injured in 2023. She remembers how on 27 September, 2020, when Azerbaijan unleashed a war against Artsakh, they somehow saved her son, who was lying in bed and unable to escape from enemy’s bombardment.

“My son entered through the back of the house and took his brother out covered in a blanket, and brought him to the yard, we pulled him just in the blanket, took him to the bridge, and from there we went to Tchankatagh, my native village. At two o’clock in the morning, we were taken out of that village into to the forest, to Chldran. We stayed there for three days, we saw that the fighting is getting hotter, we came to Armenia.” She told in the framework of “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023. Stories of Survivors” documentary project of Iravaban.net.

Mrs. Yelena returned to Artsakh after 9 November, 2020. Like all Artsakh Armenians, she spent the difficult days of the illegal blockade with hope and did not think about leaving her homeland.

On 19 September, 2023, she prepared to go to work, but, as she says, it seems like someone stopped her and she returned home, the bombing started in the afternoon.

“My disabled son was sitting in the yard, and suddenly we heard explosions. The sheep was bleated, the dog and the cat could not find a hole to hide. I went to the shelter. My eldest son called, “Mom, the Turks have reached the fig tree, take Armen and get out.” My neighbor came, he grabbed my son’s arm, and I took other arm, it was dark, as if it was night. The Russians were also near our house. They came and took our people to them one by one. The Turks came to kill 83 of us Armenians, the Russians did not let them. They said there are no Armenians here. We were told to keep silence. The Turks had stopped the tanks to come and kill us. There was a gold mine adit there and the Russians hid us in it. They kept us there for 5 days,” Ylena Budaghyan said.

The “Artsakh: Armenian Genocide 2023: Stories of Survivors” documentary project of Iravaban.net  aims to collect the memories and testimonies of citizens forcibly displaced from Artsakh occupied by Azerbaijan, about the genocide of the Armenians of Artsakh allowed by Azerbaijan, atrocities, days of the war, the path of deportation, etc.

Details in the video.